It won't stop until human beings decide it isn't worth making money (The NFL) for.
Everything trickles down from that.
Don't see that happening tho.
Everything trickles down from that.
Don't see that happening tho.
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I will say this, kids are starting to play football at a younger age and I think its somewhat dangerous for 7-8 yr olds to be tackling each other. I will give you one example from my nephew's game this past fall.
There was a kid who was larger than the rest, he was probably twice the size of some of the kids on the field. Well he once he got going, he had a hard time stopping and when he hit, it was pretty hard. Basically during the game my nephews teammate got wrapped up while running the ball by another player and this "bigger" kid came in with a full head of steam and I believe the kid was trying to make a legal tackle and wrap up. The RB fell towards the ground and their helmets hit. It made a loud enough pop that you could hear it in the stands. The RB was out cold and didn't return to the game. He got a serious concussion from the hit at 8yrs old and his parents kept him out the rest of the year.
I realize this is just one example, but it made me think about it. I just think some of these kids are not ready for contact. I realize everyone wants to get a leg up on the competition and start their kid younger, but its kind of sketchy thing to do. I really think that at some point there needs to be a cut off for contact football. I also think there are "TOO MANY GAMES" being played. I was watching ESPNU the other day and they had some pop warner games going on?
Your real life example gets to where we need to get intelligent about this. No reason for kids that young to play tackle football. Kids that age can play flag football for fun or to learn the game for when they get older and play tackle. That seems the first step and we can figure out the equipment stuff as we go along and continue the evolution in teaching kids how to properly block and tackle.
In the bigger picture sports has become such a big business that we push kids into it or they push themselves at an such an early age to shoot for the financial pay-off way down the road. It fits into a world where young people have shrinking opportunities to build a future outside of joining the military. That represents a societal problem outside the realm of sports and I don't know how we fix it.
People need to educate themselves and not be sheep to this film and the doctor portrayed. The data does NOT support a lot of his claims. CTE is a real thing bit just because you sustain a concussion doesn't mean you have CTE. In fact it's incredibly rate. The suicide rate among the NFL sample size studied was CONSIDERABLY lower than the general population in spite of concussion history and mental illness and depression impact that more than CTE does. There a higher concussion rate in soccer and hockey than football bit the war is against football. Football is the greatest American sport and teaches boys and young men so many incredibly valuable lessons about life. I believe everyone is responsible for educating themselves and making their own decision. I only have 1 son but if I had more, everyone of them would be playing football. I refuse to watch this movie or in any way support Bennett and his war on football.
If we went back to scrum caps and leather type helmets without face masks, you would see a significant drop in head injuries. Rugby doesn't have close to the problem football does. In my 16 years of playing rugby, I didn't get one concussion, but suffered numerous ones in football.At least eight high school players have died since the season began, five from head or neck injuries
This Monday, December 7, Bennet Omalu, the pathologist who discovered Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times saying that children under 18 shouldn’t play football or other contact sports.
Concussion, starring Will Smith, is a movie coming out soon that traces the discovery of CTE and the NFL’s abysmal attempts at discrediting it.
Do you (or did you) allow your kids to play football? Or is it too dangerous.
Football is the most popular sport and it's made billionaires billions when it comes to the NFL.
What will football look like a generation from now? Or will it still be around?
Thanks for sharinghttp://www.weather.com/health/news/deadliest-high-school-sports-20130812
Across all types of injuries, football consistently leads other sports because it has most participants. But when it comes to fatality rates, football isn’t even among the top three, according to the data.
Researchers collected data from 1982 to 2011 for all high school sports and millions of high school athletes. Total fatality rates were then calculated per 100,000 participants.
The deadliest sport during this time had a fatality rate of 2.89 deaths per 100,000, which was more than double the second deadliest sport. Football was the fourth deadliest sport with a fatality rate of .81 per 100,000 participants.
At least eight high school players have died since the season began, five from head or neck injuries
This Monday, December 7, Bennet Omalu, the pathologist who discovered Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times saying that children under 18 shouldn’t play football or other contact sports.
Concussion, starring Will Smith, is a movie coming out soon that traces the discovery of CTE and the NFL’s abysmal attempts at discrediting it.
Do you (or did you) allow your kids to play football? Or is it too dangerous.
Football is the most popular sport and it's made billionaires billions when it comes to the NFL.
