Football and CTE

[Mac the Knife]

12 hours ago, Gothamite said:

The Big Tobacco playbook is alive and well with Big Football.  Both kinds. 

Stop giving people ideas, Goth... next thing you know we'll be back to seeing head coaches smoking Lucky's on the sidelines.

[OnWis97]

https://www.channel3000.com/news/concussion-concerns-prompt-more-badgers-players-to-leave-football/935434139

 

a few examples of players impacted 

[dfwabel]

On 12/16/2018 at 10:53 PM, OnWis97 said:

https://www.channel3000.com/news/concussion-concerns-prompt-more-badgers-players-to-leave-football/935434139

 

a few examples of players impacted 

UCLA's Jaelan Phillips, the #1 defensive player in the class of 2017 has what UCLA termed, "medically retired*" after missing six games this year after a concussion. His freshman year he suffered a broken wrist.

 

*-Not sure if unpaid labor can really "retire", but that's for another thread which would be quickly locked as this one once was.

 

EDIT: Well, it seems that he entered the NCAA transfer portal and has decided to continue playing at Miami.

https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/02/21/jaelan-phillips-announces-transfer-ucla-miami-hurricanes

[Gothamite]

Quote

MADISON, Wis. - The hit that put Walker Williams’ brain over the edge — leaving him with ongoing headaches, mood swings, ringing in his ears, depression, anxiety and short-term memory problems — was nothing out of the ordinary. 

 

...

 

It was his fifth and final concussion since he began playing in middle school. After that, he was out for the season, and in March 2016, Williams quit football entirely. Now, Williams said he experiences “detriments in all sorts of aspects of my life.” And he worries about the very real possibility that he may develop dementia because of the brain injuries he suffered on the football field.

 

Holy ing , this sport is indefensible sometimes. 

[DnBronc]

Check this out:

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/02/16/leading-medical-journal-calls-on-doctors-to-dial-back-dire-warnings-about-cte/

[dfwabel]

1 hour ago, DnBronc said:

Check this out:

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/02/16/leading-medical-journal-calls-on-doctors-to-dial-back-dire-warnings-about-cte/

 

 

TBH, the aggregator Twitter feed from ConcernedMom9, is where to go for not just CTE or concussion news, but also any catastrophic football injury. HS sports are featured.  Just follow her and what she posts/links to.

[DnBronc]

Looks like the insurance market is evaporating for football:

 

http://tv5.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/25776964/insurance-market-football-evaporating-causing-major-threat-nfl-pop-warner-colleges-espn?platform=amp

[Gothamite]

Well, if people won’t do the right thing for its own sake, maybe they’ll be financially pressured into doing the right thing. 

[pmoehrin]

Massachusetts has just put up a bill that would effectively ban tackle football at any level lower than High School.

 

It will be interesting to see what becomes of this bill and even more interesting if other states decide to follow suit.

 

The game is already becoming more regionalized at a youth level, while the participants are simultaneously becoming more impoverished and less diverse.

 

if this keeps up, within 20 years, you will probably have a sport not that dissimilar from boxing, where only the poorest of the poor are willing to participate in front of an increasingly niche fanbase.

[Gothamite]

I think that in twenty years, it will be inconceivable that anybody would let seventh-graders play contact tackle football.  It'll seem as obvious to us then as child labor laws do now.

[RockyTopper]

I played full contact from 4th grade to my freshman year of high school. I played offensive and defensive line most of the time, so the risk of "bell ringing" hits was low, but I did get absolutely rocked on multiple occasions. Elementary school kids (middle/high school too,  but absolutely younger) shouldn't be getting battered when their bodies and brains are rapidly developing. Honestly glad that I quit when I did.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

6 minutes ago, RockyTopper said:

I played full contact from 4th grade to my freshman year of high school. I played offensive and defensive line most of the time, so the risk of "bell ringing" hits was low, but I did get absolutely rocked on multiple occasions. Elementary school kids (middle/high school too,  but absolutely younger) shouldn't be getting battered when their bodies and brains are rapidly developing. Honestly glad that I quit when I did.

 

It is now known that, as dangerous as concussions are, there is just as big a danger from a mass of sub-concussive hits, such as the kind that linemen in particular are subjected to.  You are indeed fortunate to have gotten out.

