LOL “designated pimento cheese provider”.
Oh, c’mon @ohiopublic, it is in good fun. I grew up in a Detroit Lions household. Those comments about the Lions wouldn’t phase me a bit.
Packers’ stockholder here. Daughter started dating a Vikings fan – I threaten to take her out of the will. 
Maybe get a sewing machine and have a quilt going on during games.
Why can’t you just tell him you are done going to games and he should find a friend?
@bluebayou - My husband is also a Packers’ stockholder, and our daughter is MARRYING a rabid Vikings fan this May 
I admit I am a football fan and am concerned about the concussion problem but why should football be singled out when concussions are prevalent in almost every sport? Football has the largest number of players (both in general and on the field at a given time) and will obviously have more concussions and being the most popular sport in America will get the most press about concussions but let’s look at other sports.
I am involved in high school coaching and as a result I am privy to just how many concussions occur in the programs at my school. Just this year, that is only half over we have seen, in addition to the football concussions, concussions in diving (both boys and girls), volleyball, basketball (both boys and girls), wrestling, gymnastics, waterpolo, and soccer. This high school is not unique. Those looking to step away from football need to also consider stepping away from all of these sports as well.
I have seen several talk about only being interested in the upcoming Olympics, as though they are concussion free. I took a look at the upcoming schedule and can find very few events that are concussion “safe”. Those events that have concussion potential are: all skating events, all downhill skiing and snowboarding events, all sliding events (bob, skeleton, and luge), hockey, and ski jumping. By my estimation the only events that are concussion safe would be curling, cross country skiing and biathlon. Not an exciting program if we step away from all concussion prone sports.
I think the better solution is to work on identification, prevention, and treatment which I think we have made strides in with football putting in more effort than any other sport.
Football, by its nature, is a contact sport.
I wouldn’t put gymnastics in the same category. Nor slipping on an icy sidewalk.
OP, why don’t you start with the most immediate concern. Tell H that you no longer want to take the time out of your life to attend football games and he should plan accordingly with regards to renewing season tickets - whether drop one or to get a friend to split. Season tickets are expensive.
I went to lots of college games when single. After marriage we had season tickets and I went for a season or two, but then it was such a time drain and not really how I wanted to spend my time. Told my H to go have fun and stayed at home.
@lookingforward I would agree by its nature football will have more concussions but I would also state that football has tackled the issue head on and is trying to address the issue while other sports are sliding by. The NFHS (National Federation of High Schools) has an interesting article/study on its website https://www.nfhs.org/articles/mhsaa-announces-2015-16-concussion-data-from-yearlong-study/
Digging into the numbers a bit, about 5% of football players experienced a concussion during the year that was looked at. Not surprising this is the leading sport, what I find interesting is other sports that have nearly as high incidents but are left out of the discussion and that I see no effort by those sports to address the issue. Girls Basketball 3%, Girls Soccer 3%, Competitive Cheer 2%, Boys Lacrosse 2%, Boys Soccer 2%. Essentially this shows no sport is concussion free and all should be looked at in how to reduce the potential but I would doubt people are saying they won’t watch girls play basketball anymore because they have similar concussion rate to football but are doing nothing about it. There is danger in any sport (who knew you could get a concussion in bowling or cross country?) but football is trying to fix the problem why isn’t anyone else?
Not allowed in our house yet. This reminds me of when I laid down the law that our kids were not allowed to have SO’s who were outside of the cell plan. hahahahaha
We don’t care about pro ball, but we raised our son with “anywhere but Ohio State.” When college time came around, his GC asked us why the restriction on OSU? I guess kiddo had put “My parents won’t allow me to apply to Ohio State” in the space on the intake form that asked about college restrictions. Ha!
I pulled myself together and told H last night that I wanted to give up football. He asked why and I talked some about the violence and the concussion issues. (He is well aware - one of his cousins actually works in this field.) He seemed to be at a loss for words, so we didn’t discuss it further last night. This morning H said he was somewhat sad about it, since we have gone for so many years (31?) and we don’t spend a lot of time together as it is, so that would be less time together.
