Football and CTE

[Rockstar Matt]

On 7/26/2017 at 9:23 AM, Norva said:

For whatever little it's worth, I work at a large sports complex (and also home to an MLB Spring Training team), and we have baseball/softball year round, most of it youth. I also see a lot of other diamonds and smaller complexes across the metro here. Purely anecdotal for sure, but youth baseball is still going. And this backs me up: http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/study-shows-youth-baseball-softball-participation-on-the-rise-051817

 

Again for whatever it is worth.

 

I wish the study the article cited wasn't hidden behind a paywall (and I'm not about to pay $245 just to read a report) because in the "Highlights of the 2017 Report" section, it also states that "Ice Hockey (11.0%), Rugby (18.7%) and Swimming on a Team (26.9%) all saw significant one year increases in casual participation," (Baseball was 18.1% for those who are curious).

 

I'm insanely curious as to why Rugby, of all things, suddenly saw a significant increase in participation. I know the Rugby World Cup isn't until later this fall too.

[dfwabel]

1 hour ago, Rockstar Matt said:

I'm insanely curious as to why Rugby, of all things, suddenly saw a significant increase in participation. I know the Rugby World Cup isn't until later this fall too.

There's the Rugby League World Cup this fall (the game which really looks football)and the Women's Rugby World Cup is in 2018, but what we generally consider the real Rugby World Cup, Rugby Union aka 15s, isn't held until 2019 in Japan.

 

 

It has risen over the last six years in part via a number of factors:

 

* Low cost compared to football

* Colleges (there are 900+ teams sanctioned by USA Rugby)

* Rugby 7s became an Olympic sport in 2009, debuted at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games and was a medal sport last summer in Rio. The 7s World Cup will be in San Francisco and San José one year from now.

[JayMac]

7 hours ago, Gothamite said:

I no longer watch college football in any form. I've long been uneasy with it, but now I'm totally done.  Walked away, and I'm never coming back. 

 

 

6 hours ago, DG_Now said:

I'm basically out on NCAA altogether. I watched UW march to the playoffs last year because I'm an alum, but it's otherwise really easy not to watch. And TBH, I wasn't that invested anyways.

For nothing other than curiosity, why are you two out on college football? I was just wondering if it's the whole "amateur" status, the scandals, or something else altogether that made you walk away.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

It's the "amateurism" combined with how much we've learned about CTE. The players bring in billions for the NCAA. They deserve compensation that's aligned with the value they create.

[HedleyLamarr]

Participating in an extracurricular activity at school isn't a professional job, though.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

5 minutes ago, HedleyLamarr said:

Participating in an extracurricular activity at school isn't a professional job, though.

 

[dfwabel]

40 minutes ago, jmac11281 said:

 

For nothing other than curiosity, why are you two out on college football? I was just wondering if it's the whole "amateur" status, the scandals, or something else altogether that made you walk away.

 

5 minutes ago, HedleyLamarr said:

Participating in an extracurricular activity at school isn't a professional job, though.

If you would like to discuss that and go down said wormhole, please start another thread.

[The_Admiral]

On 7/26/2017 at 8:58 AM, McCarthy said:

*here's another thing people need to talk about more - A lot of NFL fans are legitimately STUPID people. 

NFL ratings are down because Colin Kaepernick merely exists. What a bunch of fragile little diaper babies!

[Gothamite]

1 hour ago, jmac11281 said:

For nothing other than curiosity, why are you two out on college football? I was just wondering if it's the whole "amateur" status, the scandals, or something else altogether that made you walk away.

 

Well, since you asked...

 

Ultimately, it's a perversion of the very mission of a college, when young men are brought into the school, given a support structure that undercuts their ability to actually get an education, and are often encouraged to leave without completing it.

 

That plus the newfound awareness that these young men are almost certainly (and without full and informed consent) incurring life-altering brain damage.  Damage that won't manifest until long after the schools have washed their hands of the players, their usefulness gone.

 

I dont care how much enjoyment spectators derive from the spectacle. I don't care how important it is to communal university morale.  The whole business is repellant and vile and I won't have anything more to do with it. 

[Red Wolf]

14 minutes ago, the admiral said:

NFL ratings are down because Colin Kaepernick merely exists. What a bunch of fragile little diaper babies!

