Football in the Long Term

[alyssa]

If I were raising young boys and girls these days I would raise them like I grew up. They boys would grow up barefoot running and playing and not be required to play organised sports. I would want them to just play and explore a lot. I would probably only allow one sport at a time during the school year and it would not be tackle football. I can teach them a lot of activities at home, like martial arts, singing, running, painting and many other things, including ancestral knowledge.
I don't like seeing children starting at 8 years old wearing shoes and playing on fake grass while wearing football gear. I've seen those young players with concussions. Just recently, one of my sisters was at a little league game where parents started fighting each other again.

[CenTXpony]

my son is playing on kickoff coverage right now for his high school. And linebacker. I'm not gonna lie, I don't like the kickoff coverage. Honestly, i don't love watching the SMU players on kickoffs either, full speed collisions are very dangerous. And if you don't think it matters, then your kid doesn't play, never played, or you don't have much concern or compassion for other peoples kids. Another thing, one of my son's linebacker mates is out with a concussion right now and hasn't been to school since last Friday because he can't concentrate. Thats nothing to dismiss lightly.

I understand your concern and I agree that continual efforts should be made to improve safety. However I also believe that unfortunate events are bound to happen in almost every aspect of life. Mostly I was joking about the idea of shutting football down all together which I don't think is anyone's thoughts on this board. I guess that means I have no compassion or feelings for others.

[Hoop Fan]

CenTx, i love watching football and i obviously let my son play it. My point is to the people who dismiss the efforts to make and enforce rules that makes the game safer. Football is still going to be a rough, entertaining game without wreckless spearing. The simple fact is that the price of concussions and lifeling injuries is alot more than a lousy 15 yards, thats why the culture needs to change that accepts use of the crown of the helmet as a projectile.

[blackoutpony]

*Malonish and Blackoutpony within 10 feet of one another at one time was dangerous.

Fixed it. My B.

I still can be dangerous. We haven't had our death cage battle royal on the blvd yet

[CenTXpony]

If I were raising young boys and girls these days I would raise them like I grew up. They boys would grow up barefoot running and playing and not be required to play organised sports. I would want them to just play and explore a lot. I would probably only allow one sport at a time during the school year and it would not be tackle football. I can teach them a lot of activities at home, like martial arts, singing, running, painting and many other things, including ancestral knowledge.
I don't like seeing children starting at 8 years old wearing shoes and playing on fake grass while wearing football gear. I've seen those young players with concussions. Just recently, one of my sisters was at a little league game where parents started fighting each other again.

If its a boy then it sounds like he'll be the next Johnny Appleseed.

[CenTXpony]

Haha I don't understand how my comment comes off as any kind of reference to June. If you read my post on other threads regarding June you'd know which side of the fence I'm on when it comes to that matter. I'm referring to this consistently growing concern of football being dangerous and defending the sport by saying you know it has potential to be dangerous just like many other things in life (in a joking manner) so if football is going to be shutdown then so should other stuff like driving a car etc. etc. etc. Really I'm being a facetious smart @$$ towards PBS...

Not a jab at you. Defending JJ on this board can be hazardous. I agree that PBS goes overboard on many things, but not so sure they're crying wolf on this topic.

The issue is whether big-time college-level football will be played by college-eligible players or by gladiators? Or can the game change?

Truth be told I didn't actually read it just kind of what you summarized. Sounds like an interesting and concerning topic though. My apologies, I'm working on HW and distracting myself with PF's at the same time.

[Cougar King]

If my son wants to play football, he'll be playing. If my 2 year old nephews want to play somewhere down the road (7th or 8th grade preferably and one of whom is already interested in it.) They will play.

-Walking through CougarKing's neighborhood is dangerous

Driving down the highway in Oxford is dangerous.

Going through the backwoods of Oxford is also dangerous too.

[CenTXpony]

Driving down the highway in Oxford is dangerous.

Going through the backwoods of Oxford is also dangerous too.

Those are both the same. Everything is dangerous in Mississippi though.

Hey you're the one that made the UH crowd out to be dangerous though. I'm just going off of what you said! Have you coogs gone soft these days?

