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Mackenzie Newman

Jackie Burr, Instructor

English 2010, Section 4

17 May 2019

Notebook #8

There seems to be a never-ending list of sports issues and topics out there in today's

society. Many all have similar opinions as me, making it difficult to find something I disagree

with ultimately. The article that I found was written by Adam Finkel, Christopher R. Daubert,

and three others at Arizona Law School. The title of this article is "The NFL as a workplace: The

Prospect of Applying Occupational Health and Safety Law to Protect NFL Workers." In this

article, Finkel explains how NFL athletes should not be considered as players but as workers as

they are the workforce of the NFL. The authors talk about promoting a new idea of NFL football

is regarded as a workplace more than just a sport or a "club" per se. Finkel supports the idea that

this then would mean that the OSHA would be required to give all benefits to the NFL athletes

that are given to all other workers. This article claims that with the health dangers of football, all

NFL players should be provided with full coverage of health care by the OSHA. While this may

be a good idea, there are many flaws and ideas that I disagree with.

The authors of this idea claim that the athletes should be announced as workers and not

athletes; there are some issues with this. Yes, without the athletes running the game and

performing the entertainment, they are not workers. I say that this doesn't work because there are

many other positions in the NFL board and offices that are considered "workers," but the athletes

of the National Football League are not workers, they are what they are called, athletes. There
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purpose and job are not to arrange games, sell merchandise, or even pick the teams. The sole

purpose of the athletes is to play the game of football and to win for their organizations.

Within the article written by Finkel and the rest of the Arizona Law School team, it also

proposes the idea that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) should be

entirely responsible for the safety and protection of the NFL athletes; that the athletes' health

should be protected by law. While I believe football players health should be frequently

monitored and protected, I don't think that the OSHA should be the one doing this. I believe that

the NFL should be given more responsibility for the care of their athletes. The OSHA shouldn't

be required to fight the NFL for the health of its athletes; the football league should be doing this

on their own. This article written by the Arizona School of Law did have good ideas, and

appropriate ethics behind its proposals, I still believe some of their reasonings were flawed and

that we can't simply throw all of the health problems of the NFL's athletes into the OSHA and

governments hands. I believe that the NFL should be given more responsibility for its athletes,

not providing other people with accountability.

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Works Cited

Finkel, Adam M., et al. “The Nfl as a Workplace: The Prospect of Applying Occupational Health

and Safety Law to Protect Nfl Workers.” ​Arizona Law Review​, vol. 60, no. 2, June 2018,

pp. 291–368. ​EBSCOhost,​

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=129171205&site=ehost-live.