OSHA’s Applicability to NFL
Only two weeks into the National Football League season, and pro football injuries are occurring at an unusually fast rate. Can you imagine what would happen if these injuries were happening at a manufacturing plant, a construction site, or a chemical company? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration would be investigating full throttle and issuing citations like hotcakes.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act is applicable to pro football. Some of you may be surprised, and for all the attention that OSHA pays to the NFL, the Act might as well be inapplicable. Never mind the recognized danger of multiple concussions and the link between concussions and the early onset of dementia. I’ve posted before about this issue (here, here, and here), but I suspect that neither OSHA nor the NFL reads my blog.
I also suspect that the enormous amount of money involved in pro football and the sport’s enormous fan-base discourage regulators and politicians from inserting themselves into this amazing pastime. Yet players have died on the field from heart attacks, heat exhaustion, and vertebrae injuries. Players have also been paralyzed for life as a result of a collision during a game. OSHA does nothing. It’s too busy with ergonomic injuries.
I enjoy football. But each year, the players get bigger and faster, and they hit in a way that can only be described as vicious. When you just step back and look at what’s happening on the field, it’s one of the craziest, most dangerous spectacles anywhere. On Sundays, OSHA apparently takes a break.
Leave a Reply
About Chris Parker
Chris Parker's practice focuses on the representation and counseling of companies in matters pertaining to the workplace and the protection of their intellectual property and trade secrets. In addition to serving as an advocate for clients, Mr. Parker is also trained as a mediator and frequently serves as a third-party neutral.
Read more about Chris Parker
About Jimmy Daniel
Jimmy Daniel provides counseling to businesses of all sizes related to the employment relationship. He assists in the drafting of employment agreements, policies, and handbooks, as well as provides guidance related to compliance with federal, state, and local legislation such as the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Read more about Jimmy Daniel
About Larry Bridgesmith
While serving in an Of Counsel relationship with the firm, Mr. Bridgesmith also serves as the Executive Director at the Institute for Conflict Resolution at Lipscomb University and as an officer and principal in Strategic Resolutions Group, LLC. In these roles, Mr. Bridgesmith brings over 30 years of legal experience in dispute resolution and innovative workplace strategies to clients, students and business entities alike.
Read more about Larry Bridgesmith
Maybe there’s a federal regulatory exemption for TV. In 2000, I wrote about the minimum wage and overtime violations of CBS’s “Big Brother” reality show; see http://www.lawroom.com/story.aspx?STID=389 online. By contrast, French labor tribunals award workers’ wages to Temptation Island participants; see http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_29/b4187015959597.htm online.
Kent,
I know of no regulatory exemption for TV. Thanks.
John