Brain Disease Found In NFL Players 271
A reader sends this excerpt from ABC:
"On the heels of the latest NFL suicide, researchers announced today that 34 NFL players whose brains were studied suffered from CTE, a degenerative brain disease brought on by repeated hits to the head that results in confusion, depression and, eventually, dementia. The study was released just days after the murder-suicide of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher. It's not yet known what triggered Belcher's action, but they mirror other NFL players who have committed suicide. Researchers at Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy published the largest case series study of CTE to date (abstract), according to the center. Of the 85 brains donated by the families of deceased veterans and athletes with histories of repeated head trauma, they found CTE in 68 of them. Of those, 34 were professional football players, nine others played college football and six played only high school football. Of the 35 professional football players' brains donated, only one had no evidence of the disease, according to the study."
It's a good thing we protect our youth from conditions like this.
Did we really need a study for this? (Score:5, Funny)
Do we really need a study to show that repeated hits to the head result in confusion, depression and dementia? If so, I'd like to sign up to be the guy on the research team that whacks this researcher on the head repeatedly so he can discover the effects.
I just want to help. Really I do.
Re:Did we really need a study for this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, they need to expand the study and find out what performance enhancers might be in use as well.
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'Nuff said.
Wrong. Completely wrong. Absolutely brimming over with wrongability. The dementia in question can strike many years after they have finished playing and breeding. You need to go and read up on how evolution works. I'll give you a hint though - if your kids are old enough to look after themselves when the effects of your stupid (or just plain unfortunate) actions are realised, it doesn't count.
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Interesting)
Baby Orcas have a way better survival rate when they have living grandparents. Seems that growing old and helping your children raise your grandchildren enhances the chances of survival of your genes.
Re:Darwin (Score:4, Insightful)
There are also animals where the survival chances of offspring is enhanced by the sacrifice of their parents.
Maybe the financial benefits of playing the NFL, which can be passed to offspring, outweigh the potential downside of having a shorter life.
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Darwin would have you losing to these guys since by the time their disease develops they have already slept with plenty of desirable women. If jumping off a cliff would make you more attractive to the opposite sex, Darwinism would make us all cliff jumpers.
Athletic Darwinism has its supporters.
Re:Did we really need a study for this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do we really need a study to show that repeated hits to the head result in confusion, depression and dementia? If so, I'd like to sign up to be the guy on the research team that whacks this researcher on the head repeatedly so he can discover the effects.
I just want to help. Really I do.
We know that hits to the head result in all that and more, but now there's actual quantized data. With hard facts it's harder to muddle the issue with "but they wear protective helmets" or some other wishy washy double talk.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Did we really need a study for this? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Not exactly like these players arn't getting anything out of the deal..
Even knowing the likely outcome, I suspect many would still do it for the kind of money they make.
Re:Did we really need a study for this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do we really need a study to show that repeated hits to the head result in confusion, depression and dementia? If so, I'd like to sign up to be the guy on the research team that whacks this researcher on the head repeatedly so he can discover the effects.
I just want to help. Really I do.
If we want information on such minor questions as "how often repeated?", "Just how hard?", "Are the effects merely additive, or does one hit make the next more dangerous?", "Are hits with no clinicially observable effects safe or do they add up?".
It has never been news that hits hard enough to produce immediate, observable, effects are a bad plan. That hits with no effect, or from which you appear to recover, are a very serious risk for degeneration in the mid to long term? That isn't immediately obvious.
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Maybe not obvious but certainly already well known. There will always be people that want to deny such things however. So the more evidence the better. Since most people who play football (of any sort) aren't exactly what you'd call intellectuals in the first place, the practical question for them is when will they actually become drooling vegetables unable to take care of themselves?
Re:Did we really need a study for this? (Score:5, Funny)
In that study, no statistically significant differences were found between the level of brain damage found in the control group compared with that of the group studied.
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Do people become stupid from playing football or does football attract stupid people?
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It will take a lot of data to break through the (conveniently not-at-all-self-serving) 'Just rub some dirt in it and don't be a pussy" school of sports medicine, I fear.
