As I read this week’s sports headlines I sifted through numerous articles on Kevin Durant being unstoppable and Richard Sherman talking too much, all things you would expect to see. But as I came across a headline reading “Jahvid Best suing NFL over concussions,” I had to double take.

Former Detroit Lions running back Jahvid Best, a first round pick in the 2011 NFL draft, a player not in the league anymore due to his struggle with injuries, has become the most recent player to file a lawsuit against the National Football League for head injuries sustained during his career.

However, Best is not alone. Over the past few years countless NFL players have filed lawsuits against the NFL due to post-career head and brain problems.

Clinton Portis, Daunte Culpepper, Cadillac Williams, and former Packers running back Dorsey Levens are just a few of the hundreds of players that have already filed lawsuits against the NFL for head injuries sustained during their careers.

According to Bret Schnitzer, Best’s attorney, one of the goals of this recent lawsuit is “to set up a medical fund for Mr. Best in order to deal with future medical conditions out of this concussion syndrome.”

I am among those who believe what these players are doing to the NFL is wrong, and for the league to have a successful future this needs to be stopped.

 As a football player it takes years and years of dedication and hard work to even get a sniff of the NFL. Players compete their whole lives starting in Pop Warner Little Scholars all the way up through college to try to accomplish their dreams. Believe it or not the hits they take from day one take a toll on their bodies. But the hits to their heads are the ones that should concern these players, their parents and coaches before they even get near the NFL.

NFL players have no right to put all the blame on the league for the injuries they receive over the years, but in reality what is to blame is how the players are being hit.

Heads-up football leagues have been created over the last few years all over the country in order to teach kids to keep their heads down while running with the ball and tackling. The move to create heads-up football leagues is something that should have been created ages ago, and may help aid head injury problems not only in Pop Warner, but in high school, college and the NFL.

The NFL has also made moves to help fight against concussions by implementing penalties for helmet-to-helmet contact hits, hits to defenseless receivers and hits leading with the head. By making these rules the NFL shows they do care about their players, despite taking some aspects of the game away that people will miss.

As many of you know, concussions add up over careers and linger with some players forever, one of those players being Best. Some players like Best may have a few concussions in their career but not think anything of it, and down the road twenty years later have repercussions from the injuries leading to an uneducated lawsuit against the NFL.

The problem with these lawsuits is that their accusations are inaccurate. Players don’t just begin to get head injuries while in the NFL; the thousands and thousands of hits taken throughout their career are what triggers these injuries and makes them occur later on in the NFL.

NFL players’ careers are getting shorter and shorter every day due to bad hits with bad technique. If NFL players continue using the NFL as a scapegoat to receive money post-retirement, they will bring down what has been one of the best-run leagues over the years, and that’s a shame.