It’s no wonder that the National Football League doesn’t want you to watch “The United States of Football”…What is amazing is the number of interviews, hours and footage Sean Pamphilon spent putting this together…It is simply brilliant…
Intended to explore the violence and physical contact in the N-F-L and football in general, the film underscores two problems facing the game…Numbers are dwindling and just as importantly, should we let our kids even play the game…
These are not issues the National Football League wants to tackle, if you’ll excuse the pun…
Google ” dwindling football numbers” and the articles jump off the page….Granted, not many of those playing youth football will ever see the National Football League but if fewer and fewer kids are even entering the pipeline, eventually the product will suffer…Conversely, if you search “increasing numbers” of sports like soccer and lacrosse, the results are equally startling, but in reverse…
The images Pamphilon presents are gripping…Intriguingly, Pamphilon struggles with his own son’s desire to play football and credit him for including it in the film…What parent would encourage their son or daughter to take part in a game that might leave them crippled, physically or mentally, at some point in their life?…Now, this isn’t to say that other sports aren’t dangerous also…Concussions in soccer from heading the ball are on the rise…Heading the ball is a fundamental, natural part of the game and as participation increases, so will (head) injuries…
Developmentally, players are not ready to take shots to the head at the ages that they start playing sports…A recent article in The Guardian, for example, talks about eleven being the starting point for allowing players to head the ball, and only then in a game, not (extensive) practice…Pop Warner starts at age 5!….How can this be?….The lower limit for weight is 35 pounds!…How is a kid at that weight possibly ready to have his/her body subjected to the contact of football…Sometimes he/she’s playing with kids twice his/her weight!…Look at the age/weight classes, it’s staggering…Even at the “varsity” level you could be playing with someone seventy five (75) pounds heavier…That’s an astonishing disparity…
Sean’s first project, “Run Ricky Run” was part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series…it drew critical acclaim….then came “Bountygate” …Ask the people of New Orleans how they feel about Pamphilon…Now “The United States of Football”…Never let it be said that Sean isn’t afraid to face an issue head on…I’m waiting for his next endeavor…
11 Comments
Shelby Reardon posted on April 10, 2017 at 2:21 pm
https://soundcloud.com/user-128935005/the-w-column-episode-7-the-united-states-of-football Marisa and I talking about the United States of Football
Channing Curtis posted on April 10, 2017 at 11:32 pm
As someone who hails from the great state of Texas, football is not just a sport but a religion. Little boys start playing Pee-Wee football usually around 4 and little girls start cheerleading around that same time. The dangers of the game are well known to everyone involved. If you’ve ever seen a high school football game in Texas, you’re likely to have witnessed a player get injured or at best take a earth shattering hit.
I’m sad I had to miss what seemed to be an amazing seminar however I was able to find clips of the United States of Football online. What I took away from my findings was that no matter how much we (fans, players, spectators) may love the game of football, we cannot keep knowingly risk the lives of these players. As a lifelong fan, I love the aggressiveness of the game but there’s a line that has to be drawn in order to protect the players.
There are rules in place to protect the QB from those gruesome looking hits but what about everyone else on the field? Is there even a way to protect the entire roster without drastically changing the game itself? These are things that the players associations and owners need to consider and quickly.
I have several close friends who played in the NFL and all of them have told me that there’s no way that they would let their sons play football. This internal struggle is exactly what Pamphilon is going through with his own son. As much as I love football, with what I know now about the injuries they often face, there’s very little chance I’d ever let my kids play the game.
Chris Picher and Jarett Leonard posted on April 11, 2017 at 2:56 pm
Seminar Strategists Episode 9: https://soundcloud.com/jarett-leonard/seminar-strategists-episode-9-the-united-states-of-football
Curtis Stoychoff posted on April 12, 2017 at 11:27 am
It’s scary to think about the NFL as an entertainment product not existing in the same way it does today. But at the same time it’s also scary to think about the effect the game is having on those who play it. While the numbers may be dwindling, isn’t that a good thing? At least for the overall health of the human race or at least the health of Americans? If numbers for soccer and lacrosse are rising then hopefully that means less people will end up with the life shattering conditions we saw many NFL players end up with in “The United States of Football.” I’m not saying I want the NFL to end. I wish there was a way to fix the leagues and the rules so that no one ended up like Dave Duerson or the countless others. Maybe dwindling numbers is what the league needs to really wake up and realize something needs to change, and fast.
I agree with what Channing said in her post about the rules to protect the QB. I think the NFL does indeed need to make rules (or at least more rules) to protect the players on the rest of the roster. Will it drastically change the game? Probably. But in the end I would rather watch a modified version of football than know that these people playing the game are literally dying because of it.
