In the modern NFL era, there have often been debates that the NFL creates situations that lead to the injury of players in favor of making more money.

One example of changes that the NFL has made to increase their profits while putting their players at more of a risk is the extension of the season. Changing the NFL from a sixteen week schedule to a seventeen week schedule is an obvious money hungry move leading to players being forced to play an extra game, obviously leading to the risk of more injuries.

However, contracts of these players have not been changed, leading to players playing more and risking injury more often, and receiving the same amount of pay. However, the NFL has also used multiple other tactics to increase its profits.

Another example of the NFL valuing money over players is shown through the use of turf fields. These turf fields have been shown to have a significantly increase in non contact injuries rather than traditional grass.

However, even though the fields are similar in cost to implement, the turf fields are significantly easier to maintain, leading to the NFL preferring turf to grass. Another reason for the NFL not getting rid of its turf fields is to maintain the ability to rent out the stadium for different events such as concerts. Once again clearly ignoring the data that grass fields are better for players in favor of more profit.

Another way that the NFL is valuing money over player health is the length of the preseason. By this, the NFL gets away with paying their players minimally while still bringing in an audience, thus profiting further from the preseason games than most regular season games, despite the difference in audience attendance.

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A preseason opener. Washington and Cleveland. Tight end Niles Paul was blocking when, as happens on many plays, his legs got tangled in traffic. What happened next was gruesome. The result: a dislocated ankle.

— Mike Freeman

Lastly, the NFL gets away with offering very limited time for recovery for its players. To illustrate, each team only gets one bye week in the season meaning they only have one week off from the start of game one to game seventeen (more if the team makes the playoffs and does not get a week one bye). However, many sports have this type of schedule, but what makes the NFL particularly difficult is the addition of Monday and Thursday night games opting to give players even less time to recover between games.

For example, if a team has a game on Sunday, and then another game following on Thursday this only gives the players a few days to heal, rest, and prepare for their next opponent, making the likelihood of injury even greater due to limited rest time.