What will football look like a generation from now? Or will it still be around?
i grew up in a small town and the first exposure to organized football took place in Jr High. I was in high school in the early 90's and i guess t never recall hearing about high schoolers dying because of their participation on the football field (not saying it didn't happen, i just don't recall it being a thing on the scale as it is happening today) . What has changed between then and now. Is it athletes getting stronger, bigger, faster back then? is there a lack of focus on proper tackling techniques and more attempts at "blowing players up"?
Are there any CTE diagnoses from any people other than professional football players? It can only be found via autopsy, so has there been a study to gauge it's prevalence outside professional football, athletes and men in general?There's nothing that can reasonably be done to make the game safer. It's not just the plays that result in direct contact to the head but also many plays which result in a player being sent to the ground in some fashion also causing head trauma via a fall. It's a contact sport so trauma is unavoidable regardless of the helmet worn. How else can a contact game be played?
This game has been played for 100 years. How many millions of men have played at many levels and are now walking around with issues directly related to CTE? The perception today is CTE is the sole cause or principal contributor for many health issues and reason for something that has gone wrong with a person later in life. This topic has received major publicity and become a potential money maker for many parties now.
So if we eliminate this contact sport can we expect that older men will no longer have issues like depression, headaches, thoughts of suicude, dementia, etc. that are being attributed to CTE? What percentage of these issues are related to the aging process itself that we all go through? Do we have any data or studies comparing men who played football to men who never did in terms of CTE attributed health issues?
How about we realize as a free society we understand people are free to make choices that could be dangerous. Thus we educate them on the dangers of the sport. At this point people are able to choose whether they wish to participate or not. They are then responsible for themselves if they get hurt knowing the risk reward with the reward being earning millions of dollars if they are good enough. This way the government stays out of the way and lets freedom play out.
When I was in high school everyone on our O and D lines were between 6'3" and 6'5". The thing is, none of us were over 210. Due to modern weight lifting and training the players are bigger and faster than they were 30 years ago. It is simple physics, F = MA. More Mass (weight) more acceleration, more force during the impacts. The brain can only handle so much force of impact before damage occurs. Again, removing or reducing the coverage of the face mask will make players much more hesitant to dive in head first. Helmet technology will not solve this.
I can fix this problem in 2 words: more nanny government.
Because nothing screams "I'm an adult" like calling for your nanny every day of your adult life.
I don't think the end result here is actually going to be about "nanny state" decisions. I don't think football will ever be banned. I think we're going to see dwindling participation numbers. That's not a ban, that's people voting with their feet.
I played in HS. I wasn't that good, but I loved it. I loved going to practice everyday, I loved being part of that kind of a team and I loved the experience of it. I think I'm a better person today for having done it. Right now, none of my kids are interested in football (I didn't start playing until 8th grade), but while I'm not going to prohibit them from playing, I'm not out there begging them to get into it.
Boxing still exists. Gymnastics still exist. Neither is available in HS in most places -- most training and competition comes from non-school leagues, and that's fine. Football may head the same way.
I can fix this problem with 1 word: airbags.
This will still not stop the brain from sloshing around inside the skull. That's the problem....
You'll see participation numbers gradually decline over time and the quality of play will go with it. A local HS coach told me he's already seeing this happen.
I don't even know what to say about some the responses here. Football is not the enemy. Everyone should have the right to make their own choice but football is no more dangerous than scores of other activities in this country. Yes you can hurt playing football. It's not a certainty that anyone is going to get hurt because they play football. It's also incredibly unrealistic and wrong to think just because you get a concussion you're going to get CTE and suffer depression and maybe commit suicide and everything else. It's ridiculous. A handful of cases out of thousands of people playing the game. Football beyond far more value to the people that play it than it imperiles them. Sheesh. My daughter served a volleyball at the state tournament and hit a Dowling player in the head with the ball. Maybe we should outlaw volleyball. She easily could've gotten a concussion.
At least eight high school players have died since the season began, five from head or neck injuries
This Monday, December 7, Bennet Omalu, the pathologist who discovered Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times saying that children under 18 shouldn’t play football or other contact sports.
Concussion, starring Will Smith, is a movie coming out soon that traces the discovery of CTE and the NFL’s abysmal attempts at discrediting it.
Do you (or did you) allow your kids to play football? Or is it too dangerous.
Football is the most popular sport and it's made billionaires billions when it comes to the NFL.
What will football look like a generation from now? Or will it still be around?
You're very rightThe America you and I grew up in is almost gone. If a tiny % of people are hurt in an accident or as a result of a voluntary activity "it's an epidemic". Zero tolerance policies are really zero intelligence policies.
No one is going to ban it. I think it will be a lot like boxing. People in the upper and middle class will avoid it for the most part.