Summary Of Inside The Nfl's Tobacco-Style Strategy To Hook Your Kids

To most people, the National Football League is merely the provider of Monday night, Thursday night, and Sunday entertainment- professional football. However, George Dohrmann, in his essay “Hooked for Life: Inside the NFL’s Tobacco-Style Strategy To Hook Your Kids,” discusses the aggressive marketing tactics used to sell kids on a dangerous sport. In order to create long-lasting viewers, the league tries to instill the love of the game to elementary-age kids. Dohrmann easily persuades an audience of parents by explaining who is targeting them and their children, why they are being targeted, and how they are being targeted in an ad campaign to allure their kids into playing football. He even offers a seemingly-perfect solution to this dilemma.

In hopes of diminishing the concern of concussions, the NFL implemented “Moms Football Safety Clinics.” These clinics were used to brownnose moms into believing their children would be safe because “Heads Up Football” was being encouraged across the country. Some clinics even went as far as saying that “kids were more likely to get a concussion riding a bike than playing football,” which Dohrmann states is only true if you limit the age to 10. This technique left parents feeling reassured when deciding to let their child play at a young age. CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, Chris Nowinski stated “The NFL focuses on concussions because that seems like a problem that can be solved through initiatives like Heads Up Football.” To which Dohrmann adds, “[Heads Up Football] was actually found to have a minimal effect in reducing concussions.” They even utilize people like Chris Golic, wife of a former NFL lineman and mother of two football-scholarship sons, to bring an emotional element to the table. Bringing in her and professionals- such as doctors and trainers- gave logical and emotional legitimacy to the

The NFL decided to take to schools in order to reach kids during the biggest chunk of their day. They worked alongside Youth Minds Inspired- YMI- to create “educational” activities for elementary-aged students that incorporated football. Some included web browsing safety, while others offered graphing exercises according to height and weights of players. These seemed useful and educational. However, this did not remain the case as assignments began to take a marketing-heavy turn. Advertisements would appear for NFL websites at the end of activities, as well as a “Game-Day Experiment” which involved watching an entire game to see how well they could predict the outcome. This also extended out to homes which tried to manipulate parents into thinking they were engaging in their child’s education by hosting a “kitchen table tailgate party,” which only consisted of NFL trivia and provided little-to-no educational