The NFL is all about the players. Teams in the league spend enormous amounts of money on those players and then recoup even more through advertising, seat sales and, of course, television contacts.

Given this extremely successful strategy, player protection is paramount. This is particularly true for star players. If you don’t believe me, just look at all the rules surrounding quarterback safety. Soon, a defensive player will be fined for even looking at the quarterback!

Professional soccer players live in a different world than ours. They can spend all their money and return to Earth after their run is over, but all is well as long as they play. With that being said, NFL players are now under threat from a health issue that you and I are facing.

Staph infections have been with us for a long time. Staph is a bacterium that is found all around us. It does nothing to us unless it enters our bodies. Once it does, it causes a massive infection and can even lead to death. You’ll probably be surprised to learn that staph infections kill more than 19,000 people a year. That’s more than AIDS.

The problem with treating staph infections has to do with how we treat everything. The failsafe move of most doctors is to prescribe antibiotics. However, after a while, bacteria begin to develop resistance to antibiotics. This is exactly what happened with staph and one version, known as MRSA, is now a serious problem and NFL players are not immune.

In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, better known as the CDC, noted an outbreak of staph in the St. Louis Rams. Nine players became infected after suffering turf burns. The infected areas turned into large abscesses, but none of the players were hospitalized.

As of 2005, no fewer than six Cleveland Browns players have contracted staph infections. Center LeCharles Bentley nearly died from his own and had to retire. Kellen Winslow, Jr., has had it twice and was hospitalized for a few days this season for it. After undergoing surgery in January 2008, catcher Joe Jurevicius suffered an infection and has yet to play a single down. The list goes on.

Now the NFL is forced to confront the problem. Why? Arguably the two biggest stars have experienced it this year. One has recovered, but the other is having major problems that could get very ugly. Yes, I’m talking about Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

Peyton Manning is a quarterback known for consistently playing at a high level. 2008, however, has not been a good year for him. The reason is simple. He was unable to practice for much of the offseason and training camp period. The reason? A staph infection that infected his bursa. What exactly happened is unclear, but it appears that at least two surgeries were needed to fix the problem.

Tom Brady of the New England Patriots hasn’t been so lucky. He not only injured his knee in the first game of the season, but he is also experiencing a very bad staph infection. After his initial surgery, he needs two additional surgeries to try to clean up the knee. As of this writing, he is still being treated for the infection and there are concerns that the initial surgical effort could fail.

The media love to talk about exotic and deadly diseases. Staph is not exotic, but it is definitely deadly. It’s also an equal opportunity health issue, as we can see in NFL players having issues. Perhaps this will result in the necessary media attention to stimulate research and find a solution for professional gamers and ordinary people alike.