The End of Football

[fusnik]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11...-als-diagnosis

Physicians correct me if I'm wrong but there hasn't been a connection between ALS and concussions.

Haven't 3 former NFL players who died after being diagnosed with ALS actually had another disease that is very similar but can be caused by concussions?

[Katy Lied]

First MLB player diagnosed with CTE: Ryan Freel

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/15/health...ide/index.html

[creekster]

First MLB player diagnosed with CTE: Ryan Freel

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/15/health...ide/index.html

We should start and End of Baseball thread. Or maybe we could call it "Basebul has not been bery, bery good to me"

[MarkGrace]

Right now, as all of its seasons at all levels are just beginning, American football is under unprecedented assault. Science is providing more and more evidence that the game is physically perilous to everyone who plays it. This forces a series of hard decisions on the participants and moral questions on the devotees. Is it ethical, or even humane, to be entertained for fun and (occasionally) profit by a sport that so inevitably destroys the people who play it? (Steve Almond’s recently released book, Against Football, poses these questions very directly.) There are only two possible approaches to these issues. You can answer them honestly, or you can duck them entirely. And the latter approach often involves cloaking yourself in the almost theological tribalism that American football shares with all the other varieties.

Think about the defenses of American football that rely on “tradition” as an argument opposing the moral case against the game. Think about how closely American football has attached itself to the U.S. military, from the in-game commercials to the now-customary flyovers of attack aircraft. Think about the 2011 Super Bowl, in which we had “God Bless America” and the National Anthem, a flyover, and a bizarre video that sought to link John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, Martin Luther King’s speech on the National Mall, and Ali’s KO of Liston in Lewiston, Maine. Think about the way football is positioned as some kind of essentially American journey. Patriotism may be the last refuge of scoundrels, but it’s also a handy hideout for huge corporate athletic enterprises that are facing existential questions about what they do to the athletes who engage in them.

But that may be enough to help American football to survive. We haven’t yet evolved beyond tribalism as human beings, or beyond jingoism as a nation. For good or ill, countries all over the world use something called “football” as a statement of their national identity. We like to think that we’re different, but we’re not. We’ve attached ourselves and our image of ourselves as a people to what we call football as securely as the folks in Lisbon or Killarney — or, for that matter, Melbourne — have to what they call football. It provides a sense of belonging, even more than do the other sports. Calling something “football” is a way of calling yourself a citizen.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nf...e-2014-season/

[BigPiney]

I finished reading League of Denial a few weeks ago. It was really interesting and made me question whether I would want my sons to play football if they chose to do so.

It did reinforce my belief that the NFL is run by a bunch of bad people.

[fusnik]

http://m.espn.go.com/nfl/story?storyId=11502913

Possible HOF'er with memory loss at 36, yikes.

[BigPiney]

http://m.espn.go.com/nfl/story?storyId=11502913

Possible HOF'er with memory loss at 36, yikes.

Dude will have CTE. Thought of this thread when I saw that story.

[fusnik]

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/otl-bel...ry?id=25841572

Judas.

[Joe Public]

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/otl-bel...ry?id=25841572

Judas.

Like BigPiney with the other story, I thought of this thread when I saw this story. The guy was 25 years old.

I did wonder about the timing of the NFL settlement and how that might have played into the decision to exhume and test a year after the death.

[Katy Lied]

I was willing to believe Brady Hoke's excuse that he didn't see the vicious hit on his QC Shane Morris, and that's why he left him in the game, but after watching the video, it is utterly inexcusable that no one on the sidelines noticed and signalled to pull Morris out, or at least not reinsert him back into the game without being cleared by a doctor. Who doesn't see their own QB being speared by another player? That player should have been tossed from the game.

The footage makes me sick to my stomach. Why does Michigan keep defending an incompetant coach who doesn't win and who doesn't care about the health of his players?

If this weren't so serious, it would almost be funny that something like this -- a failure of this magnitude -- could happen the way it did. The quarterback at Michigan, pretty much the guy everyone in the stadium is watching, is wobbling around on a bad ankle, and he's allowed to stay in the game damn near defenseless, and is immediately hit. He stays in. A few plays later he takes a shot to the head.There are 102,926 people in the stadium, and it seems like the only ones who didn't see what happened to Shane Morris were the Michigan coaches and medical personnel.
After Morris was drilled by Minnesota defensive end Theiren Cockran, helmet to helmet, he tries to walk off the field and starts to collapse like a broken fence. Only the presence of offensive tackle Ben Braden stops Morris from sagging to the ground. The crowd saw it. People watching on TV saw it. The commentators on ESPN saw it, and to his credit, ESPN's Ed Cunningham had been saying for several plays that Morris should be pulled. The first time was after a Minnesota player had rolled up Morris' leg, leaving him grimacing and limping. Second time? After Morris is hit while throwing an incomplete pass, helpless in the pocket, and Cunningham reiterates that Michigan should be removing this wounded player from the game.
Then the hit by Cockran. As he walks off the field Morris' knees buckle and he falls into Braden, his head coming to rest on Braden's arm.
Hoke says he never saw the hit to the head. Same goes for everyone else on his staff -- on the sideline and in the press box, including some with access to replays -- and everyone on the medical staff as well. So when all of these trained professionals saw Shane Morris reeling his way off the field, and when they saw teammates gesturing to the sideline for help, they all thought it was because of the ankle.
The same ankle that was hurt several plays earlier. The same ankle Morris was trying to play on. So the explanation of the Michigan coaches and staff is that they knew about the ankle, and knew their quarterback was compromised, but they didn't feel it was important enough to remove him from the game. So he stayed in and was hit twice. Once in the head.
Which nobody at Michigan seemed to have seen.
That's their story, ands they're sticking to it

The hit occurs at 2:21. It's off camera but they replay it.

[BigPiney]

I was willing to believe Brady Hoke's excuse that he didn't see the vicious hit on his QC Shane Morris, and that's why he left him in the game, but after watching the video, it is utterly inexcusable that no one on the sidelines noticed and signalled to pull Morris out, or at least not reinsert him back into the game without being cleared by a doctor. Who doesn't see their own QB being speared by another player? That player should have been tossed from the game.

The footage makes me sick to my stomach. Why does Michigan keep defending an incompetant coach who doesn't win and who doesn't care about the health of his players?



The hit occurs at 2:21. It's off camera but they replay it.

Yeah, that was pretty bad. We all know Hoke is going to be fired, why not do it this week and save some face?

[San Juan Sun]

I wish I still lived in Michigan, just to say "I told you so" to all the UM fans I knew that liked the Hoke hire.

[BigPiney]

I wish I still lived in Michigan, just to say "I told you so" to all the UM fans I knew that liked the Hoke hire.

You can say it to Woot. http://www.cougarstadium.com/showthr...l=1#post589443

[San Juan Sun]

You can say it to Woot. http://www.cougarstadium.com/showthr...l=1#post589443

Woot is my dawg. I would never rub his nose in the mess Hoke has made.

[BigPiney]

Woot is my dawg. I would never rub his nose in the mess Hoke has made.

Well, that is no fun.