In the Revisionist History episode, “Burden of Proof”, Malcolm Gladwell draws to light the alarming number of suicides among collegiate football players, almost certainly caused by CTE, a brain injury associated with high impact sports. In addition, Gladwell challenges colleges and universities to do whatever is necessary to stop this threat to their students, including suspending their football programs. Isn’t one death enough proof.
- I agree with Gladwell to an extent, obviously CTE is a real thing that has serious effects on people who have it, and is also a real concern for people playing high impact sports. Where I start to disagree is Gladwell’s solution, where he asks Penn Students to boycott football games and that the school should stop participating in the sport.
- I Think his argument fails for me because there is a lot of anecdotal evidence surrounding his stories. He mentioned that three out of four professional athletes have CTE, but obviously 75% of NFL players are not killing themselves. I think the anecdotes work for Gladwell, because his whole thing is isn’t one life enough to cause change. The anecdotes also work because they are very emotional and are harder to ignore than just a statistic.
- Gladwell didn’t really address any benefits to football, nor did he acknowledge that football leagues from the municipal level to the NFL have changes equipment standards and have added protocols to address concussion concerns. Football has the ability to bring people together, allows people to earn money, and foster a sense of community.