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I'm sure the wave of insanely monstrous lawsuits coming down the line will do that. And the NFL isn't the only one facing this. The NHL isn't far behind.
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Actually, having been in that position on a (thankfully) few occasions (not related to sports), "got his bell rung" is actually a pretty good description of the sensation involved. It feels very much like a ringing bell sounds.
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If we want information on such minor questions as "how often repeated?", "Just how hard?", "Are the effects merely additive, or does one hit make the next more dangerous?", "Are hits with no clinicially observable effects safe or do they add up?".
It has never been news that hits hard enough to produce immediate, observable, effects are a bad plan. That hits with no effect, or from which you appear to recover, are a very serious risk for degeneration in the mid to long term? That isn't immediately obvious.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2754260/ [nih.gov]
They started with tackling lab rats. Repeated insults to the brain were helped with mild hypothermia. Clinical trials followed.
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Yes, because the sports industry is fighting this research as hard as possible because they see it as the end of their cash cow. Read Sports Illustrated and check out how they portray this as pseudoscientific bullshit.
If we can conclusively prove that concussive sports such as football and boxing lead to degenerative brain disease, every company invested in those sports will be looking at the end of their livelihood. Rather than do what's right for the players, they are working hard to spread FUD about such
Re:Did we really need a study for this? (Score:5, Funny)
Wherever there is money to be made, there will be industry people doing everything they can to keep the money rolling, even if it means insane amounts of damage.
But hey, it's America. Jesus loves a winner. Jesus hates taxes, Mexicans and poor sick people. Jesus loves the guy that gets thirty major concussions in his NFL career and suffers advanced dementia in his fifties.
God bless this great country!
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But hey, it's America. Jesus loves a winner. Jesus hates taxes, Mexicans and poor sick people. Jesus loves the guy that gets thirty major concussions in his NFL career and suffers advanced dementia in his fifties.
Wrong about that last one; Jesus only loves the team owners that profited off of it.
(Unless it's those socialistic Green Bay Packers.)
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Yes, because the sports industry is fighting this research as hard as possible because they see it as the end of their cash cow. Read Sports Illustrated and check out how they portray this as pseudoscientific bullshit.
People letting other people suffer and die to make a buck? Surely you jest.
Re:Did we really need a study for this? (Score:5, Funny)
Then you are not thinking this through properly.
I, on the other hand, would like to volunteer for the study that seeks to prove that receiving oral sex to completion from large breasted women is pleasurable.
LK
Re:Did we really need a study for this? (Score:4, Funny)
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Yes, actually, we do. It was previously thought that only hits hard enough to cause visible concussion symptoms resulted in brain damage. Now we know that consistent low-level impacts have a far more significant impact on CTE. Another thing that was not understood was how prevalent brain damage was in the sport. Obviously in a game featuring violent impacts you're going to end up with some brain damage, but the fact is that *nearly all* professional football players show some sign of CTE, and even kids
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So just because Press2ToContinue thinks something is obvious, no research should be done on a subject? Fortunately science doesn't work on that principle.
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You don't understand. This is management training. It's part of the process.
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Correlation != Causation
Maybe demented people are more likely to take up American football!
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Do we really need a study to show that repeated hits to the head result in confusion, depression and dementia?
Yes and No! Plenty of anecdotal evidence existed out there, enough for most of us to conclude participating in an activity where repeated blows to the head are common would increase our risk of those things. I think most of us *supposed* as much. What studies do is enable us to *know* things, they take it out of the realm of sure seems like it to, and move it into hard facts.
Now I hear many people, say things like "measure don't guess". That is correct position when the answer will be actionable or woul
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First of all, it's pretty much been determined that helmets offer little more than a false sense of security, meaning the hits being taken are that much worse. I'll wager, as counterintuitive as it seems, that rugby players don't actually suffer the same degree of head injuries as sports like football or ice hockey, where helmets are sold as not only protection, but an excuse to keep smashing skulls.
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It is illegal to tackle above the shoulders in rugby. You must also perform a tackle using your arms, not shoulder a player. We have very few cases of head trauma.
