That’s a ghettoized sport, not a mainstream American sport.”

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Will-concussions-cause-football-to-become-extinct-083013

I would not let my son play football with what I have learned in the last three years. I think this author has a unique prediction of the future. The money machine of college division 1 football is the next area which has to be addressed. These kids are taking huge hits. Fortunately, I am seeing some changes with concussions at the high school level. I loved playing football and watching football, but these concussions are simply going to kill the game, or there will have to be significant rule changes.

It's gonna take a very long time before the south gives up it's almost religious in nature worship of high school and college football.  A very very long time. I would say it will take about as long to give that up as it does to give up the Southern Baptist religion. lol

Professional football: Millionaires in tights playing a childs game for billionaires to keep the masses drugged and feeling like they are a part of something important. What a joke. Almost as bad as our idolization of the military.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jim-mcmahon-opens-up-about-dementia-dan-patrick-contemplated-suicide-nfl-settlement-083113

When Dave Duerson committed suicide last year I finally began paying attention.  Duerson was a very smart football player who simply fell apart because of his head injuries.   If colliding into another was a life or death situation, but I had coaches yelling at me to hit harder when I was a 13 year old kid.   I remember their glee when I tripped and speared a runner with my head as the pop could be heard all over the field and both the runner and I stayed down.  It took me a minute or two to figure out where I was and what I was doing...........in those days it was just play through it.....hell......If I was playing offense on that practice, I could not have found the huddle.  Kids are being permanently brain injured, and the game has changed with the use of the head making contact in tackles.   The game rules must change, and I love to watch a hard hit, but no responsible parent can be allowing kids to play football without massive rule changes and further protections for kids.

Jim McMahon did not take a tenth of the hits of a half back or defensive safety......yet look at what he is facing.

I got it.. Dont let my son play football but support my daughter going into combat. Hell... My son might get hurt....

What a joke.

I doubt you ever played the game, nor understand the beauty of the game. Not everybody appreciates fine art, wine, or a pristine forest. It is the eye of the beholder, but if it is a joke, it has most Americans laughing and enjoying themselves. Now if they were all depressed and isolated, I could understand the lack of appreciation of the game, fine art, wine, or a pristine forest............depression dulls the senses and few things give pleasure. Americans have fun.....they tailgate, have a brat, a beer, enjoy their friends, and their community as they celebrate American football all over the country from the smallest burg to the largest city...........however, will Americans allow their children to be brain damaged, or will they demand changes in the game to protect players. I think the game will need rule changes.

I got it.. Dont let my son play football but support my daughter going into combat. Hell... My son might get hurt....


98% of people in the service have about the same risk as driving highway 98......there is danger, but not what the 2% face. Now in football when parents are putting kids in programs at 10, no child has that free choice to join a league without parental permission. That parent is exposing their child to a risk. Adults join the military. We do not recruit children. Once an adult has joined the military, they should not be restricted by their gender from reaching their full potential by discrimination.

I would not support my daughter playing football. I would not support my son playing football. I would support their choice of the military as a career because they would make that choice as an adult, and I would support that path which give them the most opportunity to reach their full potential.

Since football is people butting heads with each other like bulls, then why not just bring in the real thing. Oh wait, they are bringing that in...

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/running-of-the-bulls-coming-to-united-state-spain-atlanta-richmond-virginia-texas-florida-california-080513

lol

2seaoat wrote:What a joke.

I doubt you ever played the game, nor understand the beauty of the game.  Not everybody appreciates fine art, wine, or a pristine forest.   It is the eye of the beholder, but if it is a joke, it has most Americans laughing and enjoying themselves.    Now if they were all depressed and isolated, I could understand the lack of appreciation of the game, fine art, wine, or a pristine forest............depression dulls the senses and few things give pleasure.  Americans have fun.....they tailgate, have a brat, a beer, enjoy their friends, and their community as they celebrate American football all over the country from the smallest burg to the largest city...........however, will Americans allow their children to be brain damaged, or will they demand changes in the game to protect players.   I think the game will need rule changes.

You and I just have different tastes in art..yours is more juvenile...

MAD COW strikes Pensacola..just kidding

The truth is that once the knowledge of the certainty of brain injury to all football players is common knowledge, then the author of the link which I gave will be the truth. We will be looking at folks who are risking their health for which we traditionally thought was a broken bone which I experienced in football, seldom did we think of long term brain injury. The evidence is in, and the rules must be modified to increase players safety, and I will continue to watch the safer game.

I have a friend who works with a utility which has nuclear power. They all have to do work at the Nuclear facility and they wear a tag which monitors their exposure. The company keeps life time levels of exposure and they protect the people. In football, I can see helmet development which will record impacts. If a player is taking excessive hits to the head, I can see protocols which will limit that exposure much like the utility workers. These are real and present dangers.

