I know the kickoff is an exciting part of the game (and Larry Taylor and Nick Williams have given us some great memories over the years), but it is honestly a part of football that I could learn to live without. For every great game-changing play that is made on a kickoff, there are two mistakes made and at least one injury. If the game of football changed that portion of the game, I'm not sure I'll miss it.
Here's a 14 year old Dutch study of professional soccer players as compared to olympic level non-contact athletes that shows that players that have sustained concussions either through head contact other than the ball, or by frequent heading of the ball.....demonstrate impaired brain function.
Netherlands is still playing soccer, and pro soccer players are still banging heads against each other, and against goal posts, and against the ball - with no protective headgear.
The reason? Even with the exponenitally growing body of literature on the subject, there is no way to predict, who, how and when a person is going to get a clinically evident concussion, and there's even less evidence to show that repeated trauma has anythign to do with getting concussions, and there is no data to show that helmets do anythign related to concussions, and helmets and how they are used by players, has a lot more to do with jaw, face and neck injuries, than brain injuries.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9748028
The problem, is not that these brain injuries occur, or that they are related to developing neurologic problems later in life, it's that the NFL treats it's players the worst out of all pro-sports leagues world wide, adn that NFL players lay down their bodies to make money for those 32 owners like no other sport. It's not just their brains that NFL players are giving up, it's their knees, backs, hips, shoulders, hearts, kidneys.....
That's what the lawsuit is about - making sure that the NFL treats it's gladiators the way they should be treated for what they risk, to make those owners money.
Football is not going away. The worldwide kind, or the american kind.
I do think there is some validity to moving to less pads/helmets to reduce the impacts involved. But I'm curious if there are similar long-term studies on rugby players and head trauma for comparison.
Getting to wind up for 15 yds and tee off on someone at a full sprint has a lot to do with it as well. Can't do that so easily, or often in other sports. Some basic rules need to be changed.
The armor effect also eliminates the minor bumps that make the big hits more essential in the game. It's a different skill and intensity level of course, but backyard FB doesn't have those types of hits. Just need to guard against losing teeth and bumping noggins. A soft padded helmet and a mouth guard should be enough.
This evolution would lead to a more uniform body type for players. Skinny fast guys couldn't hang and bigger slow guys couldn't keep up.
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You're describing rugby.
Did you just cite a study that concluded soccer players who sustained concussions dealt with impaired brain function and then write that there's essentially no evidence "repeated trauama has anything to do with getting concussions"?
It's tough to follow along when you argue conflicting points of view, and then conclude by justifying a lawsuit for money that won't do anything to ease the trauma on the head or the body of those "gladiators".
Well he did win a super bowl , if that counts for anything.I have to question the validity of any article which refers to Jeff Hostetler as "Giants' ex ace QB."
Well he did win a super bowl , if that counts for anything.
So did Trent Dilfer. So no... no, it doesn't.
So did Trent Dilfer. So no... no, it doesn't.