# Why should we care if playing in the NFL has long time health problems? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 19, 2015, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-care-if-playing-in-the-nfl-has-long-time-health-problems/731726 "2015-09-19T02:36:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-care-if-playing-in-the-nfl-has-long-time-health-problems/731726/101 "2015-10-04T05:48:00Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Why? There are actually more NFL teams (32) than NHL teams (30). Why would one be studied less than another? > > It’s also interesting that all the NFL injuries come from a remarkably small number of actual played games. Football is among the sports I’m least likely to ever watch and I know correspondingly little about it so forgive me if I’ve got this wrong, but I think NFL teams each play 16 games in the regular season, as opposed to 82 for the NHL and almost twice that – 162 – in major league baseball. So the injury rate seems all the more extraordinary based on that alone. As I pointed out, the NHL seems to be taking it more seriously than the NFL. I don’t know if they’re necessarily doing the greatest job, but at least they’re not denying there’s a problem. ---
**Author:** ![yarblek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/71e660/32.png) [@yarblek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yarblek)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-care-if-playing-in-the-nfl-has-long-time-health-problems/731726/102 "2015-10-05T12:29:58Z")
I wonder what people will think about ‘knockout’ sports like boxing or mixed martial arts if they are so worried about brain problems in the NFL. Maybe things can be done to make football safer, but I don’t see how fighting sports can be, to a large extant. Banning them is almost certainly not going to be a workable proposition. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-care-if-playing-in-the-nfl-has-long-time-health-problems/731726/103 "2015-10-05T13:31:46Z")
Of course it is. Professional boxing is banned in most US states. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-care-if-playing-in-the-nfl-has-long-time-health-problems/731726/104 "2015-10-06T00:01:07Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Or create an entirely new sport, where guys compete to bust each other in their kneecaps while leaving their brains alone. [Not entirely new](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin-kicking). 😛 ---
**Author:** ![theR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-care-if-playing-in-the-nfl-has-long-time-health-problems/731726/105 "2015-10-06T16:33:01Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Right. One of my issues with the current rules is that all bets are off for a player in possession of the puck, wherein boarding and charging are normally just forms of legal checking. It’s quite common to see a player that an individual opponent or his entire team has a grudge against body-checked with exceptional violence as a form of retribution, and they usually get away with it because checks are part of the game – unless he practically kills the guy. Those are the kinds of rules I’d like to see changed. But otherwise, “defenseless” is defined as either a player not in control of the puck or, even if he is, if he can’t see the approaching check. Violence has been practically eliminated from hockey at the kids’ junior levels and it’s still a fast-paced fun game. You two arguing over something like heads into the boards is beside the point. A concussion can happen without the head hitting anything. Think of the whiplash effect as an example. If the head moves around enough or in certain ways, the brain takes trauma even without a direct impact from the outside. Although I think sub-concussive hits without direct head impact hasn’t been studied as much yet, I would bet the same applies. I doubt it requires a blow to the head, just the brain to get rattled around. If the force of the blow gets transmitted to the head, it can cause damage even without direct impact. This is proven for concussions, so could very well apply for sub-concussive hits as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-care-if-playing-in-the-nfl-has-long-time-health-problems/731726.md?page=5)