This football related bombshell just came over the wire

[WeatherWonk]

First off, I love baseball with a passion and have completely soured on football. Especially pro football. It just became too violent, when guys who were 6-4, 240 could run the 40 in something around 4.8 seconds. So, I admit to a bias on this. The same goes for boxing and UFC, as far as my disdain goes. These sports are brutal. The risk of permanent brain damage is real. 

Now comes a report, just released a few minutes ago, that brain damage is found in about 90% of all football players who donated their brains to have it analyzed. Clearly, this isnt grounds for a complete cause-effect slam dunk. These people donating their brains were experiencing CTE like symptoms before their deaths. It's like testing everyone who has red spots on their skin for measles. Of course the incidence will be great. But it is another case of mounting evidence that football is muy malo por la cabeza.

Football is in big trouble. How can parents allow their kids to play this sport?

In a wacky way, this could assist MLBs push to increase it's appeal to inner city kids. Basketball might also siphon some off..............but basketball is not the big employer that baseball and football are. Basketball rosters are so much smaller. 

Awaiting the NFL spin doctors on this...............

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/20153831/cte-found-nearly-90-percent-brains-donated-deceased-football-players

 

[Angels#1Fan]

As long as millions of dollars can be made people will continue to play football.

[WeatherWonk]

2 minutes ago, Angels#1Fan said:

As long as millions of dollars can be made people will continue to play football.

The settlements to gloss this over will be in the millions, too. The NFL is HOPING to settle this out of court and be indemnified going forward. We'll see.

But college football might still be liable in the courts. What if parents and spouses of players start suing them? There goes your built in farm system, NFL. It could have wide-ranging effects on other college sports, too, because football money supports so many other college sports that no one really attends as spectators and no one watches on TV.

Hey, once upon a time, gladiators and bull fights were popular. So was heavy weight boxing. With the decline in interest, comes the decline in monies for attendance and TV viewing.

[UndertheHalo]

I'm not convinced that specific stories like this really make a difference.  Obviously parents can see plainly that football can be quite dangerous.  I mean for christs sake, half the players on the field are literally battering rams. 

My folks wouldn't let me play football.  I was pretty pissed about it growing up.  But I totally get it now. 

I don't think baseball has any kind of lack of talent issue.  People just need to be interested.  The long ass season lends itself to making that difficult for the typical fan to invest in.  Football is successful because it's easily consumable.  Once a week is easy.  The same goes for fantasy football.  You set your team up once a week and you're in good shape. 

It seems to me that if any one sport would reap benefits from a decline in NFL/football interest it would be soccer.  The reason being that soccer sort of is similar to the once or twice a week consumption model.

Edited July 25, 2017 by UndertheHalo

[TroutBaseball]

Just like with boxing, poor kids will use the sport as a way out of poverty but the middle class will start removing their kids from the risk.

[Angel Oracle]

2 minutes ago, TroutBaseball said:

Just like with boxing, poor kids will use the sport as a way out of poverty but the middle class will start removing their kids from the risk.

And we have seen where boxing has gone.   Football may well be heading that way in about 20 years, if not sooner.

[WeatherWonk]

15 minutes ago, Angels#1Fan said:

As long as millions of dollars can be made people will continue to play football.

Also, the career of a football player is amazingly short, and they make so much less per year. It really pisses football players off, when they see the salaries (especially guaranteed salaries!) of baseball players.

I think the average playing time for an NFL running back is somewhere around four years. That's four years that, unless you are a superstar, you are probably earning right around 1  mil/year. That really isnt going to set you up for life, unless you have VERY savvy advisors and you dont go in for a lifestyle like some of these idiots engage in. But how many avoid that?

There are large signing bonuses, admittedly, that figure in there.

[aznhockeyguy]

I think the NFL will remain king.  The TV contracts and viewership confirms this.  In the South, football is a way of life and ingrained in the culture.  Many school districts devote a majority of their budget to high school and college football and live vicariously through them.  

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

1 hour ago, UndertheHalo said:

I don't think baseball has any kind of lack of talent issue.  People just need to be interested.  The long ass season lends itself to making that difficult for the typical fan to invest in.  Football is successful because it's easily consumable.  Once a week is easy.

Football maybe once a week like you say, but for the average family of 4 to actually attend a game requires them to mortgage their house, and that's for the cheap seats. To sit on the 50 yard line you need to be a movie star or the CEO of Apple.

[Taylor]

13 minutes ago, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

Football maybe once a week like you say, but for the average family of 4 to actually attend a game requires them to mortgage their house, and that's for the cheap seats. To sit on the 50 yard line you need to be a movie star or the CEO of Apple.

Reminds me of this year's Spring Training ticket prices.

[WeatherWonk]

32 minutes ago, aznhockeyguy said:

I think the NFL will remain king.  The TV contracts and viewership confirms this.  In the South, football is a way of life and ingrained in the culture.  Many school districts devote a majority of their budget to high school and college football and live vicariously through them.  

Yeah, it seems to me that the South had another institution that was "......a way of life and ingrained in the culture" in the 19th and 20th Centuries. How'd that go;  slavery and school integration?

They are slow learners down there..........and my entire family was born in slave states, including me. So, I know what that culture is like. They have to be brought kicking and screaming into the next century, it seems.

Approximately 12 high school students die per year from football related activities. About 40% of that is head injuries.

How many die from playing basketball or baseball?

Word is getting out. Nobody wants to see their kids grow up with brain damage or die on the field under Friday Night Lights with his classmates and neighbors watching. Not even in the South.

