Concussions. What do you think?

[Hawkinaz]

After the Adams hit - I got to thinking about the whole concussions issue, and I wondered what everyone thought about it.

After the initial frenzy, pending lawsuits, and the movie (which, I didn't manage to see) - the whole issue seems to have gone kinda under the radar. Seems like they are kinda whistling past the graveyard on the issue.

From what I can see - as long as everyone cheerfully goes into the blue tent, and then either appears or disappears everyone seems happy. Doesn't seem like the sport is still trying to eliminate them (which, really, honestly - I don't think you can 100% eliminate), but happily living with 'less' of them.

My dad played linebacker up in the CFL here for a short period of time before I was born. He's pushing 80 now, and has frontotemporal lobe dementia. It's in the middle stages. I have NO idea whether his condition is related to his playing time, or not. Certainly a handful of his other ailments can be attributed to his playing time. He's still quite lucid, and has all his faculties - but you can start to sniff it around the 'edges'.

Anyways - the jury is still out for me a bit on this one. I see the nerf helmets, and I see the happy concussion protocol. Like Chris Rock said: "They ain't NEVER gonna cure cancer. They'll just find a way for you to LIVE WITH IT". And, I kinda feel the same way on this one.

Not to make it political (please, god, no) - but the only real recent comment that I've heard on the subject was Biden saying something along the lines of: "It's a violent sport. They're generally doing the right things." - or something like that.

So, as the title says: What do you think? Is living with 'less' concussions acceptable? Should the goal to be 100% elimination? Given the fact that it turns a percentage of our favorite sports players into essentially vegetables later in life.

Just making a comment on what Chris Rock said about curing cancer

I saw a documentary about diseases there was a Chinese doctor who said they were very close to finding a cure for cancer this was late 90s. I believe they have found a cure but the amount of money that would be lost is astronomical it’s a billlion $ industry for the drugs that keep you alive. I am sure there will be some sort of whistleblower in the future and all hell will break loose

 

[Hawkinaz]

My dad played football during the leather helmet days, and long before concussions became a household word, he claimed that the advent of the hard plastic helmets and face masks, made in the spirit of making the sport safer, actually made it more dangerous. It used to be that you didn't lead with your head and rather tackled with your shoulders. To do otherwise was suicide. Imagine playing football with a head covering offering little more protection than if you were wearing a baseball cap. No way are you going to tackle like they do nowadays.

Now the sport has come full circle as we're trying to teach players not to lead with their helmets and tackle with their shoulders.

Completely agree with what your dad said about with trying to making the game safer it has become more dangerous. When I was playing we were coached to use your face mask to “ kiss the football” to cause fumbles while wrapping up to make a tackle

 

[Flyingsquad23]

Trying to make an unsafe sport safe is a contradiction. One of the reasons why football is popular is because its unsafe and physical. The league knows this. I think they're just terrified of lawsuits and are trying to save face and protect their product. Which is their prerogative.

I'll continue to watch football unless they do something drastic. Like making it 2 hand touch or flag. Which TBH, seemed like something that would never happen. But considering how soft society is evolving it wouldn't surprise me if tackle football eventually gets outlawed or something. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it could happen. Who knows what the world will be like in 20-30 years. Maybe things will change. Maybe they won't.

I've been binging on old football games from the 80's and 90's and it almost looks like a different sport by how intense the game was. It's still very intense, but the rules are slowly eroding the game. As a fan, I expect a flag to be thrown on every play these days. Especially on long or medium passes. I hold my breathe to wait and see if any laundry gets thrown on the play. Because it's so common. And I despise that feeling. I shouldn't look around and wait for a flag to be thrown. Or not thrown. It's bullshit.

I'll reiterate what I said in another thread: If player safety was a serious concern for NFL, then the sport should be illegal. Because the safest thing they could do is not allow football to be played. Because by its very nature, the game is dangerous. Plain and simple.

Why is making the sport illegal the only option? Car racing is probably the most dangerous sport, with drivers dying on a regular basis. The various organizations that run the biggest race associations work tirelessly to improve safety and have made some amazing advances that even translate to public use.

The same for the NFL, the advancement in helmet technology is tremendous, and while it won’t save every player it will help reduce the numbers. Big hits and great tackles can be accomplished with great technique. I feel like the hyper focus on penalties for helmet to helmet and defenseless Wr has helped.
While the helmet hits still happen(totally unavoidable) I think the headhunter mentality has diminished and that’s what the excessive pentalty calls were meant to bring about.

 

[renofox]

Why is making the sport illegal the only option? Car racing is probably the most dangerous sport, with drivers dying on a regular basis. The various organizations that run the biggest race associations work tirelessly to improve safety and have made some amazing advances that even translate to public use.

The same for the NFL, the advancement in helmet technology is tremendous, and while it won’t save every player it will help reduce the numbers. Big hits and great tackles can be accomplished with great technique. I feel like the hyper focus on penalties for helmet to helmet and defenseless Wr has helped.
While the helmet hits still happen(totally unavoidable) I think the headhunter mentality has diminished and that’s what the excessive pentalty calls were meant to bring about.

Maybe if they actually allowed tackling to be coached and practiced the players would become better at safe and proper tackling?

They took it away (in camps/OTAs) in the name of player safety. Tackling techniques devolved as a direct result.

Genius.

 

[RiverDog]

Why is making the sport illegal the only option? Car racing is probably the most dangerous sport, with drivers dying on a regular basis. The various organizations that run the biggest race associations work tirelessly to improve safety and have made some amazing advances that even translate to public use.

The same for the NFL, the advancement in helmet technology is tremendous, and while it won’t save every player it will help reduce the numbers. Big hits and great tackles can be accomplished with great technique. I feel like the hyper focus on penalties for helmet to helmet and defenseless Wr has helped.
While the helmet hits still happen(totally unavoidable) I think the headhunter mentality has diminished and that’s what the excessive pentalty calls were meant to bring about.

I've seen a number of rankings of "most dangerous sports", and football doesn't make the top 10. There are sports like gymnastics and cheerleading that are technically more dangerous. What makes the safety factor in football so significant is the numbers of participants and its visibility.

I would love to see the safety problem solved by improvements in field and equipment, but I just don't see how they're going to minimize the risk of some injuries involving the neck and spine via equipment improvements.

And by the way, in my junior year in high school, I had a teammate get killed playing football, and was the one who went into the game to replace him when he went down. It's a long story, so I won't attempt to re-tell it here, just a FYI thing.