I think these are the types of questions we need to ask ourselves as journalists. Are we alright with covering a sport, or anything in general, that we know is having terrible life changing effects on the people playing? Is it alright because at this point the players know the risks? In my opinion, it’s our jobs as journalists to somehow try and cause change, like what Sean is doing. He knows it’s wrong and he’s using his journalistic talents to try and make it right. That’s something we all can look up to.
Jake Reiser posted on April 12, 2017 at 6:19 pm
What a great film screening, and the To Be Frank crew is here to break it down:
https://youtu.be/wu7niyB9BXk
Daniel Choi posted on April 12, 2017 at 8:28 pm
[This is America! We treasure Christian values. But we agree to the separation of Church and State. We are one nation under God. But we tolerate divisive laws and policies with discriminatory origins. We are a country. But we partly operate like a big BUSINESS.]
The NFL is quite the American. It treasures sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct. But its coaches and players agree to win at all costs. It is a league of one. But team owners and players are divided on issues of player safety. It is a sport. But it is driven by big BUSINESS interests. And the NFL is too big to fail.
Borrowing from Mark Twain, “The report of [football’s imminent demise] was greatly exaggerated.” This will likely ring true if the NFL makes a good faith effort to improve player safety; and doing so is in the best interest of all. By addressing player safety issues head on, the NFL will be better equipped to halt declining viewership and soothe concerns about the safety of youth football. But it’s going to take some time.
[If the NFL were to suddenly enact dramatic rules to tackle the issue of player safety, how would it affect the public’s interest in the game? If negatively affected, how much revenue would disappear? If the resulting reduction in revenue amounts to billions of dollars, wouldn’t player salaries drop in kind? And wouldn’t top athletes forego football for other sports once the costs of playing football outweigh its benefits? How many people’s livelihoods will take a turn for the worse due to the new rules? Is the league and society better off with these new rules in place? Or are we worse off?]
Governance by way of democracy is slow and prone to gridlock; however, a cautious approach to governing is purposeful. It provides for the hearing of public comments, the gathering and analysis of any and all material information, and the thoughtful balancing of varied interests and potential outcomes.
Again, the NFL is too big to fail – so long as we (fans, advertisers, sponsors, networks, and etcetera) continue finding reasons to practice patience. Shady decision-making by the league will likely persist and we will continue supporting the league…unless controversy and public concerns also continue to raise the temperature to an unbearable degree.
Stephanie Schalago posted on April 12, 2017 at 10:23 pm
Although I missed the seminar for the movie, I rented it on my own and was completely shocked by what I witnessed. I’m not going to lie, I had no idea about any of this. I pride myself on being a massive football fan, specifically the Giants, but I did not know about the CTE epidemic that Sean uncovered. When I think of football, I think of happiness and family. It shocks me that they would want to cover up something so severe and terrible. It also shocks me that they weren’t conerned. There was one moment that stuck out to me. It was when they were showing the younger kids learning how to play football and how coaches would tell them to use their helmets, knowing what would happen. It’s insane that this is something they encouraged.
Like Curtis said, as a journalist, how do we allow this to go on. These are the types of stories that should be told even if it could ruin our career. It’s a judgement call. Is it worth outing the entire NFL, knowing that after we may not be trusted in the industry? I think so. I would have done the same thing that Sean did, had I known. This is something that shouldn’t have been covered up. It is threatening the life of future athletes. How people thought it was okay to hide it leaves me flabbergasted. It’s also something that we would never beat. Like Daniel said, “the NFL is too big to fail.” As a journalist we would never take down the NFL, nor would we want to. But it still doesn’t mean that we should allow them to cover up the disease that the sport is causing. Just because it’s so commercialized and looked up to does not mean that it gets a pass.
Overall the movie was tough to watch. It’s hard to believe something that you love so much could be so detrimental to others. Like I said, I was unaware of the topic, and his movie made me tear up at times. When they talked to the victims and their wives, and I heard how it affected the families, it’s insane that the NFL wanted to cover it up. I commend Sean for everything he accomplished with this piece. The time and devotion he put into it is remarkable. I think it’s a movie everyone should see if they’re planning on entering the sports industry.
Eric Getzoff posted on April 12, 2017 at 10:43 pm
Usually we listen to what professionals in the industry have to say, and use our imaginations to think about what that kind of job would look like and what the duties entail. For this class, we watched Sean Pamphilon’s movie United States of Football and saw the insides to one of the biggest problems facing sports – concussions effecting NFL players.