[stc9]

I watched the frontline episode. It was a little unnerving. Just as an FYI, this was a repeat episode. It originally aired in 2011. I could be wrong, but the Shiloh Christian vs. Euless Trinity game featured our very own Jonathan Yenga blowing up a QB. I will reply to several comments made previously in this thread.

1) High School Girl's soccer is second to football in concussions and leads the nation in blown ACLs. Women suffer blown ACLs 2 to 1 over men. (Source NY Times... Sorry couldn't find the link). Here in Florida, soccer is a winter sport and in the North it is a fall sport. When that leather ball gets cold it can be like heading a rock.

2) From frontline, there is growing evidence that sub concussive blows to the head contribute to CTE. So even if you don't get a concussion, the cumulative effect of these hits has demonstrated a level of cognitive impairment at the end of the season. One trainer on the program made a point that football helmets are not designed to prevent concussions, but to prevent skull fractures.

3) Lacrosse has grown by 400% over the last ten years. This comes mostly at the expense of baseball rather than football. Even with that growth, lacrosse might have 5% of football's participation. Most of the growth comes from program development in the South and West Coast. Here in FLA, most football players stop playing lacrosse after their freshman year because they lose too much weight during the season. It is too difficult to regain that weight and grow even bigger over the summer. I don't know if this trend is the same in Texas.

4) Medical Staff and Rewards: A lot of the problems Frontline pointed out come back to this topic. Coaches are not equipped/trained to handle many of the medical situations that they can potentially face. Budgets are tight and trainers/doctors are not always at practice to help manage a crisis situation. A coach is incentivized to win ball games. If a player is questionable in a tight game, it is in the coach's best interest to put the player back in the game. This exposes a player to even greater trauma. The second hit always does greater damage than the first. The reward is not aligned with the risk or the greater good. If that [Gary Patterson] Gary Patterson is willing to do it in college where there is plenty of oversight, what is to stop a high school coach that doesn't have the same oversight.

[mr. pony]

I hear soccer is about to become the next big sport in america.




-says everyone for as long as I can remember.

I hear soccer has more injuries than football.

[Stallion]

based on personal experience with the sport I believe the head injuries in soccer are more usually the result of the collisions on head balls (especially with the goaltender) rather than heading the ball. They don't have helmets. Heading the ball doesn't hurt

[smusic 00]

based on personal experience with the sport I believe the head injuries in soccer are more usually the result of the collisions on head balls (especially with the goaltender) rather than heading the ball. They don't have helmets. Heading the ball doesn't hurt

Neither does blocking banging your helmet against a lineman 100 times during practice. They are finding it is not the big hits that are most damaging but the cumulative effect of micro collisions of the brain against the skull which go undetected. Like what happens when you 'head' the ball.

[Statler]

Of the 46 brains former NFL players' brains examined for CTE - 45 had CTE.

A high school player examined by the Boston Univ. team showed advanced CTE.

Really scary stuff.

[malonish]

*Malonish and Blackoutpony within 10 feet of one another at one time was dangerous.

Fixed it. My B.

I still can be dangerous. We haven't had our death cage battle royal on the blvd yet

I mean at this point we have to. We've done the press and build up, we've gotta have that PPV and make some bank

[SoCal_Pony]

Did anyone see the PBS Frontline documentary on football? I only read a synopsis and some commentary, but many folks believe football's future is cloudy because the sport is being revealed (and reviled by some) as truly dangerous.

I have a hard time believing that football will disappear, especially in Texas where it is revered. But high schools and colleges could begin to face social pressure, unacceptably high litigation risks, or cultural change (i.e., mommas don’t want their babies to grow up to be Cowboys).

And--stay with me here for one more thought-–if football becomes the refuge of the desperately poor and undereducated, the way boxing has, would the pool of qualified applicants diminish to the point where there simply aren’t enough players to go around?

I would only add that with budget cuts in the foreseeable future for most parts of the country, if football is seen as a losing proposition financially, that along with the potential litigation (more info being known about head injuries = more litigation for not preventing it) could lead some districts to do away with FB.

It will be interesting to see the football participation rates of high school kids in affluent communities that are not in football crazed areas over the next 10 years.