A young healthy athlete thinks it won’t happen to me. It is a human thing to think. But when it comes, it is too late. When you are a great football player you do little else but train and play. You don’t often have time to develop other marketable skills. Your entire being is wrapped up in playing a sport. Then when you retire at a young age, you have physical problems and some have mental problems. You spend a long time in diminished condition and have to make your money last a lifetime. A couple divorces will eat it up quickly.
Malcom Gladwell has a new article on this subject:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all
Yeah, it’s the same mindset behind “oh no condoms… well, for once it won’t matter…” :smack:
60 minutes did a story on this Sunday. The NFL has a new fund to help guys with problems. There are about 100 guys using that fund now.
That is a devastating article. The way he connects it to pitbull fighting was appropriate.
Jesus Christ. It’s a gladiator game, deal with it already.
This article sucks. Kyle Turley was always a headcase before his description of his head injuries. I do agree that NFL vets from yesteryear deserve more care than they are getting, but guys like Turley that played in the era of multi-million dollar contracts? And was a headcase to begin with? No sympathy, sorry.
If a US manufacturing plant had the lost time accident rate that the NFL does, how long would it be until OSHA shut down the plant?
If the manufacturing plant paid similar wages, the employees would protest the closing.
That’s irrelevant. but go ahead take it down a couple of levels and goto college and high school football. They don’t get paid at all. (Officially, w/money)
It was not just about Turley. Reread it. It includes kids in high school and any college kid that gets strings of concussions in practice and in games.
Turley was getting his mellon scrambled for 15 years before he became a pro. If he arrived as a bit crazy, that may have been a contributing factor. Indeed it may have been the cause.
What does money have to do with the damage football causes? I know most of them would just do it again. But that does not change the fact that it is a mentally debilitating sport.
Awesome combo of name and post.
I think the helmets, rather than helping this problem, are actually the cause. As I said once comparing football to rugby, and as anyone who played football knows, the main thing that current helmets allow is for players to use their heads as weapons.
I think that the solution (as the article mentioned if I recall), is put some sort of soft coating on the outside of the helmet. The players will be able to hit just as hard, but without using a rock hard object as a bludgeon.
I did. I appreciate the concerns, I really do. But there’s really nothing that can be done short of abolishing the sport. Most of these former players live normal lives after their playing days are over.
And as for the pitbull comparison, what’s up with that? Showing that a wounded animal/player will continue to fight/play? Big deal.
I would dispute most. The pros I have met have had serious damage. They needed help to put their shirt on . The wore loafers because there was no way they could bend over and tie their shoes. They paid a bad price. If you add in the mental damage it is a mess.
When Inside the NFL was on HBO, they had up close cameras taking pictures of the collisions. It was horrifying. Should football be banned. I hate to say it. I had Lion season tickets for over 20 years. I certainly got caught up in it. But it is just too nasty to save. Our gladiators pay too big a price to amuse us.
Maybe it’s a Lions issue because they suck balls?
No. It is a brutal sport , too brutal. I watch boxing too. I suppose that could be considered a little brutal. I think in about 20 years from now, both should be abolished.
I don’t think football should be banned, but clearly the NFL needs to be doing more to protect current players and care for former players. We are talking about a sport where the average lifespan for former offensive linenmen is 52 years.
That sounds bad in isolation, but what’s the average life expectancy of any random 300 pound guy?
Yes, and what were their causes of death? Was there a lot of dementia/brain damaged behavior involved, or was it mostly heart attacks from obesity and bad habits?
Clearly, I should re-evaluate my strategy for the death pool.