Pamphilon went so in depth with his reporting. He interviewed former NFL players, some on their death bed about their experiences with CTE. He interviewed athletes’ wives, even their children, to hear their experiences dealing with family members who deal with, CTE. He even tried to speak with commissioner Roger Goddell on several occasions.
What made the film great was that he went far beyond what was necessary. And he made you feel attached to the issue at hand with emotion, such as with the player on his death bed using a feeding tube and the daughter of the player who was so upset he Dad was suffering from the disease.
It all elicited emotion. It got you to care about the problem at hand. And Pamphilon cared about informing the public of the problems that helmets slamming each other can have on people, which made us care.
You could feel their pain. Those emotions were most likely a product of Pamphilon remaining quiet after asking his question.
Now, as for the issue at hand – it’s a major one the NFL has to deal with. While more people are being educated on concussions, less parents are letting their kids play football, as you said in your blog post. As a result, the overall talent in the league shrinks. Does the NFL care? Some team’s season ticket waitlists are astronomical…I believe the Packers wait list is approximately 70 years long. The Patriots, Giants, Broncos and Steelers all have long wait lists. So, the demand for filling the stadium is clearly there.
The question for the NFL is will that number shrink if fans find the players on the field aren’t as good as they used to be because of the diminishing amount of kids playing the sport. The season ticket holders and amount of people who are on line for season tickets are the bread and butter for future NFL revenue. If that number goes down, then the NFL has a problem.
How should the NFL deal with concussions? Do they change the rules?
One thing is for sure – this is a problem that started plaguing the NFL about 15 years ago, and still does today. How the situation unfolds, we will have to see.
David Souza posted on April 12, 2017 at 11:38 pm
Sean Pamphilon’s documentary film, the United States of Football, touches on a number of sensitive and controversial issues surrounding both the National Football League and the sport as a whole. In doing so, Pamphilon risked his career and alienated colleagues all in an attempt to shed light on a truth often left willingly unturned. He has succeeded.
His film pushes all of the right buttons. It addresses an important issue in the sports world; it makes the viewer sometimes uncomfortable, but never so much that they have to turn away; it evokes strong emotion on all sides of the spectrum; and it takes viewers inside the belly of the NFL where we see what is actually going on in the league’s handling of concussions.
Pamphilon frames the entire discussion in a way that makes it relatable to the common person. Few can relate to being an ex-professional football star, who now is suffering from CTE. However, almost every parent of a child who wishes to play sports has had the internal debate whether or not to let their kid play football. In doing so, Pamphilon brings a level of reliability to his piece that reaches both parents and children.
Also aided by the falling numbers of kids in youth football, Pamphilon’s documentary takes on the perfect subject at the perfect time.
However, what is not perfect for Pamphilon is the organization he has to go up against. A question I posed at the end of the film was how do people put pressure on the NFL to change when the league essentially owns a day of the week. All in attendance were unsure how to answer.
Squaring off with the NFL has led to Pamphilon to being essentially blacklisted in the sports journalism industry, and has made difficult the continuing of this documentary and the project behind it.
This dichotomy has made Pamphilon’s story even more inspiring to me. While it would be easy for him to pull back on covering the truth in order to save face and keep his career secure, Pamphilon has an innate drive to uncover facts and present truth to his audience. By choosing to go up against one of the biggest and most recognizable organizations in the world, Pamphilon’s narrative is equal part concussion research/documenting and his journey to fight back against a league that desperately tries to silence, discredit, and censor him.
Pamphilon’s life changed forever inside a locker room in New Orleans. What he discovered in there led to a different NFL, a city that despises him, and a career that would never again be the same. But in the face of adversity, Pamphilon continued to strive and uncover the truth about football, concussions, and how their intertwined paths impact the United States. In doing so, Pamphilon gave hope to a generation of up-and-coming sports journalists, and showed to all that finding the truth is more important than saving face with a super-power organization. I excitedly await his next project, and hope to see him teaching on Comm. Ave very soon.
Dylan Jones posted on April 12, 2017 at 11:42 pm
Similar to the “Sports and society” class we had, what was great about getting to see Sean Pamphilon’s latest project “The United States of Football” was that it in many ways was uncomfortable. It wasn’t just hearing from professionals how they got into the industry, or how to get that first gig, or anything like that, quite the opposite. Frankly, you can see why the NFL doesn’t want anybody to see it.
