As a Minor League Ice Hockey player just prior to enrolling at The University of Connecticut, I can share a few thoughts. In the late 1970s, the Large Athletes were generally slower that average sized Athletes. They are now as fast as lightning. My Son played AAA youth hockey, and although the equipment has improved significantly since I was a player, it was still inadequate for a person's head to be slammed into plexiglass. I bought my son a state of the art helmet each season, he was still concussed at least twice. He was being pursued by Xavier High School, and certainly would have made the Public High School team as a freshman, we decided as a family that it was best for him not to participate in High School. His long term health was more important than wearing a letter on his jacket. I think many parents share our view.
An existential threat to the NCAA and college football as a whole...
- Thread starter shizzle787
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There are some amazing helmets the NFL is paying to develop -- one neuroscientist is working on magnetizing them -- but it's going to be hard to make the sport much safer from a concussion standpoint. From what I understand, a lot of concussions don't result strictly from the impact, but from the sudden loss of speed. The brain is floating in fluids, and when a player running nearly 20 mph hits a wall of bodies, his brain smashes against the inner front of his skull. Even without the actual impact, that kind of damage is taking place.
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How about football with NO Helmets and No Pads. Just like we played in a field when I was 14. It would be less violent as there would be no protection.
University of Missouri - some leather helmets
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What about soccer or hockey? Lot of head trauma in both.
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Another example would be state laws that were passed to limit liability for businesses for COVID-19 infections.
And not just head trauma! I've got Arthritis, since my late twenties, in both knees from soccer playing days.
I linked to an article earlier that actually suggests this. It suggests that if you take away all the protective gear the players are going to be leading with the head. I would, however, probably still use the rugby-style cap to prevent what they call "cauliflower ear."
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People straight up died on the field in this era of football. I remember reading somewhere that the president at the time wanted to outlaw the sport so they added helmets and better padding.