Why College Football Should Be Banned: Link added

[dawgstudent]

they should always try to improve the safety of the game but there are risks involved with playing. If you don't want the risks - don't play.

When I was majoring in chemical engineering, they said chemical engineers on average have a 10 year shorter life span than other engineering disciplines but it was the highest paid. So that's a risk I was taking but I was going to get paid for it if I graduated with that degree.

 

[DerHntr]

other. In football and hockey it is. It isn't surprising and makes sense.

This is the same reason why mommy's all across America try to not let kids play those sports. I know mine tried to get me to keep playing soccer instead of signing up for football. She knew, as well as I, that it was inherently more dangerous. And because of all of that, I just don't understand why all of the sudden there is this big backlash against the sport. That was my main question from my first post. Shirley no one is actually surprised that people running into other people would potentially get hurt.

 

[dawgstudent]

football is now more dangerous because players are faster, stronger, and bigger. The force of hits are a lot more than they used to be.

 

[dawgs.sixpack]

there's a lot of stupid points from yall wanting to write off this guy as a football hater without actually thinking about his points, but probably the stupidest is writing him off because he created a movie and show centered around HS football. if anything, he's showing a lot of the less glamorous and dark truths of playing football.<div>
</div><div>i mean, using your logic, if you create a show or movie about a murderer (amateur football), then you can't speak out against murder (the negatives surrounding college football).</div>

 

[dawgstudent]

then lets take it to his own pocketbook.

 

[DerHntr]

Had to be done Heydog.

 

[OMlawdog]

Concussions, broken bones, knee replacements, and ligament damage are all things everyone knew about.

Long term brain damage was never something discussed either in high school, college or pro players. Hell, they still aren't sure of the effects, except that a few studies have shown some really disturbing results.

DS said he was made aware of the risks, and he accepted them. This isn't a hockey player being surprised that he lost his teeth playing hockey. Long term brain damage playing football hasn't been something that has been talked about. It is now.

Im sure players will still want to play, for some its worth the risk. That is their choice in my opinion. I just think people should know the full risks they are taking by playing football.

 

[dawgs.sixpack]

other. In football and hockey it is. It isn't surprising and makes sense.

This is the same reason why mommy's all across America try to not let kids play those sports. I know mine tried to get me to keep playing soccer instead of signing up for football. She knew, as well as I, that it was inherently more dangerous. And because of all of that, I just don't understand why all of the sudden there is this big backlash against the sport. That was my main question from my first post. Shirley no one is actually surprised that people running into other people would potentially get hurt.

couple reasons:<div>
</div><div>1) internet/social media/espn has made fans far more acutely aware of each ex player that died prematurely from 'natural' causes, drug overdose (including prescription), and suicide. back in the day, there might be a short blurb in the middle of the sports section about seau's death for 90% of the country.</div><div>
</div><div>2) the last 10-15 years, there's been an increase in research of ex players. not sure if this is because the public has become more acutely aware of the premature deaths or if it's because the technology has been developed to allow for more detailed research into the head trauma of ex players. the brains of ex players are compared to those of dementia and alzheimer's patients, and correspondingly the research and understanding of dementia and alzheimer's has skyrocketed in the last 10-15 years, so maybe the technology to map the brain and understand what's going on is relatively new.
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</div><div>3) current and ex players are more likely to come out and speak up about the effects of their playing days. some of yall will call it the pussification of america or something i'm sure. i call it using common sense and recognizing when your brain is fried</div><div>
</div><div>4) when we were young, our mother's were worried about broken bones and ligament tears. maybe an outside concern over spinal injuries, but largely they didn't think we'd suffer an injury that debilitated us for the rest of our lives. now they know that having their child's brain banged around from age 8-22 could potentially lead to him not just having migraines or something, but having the brain of a 90 year old when they are still their 30s or 40s. and the longer the kid plays and the higher the competition, the more likely their child is to suffer long term.</div><div>
</div><div>so yeah, i think that all is contributing as to why it's suddenly a big issue. it's not some conspiracy, it's simply the availability and prevalence of knowledge now compared to 5, 10, 15 years ago.</div>

 

[dawgs.sixpack]

where is he being high and mighty? he's talking about programs like UAB losing millions fielding a football program. money that could be better served going towards academics. whether he made a tv show about HS football or not, that's a pretty common sense point of view.<div>
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[boomboommsu]

Though there's plenty of days it could have been mentioned when i didn't show up......

i wonder if some of that higher average pay comes from those of us who couldn't land ChemEng jobs right out of school (see above) using the flexibility of our degree to work our way up. I went from drafter to chemist to electrical engineer (still don't know how that happened) to finally a real ChemEng job. I don't think other engineering disciplines would have had the opportunities i had.

of course there's also the 6 figure oil company jobs. but i wonder if that's a function of the degree, or just that that's where the money is.

