Interesting article!
- Thread starter DinwiddieProud
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Very nice looking athlete. More impressive are his grades. Wonderful opportunity to explore the world. He has been blessed. Very best to him.
Speaking of Australia, does anyone know if the Australian Rules Football players suffer from concussions the way American Football players do?
Good question that I'll try to look at.
Any thing to say about the NFL's acknowledgement of the link between football and CTE?
The biggest question in my mind is "can we make the potential for football head injuries low enough to be considered safe to an acceptable level"?
By acceptable level, I mean societally acceptable level. And that level of acceptance varies depending on what level of football you are considering. As an example, a parent may not be willing to accept the risk to their son at the little league level, but is willing to be supportive of an informed college age kid that wants to play ball in that environment.
Can we make if safe enough? And what is safe enough?
By acceptable level, I mean societally acceptable level. And that level of acceptance varies depending on what level of football you are considering. As an example, a parent may not be willing to accept the risk to their son at the little league level, but is willing to be supportive of an informed college age kid that wants to play ball in that environment.
Can we make if safe enough? And what is safe enough?
Like I've said before, it will start with litigation. Not the passing of laws but law suits. These cost money to defend and a loss costs you even more. Insurance rates respond and become inflated. The cost of having a football program becomes untenable. Youth programs will go first, followed by smaller, poorer School Districts. Traditional HS Football will evolve, overall, into a non-collision, skill player sport. Colleges may follow. The NFL will evolve into some other form.
The bottom line here is that Football is a vicious collision sport. Injury is 100% guaranteed. Modern day gladiators. And with the stressing of full time strength and conditioning programs, players are bigger, faster and stronger every year. At every level. There is no "safe" way to play it. Football is not sustainable in it's current format and must evolve to a skills based sport or die. IMO.
I'm not ready to buy in 100% Shaunty, but you have a lot of merit with your contentions. I agree that we are on the threshold of a period of litigation that will change the sport considerably. Both because of the financial aspects, and because the rules and regulations changes that are sure to come.
We all love this sport of football. Most of us to an extreme. And this makes it difficult for us to believe that "our" game will change to a point that it is almost unreconizable. (Which is exactly what you prophesy). But, I fear you might be correct.
We all love this sport of football. Most of us to an extreme. And this makes it difficult for us to believe that "our" game will change to a point that it is almost unreconizable. (Which is exactly what you prophesy). But, I fear you might be correct.
With the greater emphasis on the passing game I would not be surprised to see the game evolve more towards a 7-on-7 format with a "tackle" being made by two handed contact just like today. With the proliferation of sensor technologies it would probably not be difficult to create jerseys that are responsive to enough force to be considered a "tackle" and yet weed out the incidental contact. Maybe a game with more than 7 players on the field too, which makes it more difficult for a good passing QB to just work his way down the field.
Far fetched? Yes, but if the current trend with concern about injury cannot be alleviated it is certainly a possibility.
Far fetched? Yes, but if the current trend with concern about injury cannot be alleviated it is certainly a possibility.
Pretty creative thinking. Would love to hear from others about future possibilities. Technology will surely play a much larger future role.
It can still be football but traumatic collisions can be dramatically reduced with a changed game. and we're not just discussing head trauma here. The entire body is affected. Back, knees, kneck, ankles and even internally. Earl Campbell is now an invalid. Watching Joe Namath walk is painful. There are no retired NFL players who do not experience highly accentuated physical pain due to playing their sport. Studies are not yet complete but 94% of those currently examined had CTE. Wow! Ever walk into a College locker room after a game? The bruises look like they've been in a train wreck. The trainer's room is a MASH unit.
The game is great. I love it and always have. The aftermath is very ugly. When we begin looking at all players as our children, the price is not worth it. Life is so much more than the briefness of a moment of glory.
The truth is, if you can dream it up, technology can most likely make it happen.
If a jersey can be made touch sensitive, certainly it can be made responsive to special gloves worn by an opponent. Differentiating between a deliberate touch and incidental contact should pose a minimal problem.
It's hard to believe that we may someday go to a game on a Friday night to watch an event that looks more like a video game than it does like football.
Sounds like flag football.
Some day, robots will be playing the game rather than humans. Probably the same with boxing and MMA. Then hockey, lacross, rugby, maybe soccer...I don't see it happening with baseball or basketball.
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