He asked if I though HE shouldn’t go, but I said I really don’t mind if he goes to the games since it’s something he really enjoys. In the past few years I’ve only gone to 5 or 6 season games each year anyways, since I hate to be cold and/or wet. Even without the concussion issues, I would be ready to cut down to a couple games a year.
Lol at the “pimento cheese provider”. I told H years ago that tailgate fixings are completely HIS responsibility to address with his brother (also a season tix holder) and whomever else is going. I have enough to worry about without trying to coordinate that too.
I’m glad I could find support here from others who are either not into football or who have given it up because of these issues. I know the sport long pre-dates any concerns we had about brain injuries, but when you think about it, having a massive connection between education (trying to form and guide young brains) and football (causing brain damage) is insane.
As far as other sports, what other sport has as an INTENTION what would otherwise constitute felony assault, other than maybe hockey? And I say that as the parent of a D who played girls hockey for 12 years, and who still gets involved in pickup games. (And no, they are not supposed to check in girls hockey, but that did not prevent one of D’s teammates from getting a concussion during a game.)
Boxing
I don’t consider boxing a sport, but yes, that’s true.
I like the idea of going ahead & buying the season tickets…then your husband can fill in with others. I think to say now, “football has been a big part of how we do things together as a married couple and as part of your larger family but i’m out of here” just feels really abrupt. (but then I’m from a big Steelers family so maybe I’m overstating how this would play out in other families).
I think the INTENTION in football does not equate to felony assault. Yes if I was walking down the street and just decided to run and tackle an unsuspecting person that would be assault (not sure if it would rise to a felony) but these are not unsuspecting players, they are willing participants expecting to be tackled. In terms of other sports I would imagine swinging a large wooden bat several inches from someone’s face, on the street, could be considered assault, throwing a ball 90 mph at an unsuspecting person’s midsection could be considered assault, slamming a ball down from 8-10 feet in the direction of someone’s head could be considered assault, tackling and pinning an individual to the ground could be considered assault, etc. Much of what is done in sport would not be condoned in our daily lives but that is the difference, these actions/risks are known and voluntarily agreed to, I just don’t see why football is the only sport that is vilified over concussions when the football community is addressing the issue while the issue is largely ignored by the soccer, basketball, etc. communities.
Switch to a college team. A lot cheaper and a lot more fun.
For me, things kinda changed after your second post @sylvan8798. I want to quantify that while I am very alarmed about concussions, I still like football and hope it finds a solution to the problem. I did want to put that out there.
My husband has a hobby that I am not interested in. Frankly it bores the heck out of me. However there is nothing dangerous or controversial about his hobby. He loves it. So I go to things and do stuff that is of interest to him because we get to spend time together.
When you said something to your husband, he said something like, going to the football games together is one of the few things we do together and we don’t get to spend a lot of time together as it is. It sounds like you already don’t go to all of the games now.
So I go with my H to places he wants to go because we get to spend time together on the way there and back. I get to pick where we eat lunch. I’m happy to be there. Sometimes I’ll surf my phone or read a book. Or go for a walk if I can. Sometimes I listen to H enthusiasm about his hobby.
My H’s brother also has a hobby that he is very involved in. His wife chooses not to accompany him. He will go away weekends training or racing and she stays home. I, and this is my personal opinion, that their relationship is becoming very separate. They lead very separate lives. I think (know) that she’s very lonely in her marriage.
Well, that’s just how I manage things where one person has more of an interest than the other. But like I said, I don’t have to make any moral decisions about it.
^That’s the problem, though, @deb922, I have gone along for years. I enjoy the tailgates if it isn’t cold and have learned to enjoy watching the games even though I don’t know a tight end from a nose tackle or a screen play from a flea-flicker. But as I’ve become more aware of these issues, it’s harder for me to enjoy the games, and I feel like I need to do something different. Personally, I don’t at all mind staying home when he goes, as I have plenty to do.
I’m going to let this sink in with him for now and see where he goes with it.
As far as college teams go, they have the same issues. And we’re Mountaineer fans, so we usually truck down there once a year for a game.