ETA: I think part of the issue is that the NFL is trying to prevent a determination of what the risk actually is, ie downplaying the prevalence of brain trauma in former players etc.

 

[boomboommsu]

Heading a soccer ball merely redirects the ball, with nearly all of the kinetic energy of the ball remaining with the ball (via deformation then reformation of the ball surface), not being transferred to the head. Not so in football. That's why a soccer ball bounces far away from a head, but football players collapse into each other.</p>

 

[EAVdog]

you must not watch or play much soccer. Stand in line trying to block a free kick, take a direct shot to the head/face and tell me all the force was just redirected. But the larger point is Football is thought of as a contact sport. But all sports have their inherent injuries and risk. Just think about how many thousand little rug rats run around on Saturday mornings without any protection on their heads. Let's ban football and then we can require Soccer players to wear helmets.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

[No message]

 

[dawgstudent]

in full disclosure of laziness - I didn't read his article until now. I just presumed it was about how he was complaining college football is a big business and it should be scaled down.

 

[dawgs.sixpack]

that happens, what? couple times per game? as i said, espn outside the lines had a graphic up the other day showing that football and hockey players were more than 8 times more likely to suffer concussions than basketball, baseball, and soccer players. sure it can happen in any sport, but only a couple of sports have an inordinate high rate.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

The NBA D-league is still not the viable option for players out of high school Minor League Baseball and Hockey are. Right now, it's just a holding league for the NBA to sign roster-fillers to a 10-day contract until somebody gets off Injured Reserve.<div>
</div><div>And it definitely wouldn't hurt for a player to start getting ready for the NFL at 18, instead of hanging around a campus for 3 years pretending to be a "student".<div>
</div><div>Also, you don't think Big 10 schools couldn't develop strong college baseball programs if there was a sudden emphasis on it. They could built domed fields so they could play in March and April, without having to take long road trips South during this time (not to mention Global Warming will ensure mild temperatures, because Global Warming IS a fact and settled science).</div><div>
</div><div>The NBA and NFL is profitable. They're also smart. They would know how to turn their minor leagues into profitable ventures, like MLB has done in the past 30 years.</div> </div>

 

[patdog]

Football is the most dangerous sport, but not by as much as dawgs says. Concussion rates are only 2 times as high for football as for girls soccer and 4 times as high as boys soccer. I don't think anyone is saying soccer is as violent or as dangerous as football, but anyone who says soccer isn't a pretty damn rough sport doesn't know what they're talking about.

 

[dawgs.sixpack]

no one is saying it's not a rough sport. but it's not football when it comes to long term brain health. i'm merely reciting the graphic i saw on espn the other day. maybe it was something limited on the kids or maybe professionals, but whatever age group, it was clearly stated that football and hockey had more than 8 times as high concussion rates as baseball, basketball, and soccer.

that said, some are that taking helmets away would limit concussions cause players wouldn't spear with their head. but i wonder what effects mandating the players wear the best helmets on the market and wear them properly would have. most players don't wear the state of the art helmets like rodgers started wearing after his concussion, and a lot of them wear helmets far too loose because it's more comfortable (hence the increase in helmets flying off).

 

[boomboommsu]

because the players get faster and stronger.

show me a professional soccer player who suffered from brain damage as a result.

reminder, no one's talking about kids sports here. we're talking about professionals.

 

[patdog]

It very well could be that all the advances in protection technology are just encouraging players to give and take a lot more risky hits. I'm sure it would be a very tough sell PR-wise and would open the league up to litigitation, to go back to leather helmets with no face masks' but it just might make a real difference in the rates of concussions and long-term brain damage.

One guess on the differences in the injury rates you quoted and the ones I did could be that baseball and soccer rates are so much lower that football is 8 times more dangerous than baseball, soccer, and basketball taken as a group and only 2-4 times more dangerous than soccer.

 

[dawgs.sixpack]

It very well could be that all the advances in protection technology are just encouraging players to give and take a lot more risky hits. I'm sure it would be a very tough sell PR-wise and would open the league up to litigitation, to go back to leather helmets with no face masks' but it just might make a real difference in the rates of concussions and long-term brain damage.

the only thing i wonder about with the idea of going back to leather helmets/no helmets/no facemasks likesome haveadvocated is that really we don't know if helmets are making a difference. we know itgets more attention now, but i think that's as much or more to do with the current state ofsocial media and the internet. if aformer player shoots himself, we all know about it immediately and then discuss iton here or on facebook or another board or a blog ortumblr.40 or 50 years agothere might be a short blurb in buried int he sports section of the paper about an explayer's premature death, but the public at large wasn't as aware. furthermore, there wasn't the technology in place to study those player's brains like there is today. i'd be interested to see what the avg lifespan of ex pro football player has done decade by decade over the last half century or more.