[SFGiants58]

I have this mental image of most youth football coaches, courtesy of King of the Hill:

 

 

“Take a salt tablet!”

 

The insanity of Coach Sauers in “Three Coaches and a Bobby” is hilarious, but also a revelation to how overly-aggressive and reckless youth football coaches can be.

[MCM0313]

I've never played tackle football. I played four years of flag as a kid and wish there were more opportunities to play flag now in adulthood. It's a fun game with much less danger.

 

I've had two minor concussions from being a human being. The first was when I was twelve and my friend accidentally caught my jaw with his elbow. The second time I was 24 and got smacked in the forehead by a falling ladder. I didn't lose consciousness either time, but both hurt and led to me feeling unfocused and fuzzy the next day. I can't imagine having that happen again and again and continuing to subject myself to situations where it was likely to recur.

[pmoehrin]

7 minutes ago, MCM0313 said:

I've never played tackle football. I played four years of flag as a kid and wish there were more opportunities to play flag now in adulthood. It's a fun game with much less danger.

1

 

Honestly, I don't know why either of the spring pro leagues hasn't considered adopting flag rules.

 

It would guarantee the league wouldn't be NFL-lite and it would be something completely different from what's already out there.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

45 minutes ago, pmoehrin said:

56 minutes ago, MCM0313 said:

I've never played tackle football. I played four years of flag as a kid and wish there were more opportunities to play flag now in adulthood. It's a fun game with much less danger.

 

Honestly, I don't know why either of the spring pro leagues hasn't considered adopting flag rules.

 

It would guarantee the league wouldn't be NFL-lite and it would be something completely different from what's already out there.

 

One progressive thing the new leagues could have done is to get rid of the three-point stance.  Or at least they could have adopted the CFL's one-yard buffer between the offensive and defensive lines.

By the way, there is a league that plays seven-a-side tackle football with no pads or helmets.  It is called the American 7s Football League (A7FL).  Its games are on YouTube.  The concept is good; and many of the players are talented.  But let's just say that the league is not suffuse with professionalism.  If someone were to shape up the presentation of this league, or else start a real professional circuit with these rules, I would watch for sure.

[OnWis97]

On 2/26/2019 at 10:45 AM, Gothamite said:

I think that in twenty years, it will be inconceivable that anybody would let seventh-graders play contact tackle football.  It'll seem as obvious to us then as child labor laws do now.

I'd guess that in less time than that you'll see a lot of high schools dropping football.

 

I totally agree with you.  "Developing brains" and "informed consent" are the two phrases I see being used to push the needle on the age that tackle football starts.  Much, much, more needs to be learned, but I would not be surprised if starting younger makes the likelihood of lifelong damage significantly greater.

[IceCap]

4 hours ago, OnWis97 said:

I totally agree with you.  "Developing brains" and "informed consent" are the two phrases I see being used to push the needle on the age that tackle football starts.  Much, much, more needs to be learned, but I would not be surprised if starting younger makes the likelihood of lifelong damage significantly greater.

“Informed consent” is a viable argument in football’s favour when the players are 18 years old or older. 

Legally speaking? Someone under the age of 18 cannot consent on their own. That’s part of being a child. 

 

So ultimately? You need to outlaw tackle football up through high school. And you know what? I’m 100% in favour of that. 

You can’t kill football at the university level because 18 year olds are legal adults and allowed to do what they like, but sooner or later NCAA football will have to re-evaluate how it scouts and recruits talent. 

[Gothamite]

1 hour ago, Ice_Cap said:

“Informed consent” is a viable argument in football’s favour when the players are 18 years old or older. 

 

It would be, if the NFL hadn’t been working so hard to stymie research.

 

Until the NFL stops trying to direct and control research into CTE, it isn’t possible for anyone to be fully “informed”. 

[Gothamite]

2 hours ago, Ice_Cap said:

You can’t kill football at the university level because 18 year olds are legal adults and allowed to do what they like

 

Universities already tell those legal adults what to do with codes of conduct and the like.  

 

More importantly, though, watch insurance companies stop covering universities, and see how long the sport lasts then.