The End of Football

[Katy Lied]

My intent for this thread is to document the end of football as we know it, due to the undeniable effects of CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

The first salvo in the war to ban football was this seminal article by Malcolm Gladwell:

MalcolmGladwell, Offensive Play, The New Yorker, Oct 19, 2009
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...?currentPage=1
This was the first widely publicized article to bring to public attention the dangers of concussion, especially the new ideas that (1) It wasn't the big hits that caused the most chronic danger, but the small subconcussive hits. The ones where players don't lose consciousness, and mostly just shake it off.
(2) That repetition of these small hits adds up to chronic and irreversible loss over time, affecting ex-players in multiple profound ways.

[Katy Lied]

The suicide of Junior Seau.

Many couldn't understand why or how the happy go lucky USC and Chargers product could be so depressed that he attempted suicide multiple times and finally succeeded in 2012. The National Institutes of Heath concluded that he suffered from neurodegenerative brain disease linked to concussions, which has been shown to trigger depression.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan...brain-20130110

Chargers teammate Gary Plummer said that a pro football player will suffer a minimum of 5 subconcussions per game, enough to make them see stars.

[Uncle Ted]

A BYU engineering student is going to fix all of this with his new "smart" helmet...

http://www.cougarstadium.com/showthr...-com&p=1041612


Actually, our son has had a number of concussions playing football. So many he is now done playing the game.

[Jeff Lebowski]

WTH? Buzzkill.

While you are at it, how about wandering over to those Traeger threads and telling us all about cholesterol and carcinogens in smoked meat.

[Katy Lied]

A book by Mark Fainaru Wada and Steve Fainaru called League of Denial is released in October 2013. This book documents efforts by the NFL to deny claims of CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

WHEN ROGER GOODELL took over as NFL commissioner in September 2006, it was hard to ignore how his predecessor, Paul Tagliabue, had dumped a mushrooming health crisis in his lap. In 1994, Tagliabue had created the NFL's Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, a research body that insisted repeatedly -- in scientific papers and public statements -- that NFL players were impervious to brain damage. The MTBI Committee was run by a man who would become Tagliabue's personal physician, Elliot Pellman, a rheumatologist and New York Jets doctor who had no previous experience in brain research. "Commissioner Goodell inherited a nightmare, truly inherited a nightmare," said Bob Stern, a Boston University neuropsychologist who soon would become involved in the crisis. "He inherited a cover-up."

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/97...-espn-magazine

[Surfah]

A BYU engineering student is going to fix all of this with his new "smart" helmet...

http://www.cougarstadium.com/showthr...-com&p=1041612


Actually, our son has had a number of concussions playing football. So many he is now done playing the game.

Your son playing college ball retired?

[Uncle Ted]

Your son playing college ball retired?

Yep. He's done.

[Katy Lied]

In 2013 The NFL and Riddell paid almost a billion dollars ($965,000,000) to 6,000 retired players and their families.

Their argument was that the NFL had "propagated its own industry-funded and falsified research" to conceal the link between football and brain damage. One week before the start of the 2013 season, the NFL settled the case -- agreeing to pay the players $765 million, plus an expected $200 million in legal fees. The NFL did not admit wrongdoing, but the settlement hardly resolved the question at the core of the league's concussion crisis: How dangerous is football to one's brain? Unlike smoking, there was no scientific consensus about the risks of playing football. One neurosurgeon connected to the NFL said children were more likely to sustain a brain injury riding a bike or falling down. Another neurosurgeon, also connected to the league, called for abolishing tackle football entirely for children younger than 14.

[TripletDaddy]

Boo. I thought this thread was the end of Katy Lied's football posts.

[Katy Lied]

As I see it, the demise of football will advance along two prongs:

1. Local authorities will begin to outlaw football for youngsters. It might start by banning football in local municipalities for anyone younger than 10. Then it will move up to age 12, then 14. As football leagues at young ages begin to disappear, so too will the talent for the NFL. Then football in middle school will be banned, followed inevitably by football in high school, and the HS districts will be unable to afford the insurance policies and legal staff required to defend the existence of a local team.

2. Riddell and other football equipment manufacturers will start to face accumulating lawsuits. Riddell is in a no win situation, because the safer they make their equipment, the more players feel invinceable and push the envelope on head injuries. Finally, equipment manufacturers will go out of business. This is not Big tobacco, where addicted users keep buying your product. These are concerned families who make the decision not to endanger the future quality of life of their sons.

[creekster]

As I see it, the demise of football will advance along two prongs:

1. Local authorities will begin to outlaw football for youngsters. It might start by banning football in local municipalities for anyone younger than 10. Then it will move up to age 12, then 14. As football leagues at young ages begin to disappear, so too will the talent for the NFL. Then football in middle school will be banned, followed inevitably by football in high school, and the HS districts will be unable to afford the insurance policies and legal staff required to defend the existence of a local team.

2. Riddell and other football equipment manufacturers will start to face accumulating lawsuits. Riddell is in a no win situation, because the safer they make their equipment, the more players feel invinceable and push the envelope on head injuries. Finally, equipment manufacturers will go out of business. This is not Big tobacco, where addicted users keep buying your product. These are concerned families who make the decision not to endanger the future quality of life of their sons.

Good thing boxing or mma doesn't result in brain trauma or they might already be gone.

[SandYFan]

Interesting to see the tone of most of the responses so far.

"WTH? Buzzkill.

While you are at it, how about wandering over to those Traeger threads and telling us all about cholesterol and carcinogens in smoked meat."

"Boo. I thought this thread was the end of Katy Lied's football posts."

"Good thing boxing or mma doesn't result in brain trauma or they might already be gone."


No one really addressing the issue or providing any actual rebuttal, just a lot of emotional responses.

IMO, this is a real thing. I'm not convinced football will cease to exist altogether, but the sport as we know it may be gone in 20 years.

[beefytee]

Good thing boxing or mma doesn't result in brain trauma or they might already be gone.

Funny you should mention that.

There is a reason that the NCAA hasn't sponsored boxing since 1960.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Boxing_Championship

[TripletDaddy]

Interesting to see the tone of most of the responses so far.

"WTH? Buzzkill.

While you are at it, how about wandering over to those Traeger threads and telling us all about cholesterol and carcinogens in smoked meat."

"Boo. I thought this thread was the end of Katy Lied's football posts."

"Good thing boxing or mma doesn't result in brain trauma or they might already be gone."


No one really addressing the issue or providing any actual rebuttal, just a lot of emotional responses.

IMO, this is a real thing. I'm not convinced football will cease to exist altogether, but the sport as we know it may be gone in 20 years.

I thought my post addressed the most important issue

[Jeff Lebowski]

Just in case SandYFan is wondering, I am fully aware of the risk in eating smoked meats.