When my son was born I swore I would never let him play football. He ended up the quarterback at Glens Falls throughout his 4 years and played throughout college. I prayed at every game and it made me cry when a player was down and the guys were on their knees. They loved that game and the team after 15 years continue to be the closest of friends. They get together constantly, are in each others weddings, play on a fantasy league together and just love each other as brothers. I don't know what the right thing is, these guys are like trucks on TV plowing into each other and it is a wonder what happened to Damar doesn't happen more often or worse. My son and I are Bills fans and Monday night was traumatic for anyone watching. I'm thankful he is getting better but of course worry about the long term effects for all of the players.
I had an opportunity to sit at a round table with Chris Gibson once. He listened, he questioned when necessary, was available and respectful of everyone in the room. What's going on in the House is a form of mob mentality, ignorance and self-serving behavior. Stefanik, as we all know, is a major player in that game.
The players die in horse racing all the time. Scores, perhaps hundreds every year.
The NFL is not very far removed from professional wrestling. They argued to the Supreme Court some years ago that the league is essentially one team (excepting the Green Bay Packers) so they could award monopoly contracts to suppliers. Like horse racing the “league” - because it is always the league not any individual owner - professes to care about the athletes, but just like in horse racing the league was ready to continue play after the potentially dead player - the player who for some amount of time literally lay dead on the field before he was resuscitated - was dragged out of sight.
I haven’t watched football in years. But hey! Have you been watching Mikaela Shiffrin? If it weren’t for global warming she would likely be tied with Lindsey Vonn at 2nd winningest skier of all time. She will likely become the top skier ever. Forever. If global warming has anything to say about it.
I once had access to the USSA (United States Ski Association) athlete profile book.
Basically, a book that listed the highlights of each skier (downhill & x-c) on he US team.
What struck me was every single downhill skier had a paragraph about their knees... or how their recovery was going.
Which is to say, every sport has a potential for injury == at varying levels (I assume curling has a fairly low level). As fast as skiers go, I would guess they have a similar danger to football, but unlike football where there are 'cheap shots' by opposing players... or generally the intention of hitting another player in ways to cause physical injury... the trees don't sneak up on Skiers
Granted, ski racing is dangerous as hell, but typically these are fairly wealthy people. There aren’t a lot of poor people getting into racing programs. It may be wrong of me but I feel a little less bad when rich people hurt themselves doing stuff they know is stupid than poor people. Maybe because I have more personal experience with poor people doing stupid dangerous stuff.
I confess I enjoy watching the NFL, and I have purple and gold paraphernalia of my team the Minnesota Vikings. I played a little in HS moved on to varsity ice hockey and lacrosse. My younger brother did play and was a star QB until he literally broke his neck. But we were lucky, Jeff was in such great shape his neck muscles held his neck in place and he recovered, and went on to be a college athlete in baseball and basketball at Amherst College. But neither his son or mine was allowed to play football.
I met Chris Gibson numerous times including a plane flight home to Albany. Very bright, inquisitive and friendly. I suspect he was a bit disappointed with the culture and theatrics of the House.
I don’t follow football anymore in part because I don’t watch TV and partly because of the realization that many of the players are setting themselves up for such serious problems as CTE. I think Tom Brady is insane to keep playing. Andrew Luck absolutely had the right attitude as far as I’m concerned even if Colts fans didn’t appreciate it.
Chris Gibson is not where the Republican Party is right now and would not have a chance against the belle of the North Country. Even Trump can’t control the nihilism now. If ES needed to do it to maintain her notoriety she’d be standing right alongside Gaetz, Boebert and the rest. It’s about performance, not governing.
It is on one hand enjoyable to spend January 6th watching the GOP insurrection against itself. OTOH, at least getting people sworn in would be nice. You know, get the investigations of Hunter Biden and Tony Fauci under way.
The thing that is always discussed last in football injuries, seems like should be discussed first.
What those at the top know, but hide from the players and public.
Most sports are dangerous to some extent, and often there is a cost/benefit to them that misses the point of what the success rate is in that cost/benefit. I.E. the players making the most money - Quarterbacks -- often have the most rules protecting them. A second or third-string lineman, is making closer to the minimum.
1) if you look at the size and fitness of players from 30 years ago, you will see most players are bigger and faster. This isn't Darwinism - this is steroid-ism. I would bet if there was the same drug testing regiment in football (from middle school up) as there is for the Tour de France..... there would be no players... or very much smaller players.
2) I am sure there would be players still playing, even if they knew it would not just cut years off their life, but also cut the quality of life from the remaining years. This is to say there are 40-50-year-olds that can barely walk because of injuries and likely won't live to be 60.
