NFL and Players Association take important steps toward player health and wellness

The NFL and the NFLPA have developed a series of holistic player initiatives intended to provide better education, resources and accountability for wellness and health.

The National Football League and its Players Association announced a joint agreement on Monday with the launch of a few new initiatives, resources and programs intended to create a safer league and better care for players on and off the field. These new wellness measures are primarily concerned with two categories: medication and mental health.

The use of pain medication has long been a problem for all athletes, certainly not just in the NFL, for not only the ability for players to easily skirt protocols for the sake of getting back on the field but also for the easy ability to fall into addictive habits with the medication. To those ends, the NFL announced new initiatives on the team and league level.

First, the NFL formed a governing arm over pain management to create guidelines that teams will be forced to follow when it comes to treating athletes. The goal here will be to have a set of standard protocols and practices in place so that long-term care is the primary goal. A Prescription Drug Monitoring program has been set into motion, which will keep teams accountable for the types of prescriptions given to players, and the Joint Paint Management Committee will also help with research into alternative healing methods rather than throwing pills at every problem. Each team must now also appoint a pain management specialist prior to the season starting (think the same rules for having an independent concussion specialist).

In addition to accountable measures being taken for medication and pain management, the NFL is also getting serious about mental health as well. Each team will be forced to employ a Behavioral Health Team Clinician to focus on emotional and mental health. The Clinician will be available at each team facility for 8-12 hours/week and will also conduct various mandatory educational sessions for players. Programs are also being offered to staff, coaches and the families of players to help deal with mental health concerns on a league-wide level.

Some of these measures have been needed for quite some time, but the NFL deserves credit for taking steps at this point in time to think critically and holistically about issues that are often swept under the rug. The Kansas City Chiefs have seen some of these issues arise firsthand in recent years with Jovan Belcher and others. Here’s hoping the NFL can take the lead in some of these fields and help prevent such episodes in the future.