The National Football League has been facing some challenges lately, from viewers turned off by players’ overt political statements to further evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.  Retired NFL star Burgess Owens told Mike Opelka he believes American ingenuity will help protect players from injury on Tuesday’s “Pure Opelka.”

Owens is the of author of “Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps,” and played as a safety for ten years. He lost a former teammate to complications from brain injuries; studies conducted in the past few years indicate that up to 40 percent of NFL players suffer from CTE.

The former Jet and Raider believes, however, that armed with detailed knowledge of how hard hits affect players, the risks of football can be mitigated by American technology companies competing in the free market. He said football teaches kids confidence, leadership, and teamwork – virtues worth preserving by making football safer.

Mike used car racing as an example of a very dangerous sport that’s been made safer with research and technology, and with vehicles run into walls and each other at 200 miles per hour. Owens responded, “We can do it with football players running into each other.”

To see more from Mike, visit his channel onTheBlaze and listen live to “Pure Opelka” weekdays 7–10 p.m. ET & Saturdays 6–9 a.m. ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.