Pamphilon’s movie does to the NFL’s concussion issue what Ray Rice’s elevator surveillance tape did to the NFL’s domestic violence issue: it put it right in front of us. I’m sure all of us have heard in some way shape of form about the concussion issues facing former- and even current- NFL players, but most of us never have to personally witness or deal with the repercussions of it, and consequently, we don’t care as much. Seeing notable NFL players not able to walk, speak, or feed themselves, as well as seeing the work the NFL is doing to cover all of this up, frankly, makes me sick. As a Patriots fan, I already don’t have a especially positive view of Roger Goodell, but after this, it’s pretty clear that he is nothing more than a puppet put forth to look out for nothing but his bosses financial investments.
I thought Sean Morey summed it up perfectly when he described what makes Pamphilon different in regards to his reporting: he cares more about the people involved, than the story. I watched one of his previous documentaries- Run Ricky Run- and as someone who didn’t know his story, it really allowed me to understand the complicated, thoughtful human being Ricky Williams was, even if he’s got some problems.
In this documentary, Pamphilon did the same thing with Kyle Turley, letting us see the man behind the guy we saw bullying people for years on the field. For him and Sean Morey to be willing to speak up, and effectively be examined constantly to see if they have any signs of CTE, is admirable, and is something that should be rewarded. One can only hope that the NFL one day takes advantage of their knowledge, rather than silences it.
The initial premise of the movie was Sean investigating whether or not to allow his son to play football, and while the answer there is safely no, it does make you think a lot about the culture behind football in general. Seeing the football coach talking about ten year olds going head-to-head and expressing physical joy is something that seriously makes you cringe.
Being from Texas, where football is most everyone’s first, second, and third favorite sport, I can understand the culture behind it. As more people are understanding the risks involved with football, less kids are playing, and as much as they try to change, football is always going to be a violent sport. I think Sean put it best when he said that he doesn’t think there is a solution for the NFL’s concussion problem. It’s an incredibly physical game where people get hit every single play, and thus, making that product safe both won’t be easy, and won’t happen without the sacrifice of what many are tuning in for.
So I can understand why the NFL is covering all of this up, but at what cost? At a certain point, alienating your players- not to mention women, various cities (ex: Oakland, San Diego) and African-Americans due to separate and repeated incidents- is going to damage it’s reputation. It’s stunning that it hasn’t happened yet. One likes to think that eventually the NFL will be faced with a serious dilemma: change or die. If they keep ignoring and denying like they have been, then regardless of whether it happens, they deserve the latter.
Cassidy Kelly posted on April 12, 2017 at 11:46 pm
Interning first for the Bruins in their Community Relations and Youth Hockey department and now working for the Patriots Community Relations department (which encompasses youth football) has made me extremely aware of issues revolving around youth sports. I found this week’s seminar featuring Sean Pamphilon and his movie “The United States of Football” extremely useful to add to the conversation of youth sports and how they are handled at a professional level.
The film itself was a great talking piece that highlighted information that made the issues of youth football and injury so real – Keana McMahon and her children, Sean Morey and his wife, and Kyle Turley all struggling in different ways. It’s scary to think that all have faced adversity following their life career and have a hard time finding ways to resolve these issues, if there even is any way to do so. The lack of support from the NFLPA according to Morey makes it seem as though once the NFL has made money and gotten a career out of a player, the relationship is over and they are no longer there to provide any assistance.
While the injuries that current NFL players are facing now due to safety conditions is very important, I feel more passionate about youth programming and ensuring the safety from the start. In one of the scenes in the documentary, there is a football coach yelling at the kids to hit helmet to helmet, which should not be done. In my mind, that was one of the most shocking scenes as I have become disillusioned into thinking that no one would do that anymore. It seems logical to believe that in this day and age coaches would know better and evolve their ways. However, that scene made me realize just how much work there is still to be done in youth football. At a professional level, the current NFL players can influence so much of what the youth look up to and making sure that certain safety precautions are met in each professional football game is exactly how this can transfer to the youth games.
One proposal brought up in this discussion was only allowing tackle football after a certain age (typically high school), and only allowing flag football until that point. During the scene in which this is being discussed, it’s pointed out that you learn so much of the same skill and knowledge base in flag football as is used in tackle that it honestly does make sense to me. That being said, I have never played organized football and can’t hold an opinion on it myself. However, I think that is a great alternative that could be considered on a state-by-state basis to try to combat this negative stigma that football is starting to have surrounding it do to injuries.
As Pamphilon mentioned that he will be spending four more years on this, I am certain that the conversation will grow and evolve rapidly in that time. I’m excited to hear what else will come of this project of his and more thoughts and opinions on this topic. As a person who works in sports and supports youth sports (and especially loves football), I hope that more people will be able to have similar conversation to keep the sport alive and the players safe.