Re:Did we really need a study for this? (Score:4, Interesting)
BS; I used to get wrapped around the neck or face all the time while being tackled. You don't get impacts to the head (except from the ground), sure, but you do get it yanked, squeezed, clawed, and kicked. And nothing is worse than a large ruck collapsing and the weight of five or more large men pinning your head to the ground - that happened to me three times in the same game once. I couldn't see straight afterwards. It's true, though; you do see a lot less head trauma injuries in rugby (they are still there, though), thanks to the you-must-wrap-while-tackling rule. There is a corresponding increase in joint dislocation and ligament injuries, though, from my anecdotal experience. Tradeoffs.
The point of football helmets has never been to protect the brain until just recently. It's been to protect the skull, the ears, the face, all the cosmetic stuff. But the brain? Nope. There's a new generation of helmets out there that are supposed to be better, but nobody wears them yet because, well, they're incredibly ugly. But with the increasing focus on concussions in the NFL this year, including the number of high-profile players who've been knocked out, I think we'll see them start to be adopted as early as next year.
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The lower the league you play in the bigger the chance of receiving high tackles / fouls. I see this in many sports. Maybe it's due to amateur referees, maybe the players are too aggressive. If someone clawed(!) you that person should have received a straight red card.
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They look worse than what they look now? Do you have links to pictures? I'd love to see that.
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It is illegal to tackle above the shoulders in rugby. You must also perform a tackle using your arms, not shoulder a player. We have very few cases of head trauma.
Read this:
http://www.wikihow.com/Rugby-Tackle-Everyone-That-Runs-at-You [wikihow.com]
Pay particular attention to the bit about leading with your shoulder into their gut. You only grab them after you have slowed them sufficiently to hold on easily, first step is to dump their forward momentum as much as possible.
1000 ziplocs anyone? (Score:2, Funny)
Going to be interesting to see if Belcher's brain had this disease, seeing as it was spread all over the parking lot.
Re:1000 ziplocs anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Going to be interesting to see if Belcher's brain had this disease, seeing as it was spread all over the parking lot.
One of his former colleagues [wikipedia.org] shot himself in the chest instead, for precisely that reason...
Re:1000 ziplocs anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
Going to be interesting to see if Belcher's brain had this disease, seeing as it was spread all over the parking lot.
One of his former colleagues [wikipedia.org] shot himself in the chest instead, for precisely that reason...
Geez, I thought you were trolling but he LITERALLY... "sent a text message to his family saying he wanted his brain to be used for research at the Boston University School of Medicine, which is conducting research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) caused by playing professional football" ... and then shot himself in the chest!
This guy was the definition of team player.
Re:1000 ziplocs anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
Going to be interesting to see if Belcher's brain had this disease, seeing as it was spread all over the parking lot.
One of his former colleagues [wikipedia.org] shot himself in the chest instead, for precisely that reason...
Geez, I thought you were trolling but he LITERALLY... "sent a text message to his family saying he wanted his brain to be used for research at the Boston University School of Medicine, which is conducting research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) caused by playing professional football" ... and then shot himself in the chest!
This guy was the definition of team player.
Lucky for him that his heart was in the right place.
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This guy was the definition of team player.
And, ironically, despite the brain damage, more interested in science than the average person.
Just like any high impact (to the head) sport. (Score:4, Insightful)
This has been studied time and time again.
Any sport that involves any repeated impact to the head - whether football, boxing [science20.com] or soccer [medpagetoday.com] will result in brain injury.
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One in five people in the world get angry, drink, abuse drugs and die young.
Is there actual studies that compare these people with controls?
I mean, I know a guy who was an Engineer who was an alcoholic and shot himself, but he never bashed his head on anything, unless you count a chess board...
Maybe heh as this illness and it's unrelated?
Honestly haven't seen a study that didn't *only* analyze athletes, though I will admit I haven't looked hard and will probably do some research before bed...
Just pointing o
Re:Just like any high impact (to the head) sport. (Score:4, Informative)
Oh yes, the researchers are far too stupid to use control groups. Thank goodness you came along to explain science to them.
