Is this the beginning of the end of football?
- Thread starter weR138
- Start date
This is the rub. I suspect AH was already a scumbag too but if they're able, lawyers will jump on this. Imagine if OJ's lawyers could've just said yeah, he totally did it...but CTE.
When I was in seventh grade we had a kid break a femur and another kid break his forearm during the same practice. That's when I figured out football might be a bit dangerous...
How do you go about estimating the percentage of a person's CTE that is caused by football versus other life choices? I've heard it stated that Hernandez had the worst CTE the docs have ever seen even among deceased retired players who played longer. Due to the severity of it in relation to other players, I tend to think his CTE probably had just as much to do with what he engaged in off the field as on it.
I watched the League of Denial FRONTLINE expose and found out that punch drunkeness has been recognized by the medical profession for a long time, dementia pugilistica.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dementia_pugilistica
That starts to touch on my view of the issue- there are a whole lot of trades that can ruin your body for a pretty meager paycheck in comparison. Ask a construction worker
These types of articles are dangerous. First, I would guess girls are much more likely to tell their coach/parents about a possible concussion. Second, football players take being tough to the extreme. I can distinctly remember 2 times in football, I more than likely had a concussion, and didn't miss a play. I was a QB and FS, I can only imagine what it is like as a middle linebacker, running back, or a O/D linemen.
Second, what makes football way more dangerous than any other sport, is the fact that on every play linemen at a minimum are knocking heads. The sub concussive hits that they take play in play out, in practice add up and are more dangerous that most if not all concussions a kid would get in any other sport.
I am not doubting the data in that article, I just don't think they do a good job of articulating how dangerous football is compared to other sports, regardless of concussion numbers. I love football, and I don't expect it will ever go away completely, but it will decline, as parents are going to to let their kids future be determined at such a young age when there are plenty of other sports to play.
why don't they change the game so there is less use of the head?
Think outside the box here, but REDUCING pads may help defenders not want to barrel into guys because they won't be as protected.
Having 1st downs at every 10 yard line means there is less incentive to slam into a guy to stop them from getting that extra inch.
Requiring tackles to be of the rugby variety means there is less head contact.
Not being allowed to hit a receiver before or as they catch the ball will remove some of the targeting issues. If you tackle a guy while he's in the air it's a penalty. If you tackle a guy without the ball it's a penalty. Better wait that extra half second before you leave you feet and become a human projectile.
Think outside the box here, but REDUCING pads may help defenders not want to barrel into guys because they won't be as protected.
Having 1st downs at every 10 yard line means there is less incentive to slam into a guy to stop them from getting that extra inch.
Requiring tackles to be of the rugby variety means there is less head contact.
Not being allowed to hit a receiver before or as they catch the ball will remove some of the targeting issues. If you tackle a guy while he's in the air it's a penalty. If you tackle a guy without the ball it's a penalty. Better wait that extra half second before you leave you feet and become a human projectile.
Where else was he banging his head around?
I don't think we will ever get the the point where CTE is used successfully as a criminal defense. But it is sad that this disease is so relevant.
I wouldn't let my kid play football and as much as I love Iowa State football, I feel bit guilty being part of that culture.
All good points but we don't know the extent of CTE in rugby, either. Everything you mention would presumably reduce violent head to head contact but would it still be enough?
As they should, it's called defending your client.
Plus, if CTE became a defense in court, it would probably be similar to the insanity defense. When someone is found not guilty by reason of insanity, they aren't just let go, they're sent to mental hospitals, and that would probably happen in this case
The end of football will be parents steering their kids away from football. There is a finite amount of elite athletes in the world. Many of those athletes were pushed towards football growing up, given the popularity. I think many of those same kids will now be pushed towards basketball, soccer or baseball, given the career longevity, lack of injury and better income potential.
Yea CTE defense would totally have helped O.J. get off oh wait...
No they aren't. They are informing the public of a serious issue.
Boys do tend to under-report. However, in the past few years, in-game examination of FB players for possible concussion has become much more rigorous. Even with that, girls soccer is still reporting more concussions per capita.
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/G...her-Risk-of-Concussion-Doctors-452602893.html
Many young athletes think they are pretty tough...
Isn't the point to prevent CTE? Right now, data indicates that girls soccer per capita is generating the most concussions. Whether or not there are some reporting issues, this is still a serious problem, and the issue needs to be publicized and addressed. Why does that article need to address football? In fact, I would argue that if the article would emphasize "how dangerous football is compared to" (to whatever degree that is true), it would tend to lessen the focus on the issue that girls soccer has.
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The article makes it seem that all these sports injury rates are the same, and from that Girls soccer has the most concussions. But I doubt all of these sports injury rates are the same. My doubt seem founded, see link below. Based on information from 2012-13 school year football injuries occur at a higher rate per 1,000 athletes. 3.87 to 2.29. But when this is taken times the number of exposures those athletes undertake, they estimate there are 616,209 injuries per year in football and 190,382 in girls soccer. So applying the percentages from your article there are approximately 51,403 concussions in girls high school soccer per year and 160,214 in football per year. But that skews the data a little, as we do a really good job of protecting football players from injuries in practice. Per 1,000 exposures in competition football players suffer 12.53 injuries while girls soccer players suffer 5.54 injuries. So per 1000 exposures football players suffer 3.26 concussions and girl soccer players suffer 1.50 concussions.
So I circle back and say, that article is dangerous. It makes it appear girls are suffering concussions a a much higher rate than boys football players, which actually football players are just injured more often so that brings the rate of concussions down.
http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/c...ects/piper/projects/RIO/Documents/2012-13.pdf
Repetitive sub-concussive hits are believed to cause CTE so i dont get your point.
This here is still the United States of America - we can fly aircraft and conduct airstrikes without the pilot leaving his desk in some compound in the southwestern desert for gosh sakes.
Football in the future will be played by android surrogates ("avatars" if you will) controlled by athletes in specially designed facilities, and may make it so the athlete never need leave campus. No more knee, neck, or head injuries, just new droid parts. You could play games every day and still take 12+ credit hour course load.
As a "University of Science and Technology", I look forward to the Iowa State robot avatars being far superior to those of say a "doctor lawyer" school, and we can finally take our rightful place among the elite.
Football in the future will be played by android surrogates ("avatars" if you will) controlled by athletes in specially designed facilities, and may make it so the athlete never need leave campus. No more knee, neck, or head injuries, just new droid parts. You could play games every day and still take 12+ credit hour course load.
As a "University of Science and Technology", I look forward to the Iowa State robot avatars being far superior to those of say a "doctor lawyer" school, and we can finally take our rightful place among the elite.
