From Consent to Consequences Re-evaluating Legal Responsibility for Injuries in Professional Sports

Professional sports are risky to begin with, and often the players are subjected to physical injuries. There is the historical example of legal responsibility over the injury occurred during the games, which was diminished through the concept of the so-called implied consent according to which the participants of the game are presumed to be already aware that the game could hurt them to some extent. But expanding legal definitions, increased media attention, and the potential emergence of development of long-term health effects, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has frustrated the sufficiency of consent as a protective legal weapon. This paper seeks out to analyze how the legal issues of liability in professional sport are changing and how the doctrines of traditional legal approaches may be flawed in cases of injury caused by negligent, reckless, or deliberately violent acts. This study provides a closer legal treatment of the issue of responsibility in sports through the examination of the precedent cases, provisions of the law, and the ethical aspects by offering a new model of handling legal liability, where the rights of the athlete will be coupled with additional safeguards.