# OSHA and Football ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/osha-and-football/32370>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 7, 2000, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/osha-and-football/32370 "2000-09-07T16:35:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Doctordec](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Doctordec](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctordec)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/osha-and-football/32370/1 "2000-09-07T16:35:47Z")

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Granted, football is a dangerous game and the odds of getting seriously hurt are pretty high, probably higher than most if not all other occupations. At my workplace, we are subject to plenty of OSHA regulations to keep us from being hurt on the job and it seems to me that football players ought to be under the OSHA umbrella too. My question is, how come sports like football and boxing are exempt from regulation to minimize or eliminate “dangerous” behavior ? How can a player be allowed to suffer “9 career concussions” without any hint of government interference.

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/osha-and-football/32370/2 "2000-09-07T16:45:22Z")

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The most likely answer is that the government exempted professional sports from OSHA regulations. Professional athletes also can’t collect unemployment benefits if they get cut from their teams.

There have been several cases about whether or not athletes can collect disability benefits from career-ending sports injuries. There have been several cases where athletes have tried to make such claims.

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**Author:** ![TampaFlyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@TampaFlyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TampaFlyer)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/osha-and-football/32370/3 "2000-09-07T21:41:08Z")

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Don’t give them any ideas. OSHA has caused enough problems already.