(bolding mine)
You can’t even make that last claim. Most of the football players until the 80’s barely made a living wage at football. Often they would take other jobs in the offseason to make ends meet. These guys are suffering life long dibilitating injuries that the NFL won’t even help them pay for. That was one of the major issues that the retired players were fighting for during the current CBA negociations.
HBO Real Sports did an excellent job in a program I saw on this topic. One of the theories is that the hits they take causes ALS or ALS like syndrome in some people.
And again (more broken record), keep in mind the thousands of athletes who similarly suffer who never make it to the professional level. NCAA football and hockey players are “amateurs” so they say.
Oh god, mnemosyne, right now that’s the topic on every Pens fan’s mind. At least it seems like the NHL IS more concerned than the NFL. (The quiet room, and free concussion testing for amateur athletes, etc). I hope they WILL get more serious about banning head hits and the like. I do have faith that Sid will be all right, but I can’t say it doesn’t scare me.
(From what I read, his relapse earlier was due to a sinus infection and the fact that he was pushing himself too hard)
Of course, does Bettmann give a shit? That’s one issue.
I mentioned Webster above – he was never compensated, and his family ended up suing the NFL after he died. At times he was living out of his truck and any money he got he sent to his family (he and his wife were separated). Whenever anyone offered to help him, he refused. (His former teammates, the Rooney family, he wouldn’t take anything from them.)
It’s frightening.
After visiting the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton last year, I realized just how far we’ve come in helmet technology. Is there anything new in the offing that may help this?
Re helmet technology: I think bump’s post above answers that to some extent. While the hardshell helmets provide good protection to exterior impacts they don’t do much to limit the brain bumping into the interior of the skull. And it seems to be that it’s the accumulated damage caused by hundreds of sub-concussive impacts that leads to the long term brain injuries. So somewhat perversely improved helmets may have increased the chances of ex-players suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (by allowing a play style that encourages ‘leading with the head’).
You could design helmets with this in mind but they’d take a very different form than what we’re used to. I’m guessing you’d have a soft shell design with a much larger diameter so to reduce deceleration forces from head knocks - think a ‘nerflike’ material three or four times the size of current helmets.
Ken Dryden: How Could We Be So Stupid?
(I believe that mnemosyne posted this a while back)
Speaking of Websters and compensation . . . Look at the situation of George Webster, another great football player. Be sure to read the last part about post career trouble and death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Webster_%28American_football%29
Webster was a physical specimen to behold and he ended up a mess.
George Webster’s problems were not necessarily dementia but it says something about compensation to these older players. Michigan State had to hold a fund raiser to help George pay his medical bills.
There are now available helmets with acceleration sensors so coaches can take a player out rightnow. Don’t know if they are affordable for high school programs.
It looked like the Gints had some new hi-tech helmets Monday night.
Bradshaw can’t be ill, nobody has him in the DeathPool!
I’ll raise my hand.. I’m guilty.. i use to love “Jacked up”.. and it wasn’t a Bears game until number 46 or number 45 made a receiver leave the field on a stretcher.
I think on two points.. 1) we are learning things we never knew before.. 2) The players are simply to big to continue in the vein.. Fencik was 6’1 185.. Plank.. 6’0 190?? Jack Tatum.. 5’11 200lbs.. (BTW died at 61)
Roy Williams.. 6’3 235.. and faster.. shit.. its pretty clear.. and Crosby.. man they are lowballing that story.. for real..
I like a good hit too, but I’m not sure they are as necessary (or as frequently necessary) that a lot of players/fans/owners claim they are (I’m obviously keeping the discussion to hockey - it’s what I know more about). I certainly don’t believe there’s any need to target the head - it’s the positions of the feet and arms that move the puck around, you know?
So banning head shots is the logical first step. Some people then say “but some will still happen, you can’t take away all risk!!!” as if that’s a reasonable argument against something that does, in fact, take away a lot of the unacceptable risk. Some players will still end up with concussions due to legal hits, and that’s unfortunate, but should we really be allowing hits that are nearly guaranteed to cause them? Even if a legal hit results in a head shot, punish the guy who does it anyways, just to make the point. Err on the side of safety.
Give a minimum punishment - game misconduct perhaps, or one game suspension maximum - to the legal-but-unfortunate situations and punish the hell out of the hits to the head that can and should be avoided. If a player is supposed to have full control of the end of his hockey stick at all times, then he should also have full control of his arms and shoulders, no? If they can’t, they may need to see a doctor about that…!
It’s not even just Crosby. It’s Marc Savard too. Ian Laperriere is probably one head shot away from a career ending concussion, as is David Booth and by all accounts Patrice Bergeron and now maybe Nathan Horton. How many others? How many were avoidable? I fucking hate Bergeron and Horton and loathe their team… and I’m still sickened by their injuries and hope they don’t suffer debilitating long-term effects from them, though I wouldn’t mind if their game suffered somewhat 
I don’t know what to do about football - it’s a true contact sport where every hit is pretty much necessary. But hockey? There’s more we (fans/leagues/owners/players) can do for that sport and still have it be as awesome as it is. To steal from Mr. Dryden, how can we be so stupid as to not do it?
A related articlein SI; is the NHL opening itself up to an eventual lawsuit over fighting-induced concussions, with the related idea of whether the league response to seamless glass/headshots is sufficient.