It is the nature of people to want to see pain and suffering. They go to car races for the pileups and the fires and gladiatorial competition. Not a lot different from Rome in any meaningful way. Rome was just more honest in their intent to pacify the public and get reelected by providing your grand PARTIES. Bread and circuses....art at a very base and demeaning level.

It is the nature of people to want to see pain and suffering.

Agreed, but high school and college kids making enormous amounts of money for their schools and getting no compensation must have strident concussion protocols, and this must be independent of football coaches who still think that folks have to man up......concussions included. The correlation with Lou Gerhig's disease is becoming clear, and I have watched too many friends die of the same........the most horrible death I have witnessed as their bodies fail, their mind is working on all cylinders. We are getting clear data now, and a simple settlement with the NFL is not enough.......where is college football in this equation?

TEOTWAWKI wrote:It is the nature of people to want to see pain and suffering. They go to car races for the pileups and the fires and gladiatorial competition. Not a lot different from Rome in any meaningful way. Rome was just more honest in their intent to pacify the public and get reelected by providing your grand PARTIES. Bread and circuses....art at a very base and demeaning level.

Teo, there are safety features that NASCAR has implemented that deaths or serious injury is few and far between. Before Dale Earnhardt was killed, drivers were not required to wear a Hans Device, however shortly thereafter NASCAR made them mandatory. I have seen cars roll numerous times and completely obliterate the body of the car, however the driver walks away unscathed.

If football hits are the real cause of concussions, they some type of safety measures need to be implemented. When I played football, we had more broken bones than we did head injuries. Concussions were also very seldom mentioned when players wore leather helmets.

So at this moment in time, I am going to reserve judgement about concussions being cause by football hits. I believe it is more hoopla to drive ticket prices even higher than they already are and line the owners pockets with more green.

I believe it is more hoopla

If anything.....this story has been buried.

2seaoat wrote:It is the nature of people to want to see pain and suffering.

Agreed, but high school and college kids making enormous amounts of money for their schools and getting no compensation must have strident concussion protocols, and this must be independent of football coaches who still think that folks have to man up......concussions included.   The correlation with Lou Gerhig's disease is becoming clear, and I have watched too many friends die of the same........the most horrible death I have witnessed as their bodies fail, their mind is working on all cylinders.  We are getting clear data now, and a simple settlement with the NFL is not enough.......where is college football in this equation?

Where is the proof that ALS is associated with concussions? I have seen several folks that had ALS and not one of them ever played football or even had a concussion in their life. Hell when ALS was first discovered, it was thought to be predominately men that contracted it, but not the data indicates that it affects men and women alike. Like I said, I am not completely convinced about the concussion business as of yet. To me it is still all hoopla.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/17/news/la-heb-brain-trauma-20100817

old news.....the link has been suspected for years, and the historians have shown some terrible head collisions which Gehrig had in his baseball career.

The me of today would tell the high school me not to play... it's highly unlikely I'd have listened to some old fart tho.

My mother wouldn't let my brother play football...over 50 years ago.

I love the game. I just want rule changes which protect folks from head injury and life long brain trauma. I think as was mentioned in NASCAR, safety can be mandated, and it can save people from injury. I look at the money college football is making off kids which really get paid about fifty cents and hour on their scholarships.............we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg on what head injuries do in later life.

2seaoat wrote:I love the game.  I just want rule changes which protect folks from head injury and life long brain trauma.   I think as was mentioned in NASCAR, safety can be mandated, and it can save people from injury.  I look at the money college football is making off kids which really get paid about fifty cents and hour on their scholarships.............we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg on what head injuries do in later life.

********************************************************

SO, gotta a question for you . . . . . your and others comments about concussion injuries and what is seemingly a clear mandate to "do more" to protect these young athletes from head injury. You inspired me to consider a solution: are you are aware of any technological devices in development in R&D to monitor on a continuing basis the individual status of impact(s) and/or their relative severity? I do know that we have that ability but whether any entity is devoting resources to solve this very solvable problem. Install a micro device in each players' helmet synced to a laptop or smartphone and the information would be transmitted when the player got within 20' of that device and translate the impact severity on a continuous basis . . . . . critical information immediately!

Your thoughts and others as well . . . .

I think that has tremendous potential. The utilities are very disciplined on the exposure to radiation, and I think this has to be monitored somewhere around high school. I could see contracts or draft picks having your device factoring in the equation. John Doe is a great hitter but he is at a 2k cumulative level and a few concussions will put him over the level set by the league. The person I share the office with had his son get the second concussion about the third game into his sr. year. He was a stud on the line, and the coach tried to downplay it, but dad took him to the doctor, and he missed most of the season. The coach with only three games and playoffs played him very little........all conference player, but he sent a message to other parents.......you concerned about your kids health.....then I will not play him. Lots of room for improvement. I think sometimes coaching does not have the players long term welfare in their calculator.