Three high schoolers have died this month after suffering hard hits. I think the sport is heading toward a reckoning, and in 20 years we'll either see a radically different sport, or football will have become a niche. I personally know so many parents who refuse to let their kids play the game because of a fear of head injuries.
Announcement
Collapse
You can find details about the Wildcat Nation Tailgate in the football forum. We hope to see you there!
OT: The Coming Crisis in the Sport of Football
Collapse
X
-
I've seen some people throw out the possibility of playing with no helmets, the logic being that if the padding came off the vicious hits would stop.
The problem I think is that apparently concussions occur because of the brain rattling around inside the skull. So a lot of times it isn't the hit but the motion of the hit and how the player is kind of whiplashed. And then of course you have the issue of the ground and the head hitting there.
Some of these interviews with old players are kind of grisly to watch.Comment
-
I agree that something must be done, and I certainly don't enjoy injuries or deaths resulting from fb, but if they "water" the game down too much will it still be as popular as it is today?Philippians 4:11-4:13Comment
-
Kids are becoming more athletically gifted than they were in my generation. Improvements to the helmet have not matched the pace of athletic improvements. If I had a son, I would not know what I do if he wanted to play FB. I played, I can remember being woozy and still playing or when I was 12 and getting bad headaches after helmet to contact.
There will always be football, like Boxing due to the nature of the sport, players from upper and middle class families will decrease gradually but will be felt.Comment
-
I think that Football is the ultimate expression of human athleticism and fitness. It is a great teaching context for teamwork, self sacrifice, effort, toughness / physicality, and fear management...
And I won't let my son play when he is old enough. In my mind the risk of serious physical injury out weighs the benefits. Perhaps I am wrong; but I don't think I will budge on this one.Originally posted by John Stuart Mill​He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that... He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them...he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.Originally posted by Robert “Hoot†GibsonNo matter how bad things may seem, you can always make them worse.Comment
-
I really believe someday down the road football will cease to exist. At least how we know now anyway. Parents are going to stop letting their kids play because of the risk of serious injury and the long term effects that are just now being discovered about head injuries. I think I have read that participation in football at the lower levels is already going down. I may not live to see it but I think, unless something is dramatically improved in the gear worn that will protect from injury, that the hard hitting style of football now played will go away. There may be something like flag football played where serious head and spinal injuries are less.Kentucky fan since 1971.Comment
-
The head injuries are obviously the most serious issue, but football is generally just riddled with injuries of all kinds. Games sprawl on and on as guys are helped off the field, taken back into the locker room, are left just lying there on the turf after they've been hit, etc.
Injuries are kind of stitched into the game. Ironically I don't think the sport itself is hurt--and it may even be helped--because injuries and instant replays go toward making it a three-and-a-half-hour long spectacle on television that is jammed with endless advertisement possibilities.Comment
-
It would be a rather small sample size to make some sort of judgement call on, but I wonder what kind of injury statistics exist over in Australia and in the parts of the world where they have professional rugby or Australian rules football. Those guys don't wear much in the way padding if any. I don't think they can take football down to that level and have it survive though. The sport has evolved way too far for that too happen.Last edited by Trueblujr; 09-28-2015, 09:02 PM."It don't make much sense that common sense don't make no sense no more" John PrineComment
-
From what I've read, English Rugby is safer than Rugby elsewhere. Comparing English rugby concussion stats to American football indicates a concussion level double what occurs in English rugby.
English rugby has strict tackling rules - all tackles must be made below the armpits. Failure to do so can result in ejection from the game. The larger injuries in rugby are related to joint/ligament damage and spinal injuries. The spinal injuries are due to the nature of scrums. My niece's fiance played rugby for 20 years - most of it in the Army. He's had 3 spinal surgeries to deal with degenerative discs and surgery on a broken ankle that healed improperly and resulted in nerve damage.Extremism is so easy. You've got your position, and that's it. It doesn't take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right you meet the same idiots coming around from the left.
Clint EastwoodComment
-
Football is a violent sport. Probably the most violent sport there is. It's always been this way. I don't feel the game needs to be changed. It's been changed enough already. But I would change this FUNDAMENTAL aspect. There is too much flying into a player/pile with heads and eyes down. This isn't the way I was taught to play the game. You put the players torso between your head and your shoulder pads. Shoulder-to waist. That was the way to do it. There was no head down stuff. If we flew in head down, we were out of there. There was no diving at a players legs/knees, which imo is just as big a problem as hits to the head. But this is football and coaches today take the "by any means necessary" approach. That approach is killing the game.Isaiah 5:20Comment
-
-
Extremism is so easy. You've got your position, and that's it. It doesn't take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right you meet the same idiots coming around from the left.
Clint Eastwood👍 2Comment
Forum Ch-ch-changes - Report Here
Hello All! You may see some things bouncing around, colors changing, and functionality being added and removed as we look at how to make some requested...
A Word From Our Founder
With the recent discussion of rules and what is and is not posted I set out to find what our mission statement originally was and this is what I found:...
OT: The Coming Crisis in the Sport of Football
Collapse
Comment