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I agree with the sentiment, but what you meant was explaining the experimental method. Science is a wee bit broader term than that.
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If you read the second link in the comment that started this thread, you'll see that
I think they picked the control group from professional athletes because they are more likely to have similar lifestyles. Even so, the authors of the study are cautious and note that
Nonsense (Score:3, Funny)
In my esteemed academic opinion: (Score:2)
I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT!
Sucks that so many folks are dying, though.
Not the first time this has happened (Score:2)
And this is why I gave up watching football (Score:2)
Not surprising (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean look at the size of these guys today. Even the wide receivers are huge. Bigger, stronger, faster...all to feed our insatiable appetite for violence disguised as sport. In hockey it's the fights. In nascar it's the crashes. In football it's the big hit. Add to that the enormous sums of money available to the stars of these sports and it's no wonder they will do whatever is necessary to win. All to the delight of the fat, shirtless drunk spewing profanities on every play.
The athletes are simply too big and strong. Could you imagine Fran Tarkenton playing in today's NFL? He would get killed. The equipment cannot protect them adequately. The NFL is stuck between giving the fans what they want on the one hand and getting sued on the other hand by crippled ex players. Cutting back on the head shots is a good start but how much can you really do to prevent permanent injury?
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I'm not so familiar with football, but I know that with hockey, it's been demanded from many quarters for a couple of decades now that all leagues stop the checking and the fighting. The leagues will pay lip service to it, but the hard facts are that fans want to see violence. They want to see enforcers smashing the shit out of the fast little guy from the opposing team that keeps scoring goals. They love it when a player is smashed against the boards by some guy doing thirty miles an hour. It sells tickets
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In football, a big hit, sure it'll attract attention, but a nice run or beautiful interception will attract more.
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Friends off the field perhaps but on the field not so much. Sure, between whistles they might exchange some chit chat and a hug after the game but during play it's game on. Look what happened with the New Orleans Saints and the "bounty" scandal. Opposing players were targeted not only to be hit but to be taken out of the game or even intentionally injured. I find it hard to believe that the Saints were the only team that engaged in this sort of thing. They just got caught.
I'm a purist. I watch football for
Re:Not surprising (Score:5, Interesting)
but the hard facts are that fans want to see violence.
This is a tautological statement. People who don't like violence turn off the TV and hence the remaining fans are the ones who like violence. But reality is that viewership would definitely go up if violence was eliminated.
Presently, non-violent Olympic hockey gets the highest viewership figures by far both in the USA and Canada.
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Well said. If you've got a kid with athletic ability then encourage them to take up golf or tennis. Yes, you can get injured in those sports too (back, knee, elbow) but at least you're not taking head shots every time you play.
Unfortunately, for many kids athletics is what they see as their only way out of poverty. And for many of them it is. They play these games knowing the risks. They get shoved through college programs that, in many cases, fall far short of a "quality" education. Indeed, these kids are
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Just like you said, some of the smarter players have seen the signs and got out early. I remembe
Belcher's not really the same (Score:2)
Belcher killed his girlfriend, that was the motivation for his suicide, either from the grief over what he'd done or the realization he'd be going to prison for a long, long time. Also, he'd been in the league a much shorter time than many of the other notable suicides, who often killed themselves after retirement. Belcher was just in his third season.
If he was suffering from a brain disorder from too many hits, it had clearly affected him in a much different manner than any of the others. Has there eve
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If he was suffering from a brain disorder from too many hits, it had clearly affected him in a much different manner than any of the others. Has there ever been another murder/suicide or some other violent act attributed to a football player suffering from this disorder?
I was thinking the same thing, but the summary mentions significant findings in people who only played at the high school level. Maybe Belcher was one of these 'lucky' ones?
Similarly, while I cannot speak to murder, it looks like Junior Seau was suffering from this when he committed suicide.
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The thing is, Benoit had a 22 year career as a wrestler, Belcher was only 25 years old. And so far I've heard nothing about steroid use in the Belcher case.