No matter how you felt about Kaep, that's just pathetic. The dude played for one team, that most people's teams didn't even play. Some people just melt under any sort of heat. Snowflakes if you will. 

[Gothamite]

19 minutes ago, the admiral said:

NFL ratings are down because Colin Kaepernick merely exists. What a bunch of fragile little diaper babies!

 

But they're the very ones who call others "snowflakes".

 

Clickbaity headline aside, though: 

 

It's worth noting only 12 percent of those surveyed said they stopped watching NFL coverage, which equates to roughly 1,100 people.

 

so it's twenty-six percent of twelve percent.  Hardly worth the fuss. 

[Gothamite]

1 hour ago, HedleyLamarr said:

Participating in an extracurricular activity at school isn't a professional job, though.

 

It shouldn't be.  But schools treat it like it is, which is what's wrong in the first place. 

[JayMac]

Not to get completely off topic but I think we are nearing the day when college football, and maybe basketball, is no longer an "amateur" sport. These players will be somewhat of an non-academic associate member of these schools (some would argue that the one and dones in college basketball are already). They will be paid as professionals and college football will act as a professional minor league system. Maybe I'm too naive and it's just a dream, but I feel we are headed there.

[CS85]

3 minutes ago, jmac11281 said:

Not to get completely off topic but I think we are nearing the day when college football, and maybe basketball, is no longer an "amateur" sport. These players will be somewhat of an non-academic associate member of these schools (some would argue that the one and dones in college basketball are already). They will be paid as professionals and college football will act as a professional minor league system. Maybe I'm too naive and it's just a dream, but I feel we are headed there.

 

It'd take a pretty massive legal overhaul to get that ball rolling.  There's philosophical momentum in recent years, but nothing that has anyone stirring with real vigor.  It would take a very comprehensive player strike to make it happen, OR the NFL cuts its ties with the NCAA and creates it's own sprawling amateur league for 18-20 year olds that sucks the college system dry.

 

As for now, a lot of pockets are simply too well-lined for this to come to term, but at some point these players will take a stand, and yes - someday they'll be paid.  Whether or not it's vicariously through the college or outright from an NFL underling, they'll get their money.

[dfwabel]

31 minutes ago, jmac11281 said:

Not to get completely off topic but I think we are nearing the day when college football, and maybe basketball, is no longer an "amateur" sport. These players will be somewhat of an non-academic associate member of these schools (some would argue that the one and dones in college basketball are already). They will be paid as professionals and college football will act as a professional minor league system. Maybe I'm too naive and it's just a dream, but I feel we are headed there.

Don't worry, you are entirely off topic.

[JayMac]

Just now, dfwabel said:

Don't worry, you are entirely off topic.

Well, not entirely. It was being discussed. 

[dfwabel]

9 minutes ago, jmac11281 said:

Well, not entirely. It was being discussed. 

Only because you have attempted to hijack.

 

Had you mentioned last year's $75M NCAA concussion settlement of a class action lawsuit filed by former athletes (across all sports), or that 100+ former college football players in a the brain bank had CTE, you'd be somewhat close to the topic, but you didn't.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2016/07/14/college-football-concussions-lawsuit-ncaa/87097982/

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/news/cte-now-diagnosed-in-over-100-different-college-football-programs/ufeti8njc2h11r7cn5kc66gme

 

[JayMac]

There was no attempt to hijack. I asked two members why they stopped watching college football. Don't instigate. I am done posting in this thread. I don't want to "hijack". No need to be a jackass.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Well I think the issues are related. One of the ways the NFL stays successful is that it has a free feeder system of talent that costs it nothing. If that went away, the economics of professional football -- and the impacts to its talent -- are dramatically different.

 

18- and 19-year-olds shouldn't be driving their brains into mush. Certainly not for the equivalent of $40,000 a year.

[dfwabel]

While the PBS Frontline "League of Denial" came out nearly four years ago, last year, Arkansas' Department of Education produced a 60 doc titled, "Bell Ringer: The Invisible Brain Injury", which goes into how the state deals with HS brain injuries and details the death of a HS player who slipped through the state's protocol due to game scheduling.

http://www.pbs.org/video/2365712194/