This isnt like driving deaths. Driving is almost mandatory these days. Football is elective.

[greginpsca]

An old friend of my wife was one a casualty from the injuries sustained in the NFL. Fred McNeil was a linebacker with the Vikings for several years. He was a good guy and a class act.

[Second Base]

I played football all throughout high school, enjoyed it too. I played on both sides of the ball and special teams. I wasn't nearly as good as the guys that went on to play in college and the NFL, but I was good enough to get some playing time and try to make a difference and represent.

I don't think it's too dangerous when it's a couple of teens that are 5'10--180 that are running a 4.9 40's running around the field for a couple years.

It's when these physical beasts that are 6'4--240 and are running 4.4 40's crash into each other at full speed for 12 years that we see lasting injuries on the body.

If my son wants to play high school ball, I'll let him, anything beyond that becomes legitimately dangerous. I don't think it's in our DNA to play collegiately, but if it were I'd caution against it. Where I'm from, football is similar to Texas where it's as much of a social event as it is a competition. Small towns that shut down on Friday nights, and you don't need to worry where anyone is at.

I wouldn't rob him of the experience, as long as we know this isn't something we'll do in college or as a profession.

[nando714]

Played football from age 7 to 21. I'm fine 

[nando714]

Football is cheaper to play than say travel baseball, aau basketball or even club soccer

 

[disarcina]

well, the NFL is in the stratosphere in terms of media money -- nothing like it in terms of market share anywhere. they just dominate when it comes to capturing advertising dollars on all media --

there's really no second place to NFL in that -- (drops to third or fourth LOL!!) but NCAA football is probably next overall being beat by NCAA tournament madness in terms of condensed one week/ ten day concentration of dollars (really that first week, may be the second, actually tails off by the final four).

where this report is gong to be a real issue for the NFL and football in general is that it will accelerate the current trend of Mom's not letting their kids play YFL and then High School Football.........fewer kids playing ball will lead to future drop in market share -- just look at Little League and baseball (but that's not health related, it's just because baseball is too slow with too little action in today's world of extreme sports, individual sports)..........

and the NFL, kinda of like MLB, (yeah they have that inner-city RBI program which I applaud and is a good effort but probably not enough) is sort of like the lobster in the boiling pot........it's going to catch up with NFL and MLB and when it does, the drop off may be swift and steep.

[ettin]

1 hour ago, nando714 said:

Played football from age 7 to 21. I'm fine 

This would have been a thousand times better if you had re-posted the same sentence 5 times. Missed opportunity.

Edited July 26, 2017 by ettin

[Docwaukee]

The MLS is a coming.  

[Tank]

when i was a kid, we never heard anything about retired football players have health issues (beyond having bad knees/legs and a resulting difficult time walking, but that was it). certainly the athletes are bigger, faster, and stronger, but i'm not sure how the league could/should address that issue.

i'm not sure football will diminish in popularity any time soon, either. it's the modern day version of gladiator contests.

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

Only 90%?    Seems low!

It's a car crash on every play at every position! 

[Junkballer]

19 hours ago, WeatherWonk said:

Yeah, it seems to me that the South had another institution that was "......a way of life and ingrained in the culture" in the 19th and 20th Centuries. How'd that go;  slavery and school integration?

They are slow learners down there..........and my entire family was born in slave states, including me. So, I know what that culture is like. They have to be brought kicking and screaming into the next century, it seems.

Approximately 12 high school students die per year from football related activities. About 40% of that is head injuries.

How many die from playing basketball or baseball?

Word is getting out. Nobody wants to see their kids grow up with brain damage or die on the field under Friday Night Lights with his classmates and neighbors watching. Not even in the South.

This isnt like driving deaths. Driving is almost mandatory these days. Football is elective.

If you're referring to the study of football deaths from 1990-2010, only 25% resulted from brain injuries.  Underlying heart ailments were the biggest cause at 41% and heat related at 15%.  No doubt football needs to adapt to lessen these injuries and resulting fatalities and there are ways that it can be addressed through rule changes and equipment (new helmet technology is on the horizon https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/zero-1-football-helmet-helps-prevent-concussions/).  Personally, I'm almost exclusively concerned about high-school players and this is where it will be hardest to make inroads to because there is no standard-setting body as there are on higher levels.  It's a good subject because significant changes in the way contact is made, among other things, needs to be brought to the forefront for the purpose of improving an otherwise wonderful sport that millions have watched and played and loved.

[Dtwncbad]

I don't understand how this is a bombshell story.

Is there anyone anywhere that didn't already know smashing your head repeatedly isn't good for your brain?

People choose to do things accepting the risk and danger.

People smoke and drink.  People drive on the freeway.  People skydive.  People eat donuts.  People ride motorcycles with no helmets.

People play football.

[ScruffytheJanitor]

Guys: Remember, the sampling for this study was always going to lead to a very high number. The brains used in this study were from former players who had exhibited symptoms (Suicide, loss of cognitive function, etc.). It would be like doing a study of 10,000 people with a cough and runny nose and then concluding that 95% of Americans had colds. 

While it's obvious that football isn't a great thing to happen to a brain, numbers like these might end up doing more harm than good. If 99 percent of NFL players really did have CTE, it would be fairly reasonable to conclude that CTE might not be that big of a deal-- there are 70 year-old former players, after all, who are living relatively normal lives. 

I am assuming that the real numbers are probably something like 45-65%-- and that is certainly a crisis. But cartoonish numbers like this are more about headlines than showing the state of research.