Long and the short of it is I think it's presumptuous at this point to say that the Belcher case is relevant in this discussion. Now perhaps there's a larger issue about the lifestyles of pro athletes as well as college athletes, and how they are treated by coaches and a society as a whole. But that a whole other mess.
Of course maybe this guy took way
re: youth (Score:2)
It's a good thing we protect our youth from conditions like this.
I see your sarcasm and raise you an unfortunate reality [npr.org]. I grew up on the NFL, like many kids did in the 70s and 80s, as our parents and their friends gathered, drank and were merry. I never made a mental connection to football like I did with, say, Star Trek. I didn't ever seek it out, but rather it became background noise and part-reason to gather with friends... and drink. Perhaps a fortunate side-effect of the USA becoming more aware of brain injury could be the replacement of humans with robotic playe
But ... but ... but ... (Score:2)
Sports builds character. How could it be so bad? These brain damaged players are just slackers. Next your gonna say that vaccinations don't cause autism and Jesus didn't ride dinosaurs.
Please respond using a car analogy so I can understand WTF you are saying.
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Sports builds character. How could it be so bad?
It's especially edifying when both sides pray to the same God for victory.
(Though perhaps less so than when armies do it.)
simple, just make brain damage illegal (Score:3, Funny)
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What's crazy (Score:2)
What's crazy is that women still chase after alpha male guys - and in fact - guys exactly like these - instead of intelligent geeks...
Go figure?
I have the alternative (Score:2)
Agressive games cause murder! (Score:2)
Also, brain disease.
Obvious solutions (Score:2)
Some obvious solutions that won't be discussed to the "big guys hitting each others heads too hard"
1) Technology. Now only played above 5000 meters. No idea what Florida is going to do here. Too little O2 to smash each others heads.
2) Weight limits. 400 pounds to the head is probably worse than 175. Fine get all bulked up but no one plays over 175 pounds.
3) Socially inappropriate. The cheerleaders play too. In the 75 IQ backwoods "hittin a hot girl on the head" is even less cool than it is in the cit
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Nonsense. This is Slashdot. I'd hope that they'd at least include one line specifying how much more prevalent brain disease was, what the sample size was, and a statement saying their findings were statistically significant. After all, we're nerds. We need some facts to back up the things we already know.
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We also need some better numbers so that we can update the subdual damage rules for our preferred tabletop RPGs. Sure, for short campaigns, you can pretend that getting a cudgel to the face only deals 4D3 subdual damage; but by the time the character is level 20? We'll have to ensure that he has accrued the correct number of effects from the CTE effects table....
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Can't you repair that sort of damage with a 4th-level clerical spell? Your meat-shield should be fine unless you're playing in a gritty, low-magic setting.
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Just get a Healing Belt and you're top notch.
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Sorry to say this, but, it's actually a whole lot easier than you think...
Not when you look like me. It was my life goal for decades until I finally gave up. It was just too difficult. I had to go back to electrical engineering and plasma physics. Much easier. If you're a pretty boy it's easy. If you're not it actually is a major achievement.
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Sorry to say this, but, it's actually a whole lot easier than you think...
Not when you look like me. It was my life goal for decades until I finally gave up. It was just too difficult. I had to go back to electrical engineering and plasma physics. Much easier. If you're a pretty boy it's easy. If you're not it actually is a major achievement.
Have a look around at all the unattractive guys, and then take a look at their wives. Some of them do okay, so don't write yourself off so fast. If you're a pretty boy then getting laid is (probably) easier but statistically speaking finding a life partner when you aren't the prettiest guy on the block isn't impossible or even that difficult. What makes it hard is having the low self-esteem of feeling like you are too ugly to exist - that does make you unattractive (but so does the opposite situation). Thic
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It is if you're an AC hanging out in his parents' basement writing flamebait posts about /.ers jacking off with Cheetoh-encrusted fingers. I mean, is there anything more pathetic than the grandparent poster, a complete fucking worthless loser whose life is filled with trolling Internet web sites.
