Sports Management

NFL: https://www.nfl.com/international/

One of the challenges facing the NFL is the failure to protect players from violence characterized by the game. This is particularly concerning because some of the injuries players face during the game are long-lasting (Baker et al., 2021). Science has proven that injuries lead to chronic health issues. For instance, head injuries lead to chronic health issues such as dementia, loss of motor skills, and psychiatric problems. Retired players who got head injuries during their years of active play later experience psychiatric problems such as aggression and suicidal thoughts (Baker et al., 2021). It is worse that NFL coaches force injured players to continue playing despite their injuries. This is a failure by NFL administrators who fail to reign in such overzealous coaches who do not care about players’ welfare. The NFL leadership should stop inconsiderate coaches who want players to participate in sports activities without caring about the health ramifications of such actions.

Another challenge facing the NFL is associated with pre-season and regular-season game scheduling. Firstly, complaints have been raised regarding pre-season games. Most fans and players opine that pre-season games should be reduced from four to two. However, the NFL has failed to listen to the input of the most important stakeholders in the game. Another scheduling issue is associated with team logistics, particularly when teams have to travel for cross-country games. After covering long travel distances, players have to deal with fatigue, which affects their infield performance (Dilkina & Havens, 2004). This is because NFL officials who draw calendars fail to consider that teams that have traveled long distances play with teams that have rested sufficiently. The third scheduling issue is the difficulty fitting matches to TV schedules while maintaining a competitive balance. Some scheduled matches fall outside the networks’ sports schedules, complicating coverage.

The challenges stated above are related to the functional area of management in planning. Planning involves setting objectives and determining the course of action that may be implemented to achieve those objectives. Managers should be aware of their environment to forecast the future effectively. Besides, managers must be good decision-makers to make the right decisions about the future.

According to Schraeder et al. (2014), one of the vital steps of planning is environmental scanning. Managers should scan the environmental factors that affect their organization, including economic, competitive, and customer-related factors. Consequently, managers can forecast the future based on these factors. NFL administrators can effectively plan to avoid scheduling challenges that arise due to failure to plan. For instance, the timing for NFL matches should not coincide with other more competitive events like those of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Most TV networks prefer broadcasting NBA events if there is a coincidence because they are more competitive.

Additionally, planning involves setting objectives and determining the course of action that can facilitate attaining such objectives. This is where the managers’ decision-making capabilities count. Managers should implement the necessary steps to help them achieve their intended goals (Schraeder et al., 2014). Planning will come in handy in alleviating long-term injuries among players. This will involve determining the level of injuries beyond which a player should not be allowed to play. NFL managers will implement monitoring mechanisms to monitor the actions of coaches that contravene the requirement. This way, the NFL will prevent players from getting career and health-threatening injuries.

References

Baker, H. P., Pirkle, S., Cahill, M., Reddy, M., Portney, D., & Athiviraham, A. (2021). The Injury             Rate in National Football League Players Increased Following Cancellation of Preseason          Games Because of COVID-19. Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation, 3(4),           e1147–e1154.             https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asmr.2021.05.002

Dilkina, B., & Havens, W. (2004). The U.S. National Football League Scheduling Problem.             https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~bistra/papers/NFLsched1.pdf

NFL. (n.d.). NFL.com | Official Site of the National Football League. NFL.com.             https://www.nfl.com/international/

Schraeder, M., Self, D. R., Jordan, M. H., & Portis, R. (2014). The functions of management as mechanisms for fostering interpersonal trust. Advances in business research, 5(1), 50-62. https://journals.sfu.ca/abr/index.php/abr/article/view/71

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