<p>I agree with those who think that the ongoing revelations regarding head injuries poses a very real threat to the future of football. Even more so because, according to what I have read, they are now saying that it appears that the repeated blows in PRACTICES are sufficient to cause brain injury: never mind spectacular hits in games and actual concussions.</p>
<p>Unless they come up with some means of protecting the brain, I think they’ve had it. I admit that I am not a football fan, and I was happy that our HS did not have a football team at all. Unfortunately, some boosters managed to get one started in the last 6 years or so. I seem to recall that the NFL spreads money around to support youth programs and build their fan base.</p>
<p>First let me say that I truly do enjoy watching football.</p>
<p>And, back when my boys were much younger, I remember reading a study which said that kids sustained many more (and more serious) injuries playing SOCCER than any other youth sport. </p>
<p>The rules are changing in order to prevent the types of serious injuries that have been spoken about here. If people just want to be “safe”, they truly will not be living.</p>
<p>The educated folks in this area have started HUGE youth football programs. Schools that never had football teams now have them. These folks claim its all about school spirit. I doubt that they would be thrilled that their young football newbies couldn’t watch the NFL.</p>
<p>I, for one, wouldn’t cross the street to attend an NFL game. I sometimes watch the playoff games on TV but I wouldn’t miss them at all if they didn’t happen.</p>
<p>I know that football is incredibly popular, and has been for a long time, but people sometimes forget how immensely popular professional boxing was as recently as 30 years ago, in the days of Leonard and Duran and Hagler and Hearns. They used to fill theaters in cities all over the country with people paying to watch live broadcasts of major fights. I went to a few when I was in my 20’s, and don’t remember ever seeing a crowd in that kind of frenzied excitement at any other kind of sporting event. Now, nobody ever talks about boxing, and I couldn’t tell you the name of the current champion in any weight division. So things can change, even though I don’t expect pro football ever to go quite the way of boxing.</p>
<p>More people die from falls in the tub every year than in NASCAR too but I think the subject is spectator sports. No comment as to whether showering could be or is a spectator sport.</p>
<p>Spending 3+ hours watching commercials, listening to endless babble (well, they have to get the ball…and then um…run with the ball…that’s what they have to do…) and waiting for the 11 minutes of actual activity is enough to cause brain injury in the audience.</p>
<p>The rule changes are about obvious trauma. The issue for the sport over time is repetitive trauma. The more evidence about the effects of repetitive trauma, the harder it will be for high schools and colleges to offer football. </p>
<p>Think of Pop Warner. They have rules about use of helmets and lack of contact in practice. But they expose young kids to head trauma. These kids go into junior high and high school programs where there’s more head trauma. How do schools justify that in, say, 10 years when the number of brains examined is much larger and the evidence is much clearer? Harming kids for life is not an educational mission. </p>
<p>I can see Div 3 and other schools dropping football. But what about Div 1? Big money. How does a Michigan or Stanford continue when they consider themselves top academic universities? Beats me. We’re at the start of this.</p>
<p>I love watching football, but with all of the information coming out about brain trauma, I’m starting to feel like I can’t in good conscience continue to watch.</p>
<p>I know for certain that I would never let my son play football (happily, he has no desire).</p>
<p>Pollack’s concern for the future of football didn’t stop him from knocking a player unconscious with a helmet-to-helmet hit, and getting fined for another vicious hit, in the AFC championship.</p>
<p>
They are, if you mean concussions, especially among girls.</p>
<p>Not at the same rate as football, but the numbers are pretty alarming.</p>
<p>I have read that the sport that leads to the most concussions in high school is girls’ soccer. (Followed by football and ice hockey). Apparently girls’ brains are more likely to be damaged due to the “whiplash” effect that happens when their skulls are hit with a ball or their head whacks the ground when they fall backward, because girls’ neck muscles aren’t as strong as boys’. I work in a high school and we’ve had several girls get serious concussions in the last 2 years playing soccer.</p>
<p>I am a big fan of the NFL, but I’ve begun to feel guilty when I watch the games. Frankly, I’d enjoy watching them play flag football just as much as tackle - there would still be long passes, great running plays, strategy, etc. But others are of the opinion that people won’t watch without the big hits. </p>
<p>Interesting theory says that we would reduce injuries by ELIMINATING pads, because the players couldn’t hit each other as hard. But then we’d be watching rugby, wouldn’t we?</p>
<p>Another suggestion I read was having a weight limit for players. (sorry if my skimming this thread missed someone else mentioning this). If nobody on the field weighs more than 235 lbs, to pick a size at random, then those helmet to helmet impacts have much less force than those between 325 lb players. Upside, less use of steroids to grow to superhuman size.</p>
<p>I just hate it when I see players run full speed towards a receiver and then deliberately smash into them helmet to helmet. You can hear the impact and it just makes me cringe to see it. With the strength, speed, and size of today’s players, it is just a matter of time before someone is SERIOUSLY injured, possibly even debilitated for life.</p>
<p>The point is supposedly to get a player down before he makes a first down. The brutality of hits we are seeing is overkill. </p>
<p>If the NFL is going to be held accountable for brain injuries in lawsuits, then the cries of protest when they penalize players who play in a blatantly dangerous manner need to stop.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it has been shown that heading the ball is the kind of repetitive trauma that can lead to CTE. Soccer players don’t wear helmets and that ball can have a lot of energy.</p>