Re:Nothing to see here. Move along. (Score:5, Informative)
The term "football" is in reference to playing the game "on foot" as opposed to mounted on a horse like polo. Many early versions of games called football in the middle ages involved practically no kicking of a ball at all. The direct precursors to Association Football, or Soccer, allowed one to not only touch the ball with your hands, but catch it, too (i.e. the fair catch, which still survives with Soccer's cousins Rugby and American Football).
As for the brain damage with the North American version of the game, I'm not sure if there is much of a solution. There is a common belief that all the hard shell padding and hard helmets are to blame, and going "naked" like rugby would solve the problem. Players wouldn't feel as invincible and their instinct for self-preservation would kick in, reducing the force of their blocks and tackles. The data doesn't support this theory. There have been positive brain trauma studies of this sort going back 80 years ago during the age of leather helmets and soft padding, so reducing protection is probably not the answer. The nature of the game is simply predisposed to hard hits both in blocking and tackling players. The goal is to always get extra yardage or jar the ball loose. That's not an issue in rugby where there is no line to gain, the ball is loose after every play, and there is no blocking allowed. I'm not sure you could make the game safer without so radically changing its nature that it would essentially become something completely different from football as we know it.
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"The term "football" is in reference to playing the game "on foot" as opposed to mounted on a horse like polo. Many early versions of games called football in the middle ages involved practically no kicking of a ball at all. The direct precursors to Association Football, or Soccer, allowed one to not only touch the ball with your hands, but catch it, too (i.e. the fair catch, which still survives with Soccer's cousins Rugby and American Football)."
You can put it even more simply than that: the North America
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The Canadians brought Rugby to the States. Up until that point, the various schools played a bastardized version of Association Rules--typically without the offsides rule (Americans like their scoring). Harvard had their own unique game that was kind of like Gaelic football. No one else would play it, though, so they invited some folks from McGill University in Quebec to show them the game. They said, that's nice, but here's a better one.. and they showed them Rugby. Well, Harvard was wowed with the ga
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I'm not sure you could make the game safer without so radically changing its nature that it would essentially become something completely different from football as we know it.
So what, it already *is* completely different from football as *we* know it. ;)
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Rugby tackling is much more head friendly. The ball carrier drops the ball almost immediately upon being touched by the defender. There is no incentive for the tackler to hit hard. Yes, there is the scrum, yet most of the contact in a scrum is endured by the players' shoulders. Most importantly, there is no blocking. The most frequent incidence of head contact in American football is on the line of scrimmage. Every running play involves the offensive line (and other associated players) running forwar
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Rugby tackling is much more head friendly. The ball carrier drops the ball almost immediately upon being touched by the defender.
Only if he wants to lose possesion and give it to the other team (which he does not). The aim is actually hold on to the ball when you are tackled then give it to one of your team mates behind you so they can try and score. Ideally you storm though tackle and keep running if you can by not going to ground.
By the way though, many rugby players do wear head protection that consists of a bit of padding designed to limit head trauma. Also, this study seems to indicate that a good concussion is just as common in
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The thing is that brain trauma is down to movement of the head. You may get more cuts and bruises playing without a helmet (and may even get more broken bones etc as well) because the force of impact is dissapated by the helmet across the whole head; but the brain doesn't know that, all that matters for it is that it is being violently thrown about.
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Three types of people commit suicide. The confused, the desperate, and the cowardly.
Imagine that you are 80 years old and have $1 million in the bank. One day your doctor tells you that you are incurably ill and will start suffering unbearable pain tomorrow. The doctors can give you additional 100 days of life for the low cost of $10K per day. Then you will die anyway, and your family - or needy charities - will have nothing. You decide to commit suicide instead. Will you be confused, desperate or coward
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Suicide is not evidence that someone has brain damage or is insane or anything like that. It is often a brave and highly rational act. When I hear of a suicide I look for what it was in their environment that caused it. Not for what was wrong in their head. It is blaming the victim that is the real problem. Japanese society has a healthy view of suicide.
Unfortunately sometimes something "wrong in their head" *does* cause suicide, and a lot of other behavior that society doesn't approve of.
Re:nothing wrong with suicide (Score:5, Interesting)
Belcher was no victim. He murdered his girlfriend in cold blood and then took the easy way out by killing himself before he could be brought to justice. I suppose his act could be described as rational (having just destroyed his entire life, what reason was there to go on?) But it wasn't brave, or honorable.
It's possible that repeated hits to the head fucked him up, but we don't allow "I was fucked up your honor" as an excuse for other people, such as drunk drivers.
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It's possible that repeated hits to the head fucked him up, but we don't allow "I was fucked up your honor" as an excuse for other people, such as drunk drivers.
Are you an idiot by genetics, or did you play too much football? Never heard of: "Not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect"?
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I work part-time at a state mental hospital, and through that job have met two people who actually qualified for the label and yet are normally well-behaved enough that they can be allowed out of the criminally-insane building. One killed his parents and a sibling while home on a break from college. If you don't treat his psychosis, he becomes withdrawn and violent. If you treat it too well, though, he comes out of the fog, remembers what he did, and goes into sev
Re:nothing wrong with suicide (Score:4, Informative)
Actually we do allow "I was fucked up your honor" for drunk drivers, especially football players.
Back in 1998, Leonard Little of the St. Louis Rams killed a mother of two who was crossing a street in downtown St. Louis late at night (on her way to work). It was his birthday, and he was quite drunk (.19 BAC).
He got a 90 day sentence with work release so he could practice with the team. He also had some probation and public service time (which I bet was served through football sponsored stuff).
He didn't miss a game and, unfortunately, he continued to play for the Rams for several years. I hate to say it, but I wish mental problems upon him as that would represent some justice in a situation where there was none.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Little [wikipedia.org]
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I do not know a single intelligent person who likes watching football.
I know plenty, but I believe that our "Aussie Rules" football is a little more elegant than the version played in the states. Even so I don't have any real interest in it, apart from winning the footing tipping competition but that's more about the money than the game.
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Is that like cow tipping [wikipedia.org] but with linebackers?
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I do not know a single intelligent person who likes
watching football.
It is idiotic barbaric violent crap.
And you have to be a sick fuck to even think it is cool
to watch people beat the hell out of each other during the game.
Of course it fits right in with the old Roman scheme of "bread and circuses"
which was meant to keep the populace in a satisfied and compliant state.
Of course if you are not an idiot that alone will offend you.
I wonder whether nerds' general disinterest in sports is a function of their general ASD nature.
ISTM that sports fandom is primarily a social phenomenon.
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Well, by most generally accepted criteria I am an intelligent person, and I enjoy watching football. Of course, you don't know me so your statement may still be correct (though I doubt it). At a visceral level, there is a significant level of tension release watching people "beat the hell out of each other". (Actually, most of the guys on the field are pretty friendly to each other - guys on different teams talking and laughing between plays. Just don't go up for a reception over the middle on third and
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Just let them play some ball.
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Sports that don't involve massive brain trauma? Last I checked, Americans were pretty keen on several of those too.
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I've read recently that football (soccorrrrr for the Americans out there) is gaining a lot of interest in the USA because serious injuries are few and far between. The older stars from the English league, who go there to retire, are doing a fine job promoting the sport. The understanding of the game is increasing. The USA national team is no longer looked at as a joke - two USA international
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"Handegg" (I refuse to call anything but Association Football "football") needs to be banned and removed from play at school level. Anything less is irresponsible.
Only idiot fans of that violent, harmful sports would dare say anything else.
"Its funny when people get hurt." -Homer Simpson
I don't want to make it look like I'm only bashing American football because this could easily apply to the NASCAR fans that only watch it for the crashes.. and hockey for the fans that only watch it for the fights... or boxing for people who only watch it for the KOs.. or MMA for the totallyfuckingawesome KOs. OK, I'm just making this worse.
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The assholes you meet are not assholes because they're football players. They're assholes because they're assholes. Perhaps you, sir, are actually the asshole, and they just respond in kind.
There are plenty of very kind and caring people [upliftingathletes.org] out there who also happen to play football. Come to terms with this and overcome your irrational (but understandable) hate of people who are more talented than you.