That said, I have seen enough about the NFL that it is clear they have been ignoring and likely hiding the long and short-term dangers of the sport. So most players are not making informed decisions about playing.
3) An evil plus.. I read somewhere that the research for the treatment and cure for Parkinson's and dementia is helped by studying football head injuries. Weirdly, football players are donating their bodies (brains) to science without 'consciously' knowing it.
Maybe the teams' names should not be The Buffalo Bills or Dallas Cowboys, but Buffalo Lab Rats and Dallas Dementia.
I think you hit on an important point. Despite drug testing, I think football still has an enormous steroid problem that no one talks about anymore and we still don’t know the extent it damages the human body.
I think I once read... back when marijuana was illegal across the country.... that if you tested players for thc on Monday/Tuesday they would be positive.
That playing a game was so tough, that players needed some kind of (legal or not) painkillers the next day.
When my son was born I swore I would never let him play football. He ended up the quarterback at Glens Falls throughout his 4 years and played throughout college. I prayed at every game and it made me cry when a player was down and the guys were on their knees. They loved that game and the team after 15 years continue to be the closest of friends. They get together constantly, are in each others weddings, play on a fantasy league together and just love each other as brothers. I don't know what the right thing is, these guys are like trucks on TV plowing into each other and it is a wonder what happened to Damar doesn't happen more often or worse. My son and I are Bills fans and Monday night was traumatic for anyone watching. I'm thankful he is getting better but of course worry about the long term effects for all of the players.
I had an opportunity to sit at a round table with Chris Gibson once. He listened, he questioned when necessary, was available and respectful of everyone in the room. What's going on in the House is a form of mob mentality, ignorance and self-serving behavior. Stefanik, as we all know, is a major player in that game.
The players die in horse racing all the time. Scores, perhaps hundreds every year.
The NFL is not very far removed from professional wrestling. They argued to the Supreme Court some years ago that the league is essentially one team (excepting the Green Bay Packers) so they could award monopoly contracts to suppliers. Like horse racing the “league” - because it is always the league not any individual owner - professes to care about the athletes, but just like in horse racing the league was ready to continue play after the potentially dead player - the player who for some amount of time literally lay dead on the field before he was resuscitated - was dragged out of sight.
I haven’t watched football in years. But hey! Have you been watching Mikaela Shiffrin? If it weren’t for global warming she would likely be tied with Lindsey Vonn at 2nd winningest skier of all time. She will likely become the top skier ever. Forever. If global warming has anything to say about it.
Well, there is a lot of risk in professional skiing as well - especially downhill.
I once had access to the USSA (United States Ski Association) athlete profile book.
Basically, a book that listed the highlights of each skier (downhill & x-c) on he US team.
What struck me was every single downhill skier had a paragraph about their knees... or how their recovery was going.
Which is to say, every sport has a potential for injury == at varying levels (I assume curling has a fairly low level). As fast as skiers go, I would guess they have a similar danger to football, but unlike football where there are 'cheap shots' by opposing players... or generally the intention of hitting another player in ways to cause physical injury... the trees don't sneak up on Skiers
Granted, ski racing is dangerous as hell, but typically these are fairly wealthy people. There aren’t a lot of poor people getting into racing programs. It may be wrong of me but I feel a little less bad when rich people hurt themselves doing stuff they know is stupid than poor people. Maybe because I have more personal experience with poor people doing stupid dangerous stuff.
of course when said rich people succeed in skiing, they make a ton more money ha
But for them it is a sport, and not a ticket out of poverty, like football may be for many
I confess I enjoy watching the NFL, and I have purple and gold paraphernalia of my team the Minnesota Vikings. I played a little in HS moved on to varsity ice hockey and lacrosse. My younger brother did play and was a star QB until he literally broke his neck. But we were lucky, Jeff was in such great shape his neck muscles held his neck in place and he recovered, and went on to be a college athlete in baseball and basketball at Amherst College. But neither his son or mine was allowed to play football.
I met Chris Gibson numerous times including a plane flight home to Albany. Very bright, inquisitive and friendly. I suspect he was a bit disappointed with the culture and theatrics of the House.
I don’t follow football anymore in part because I don’t watch TV and partly because of the realization that many of the players are setting themselves up for such serious problems as CTE. I think Tom Brady is insane to keep playing. Andrew Luck absolutely had the right attitude as far as I’m concerned even if Colts fans didn’t appreciate it.
Chris Gibson is not where the Republican Party is right now and would not have a chance against the belle of the North Country. Even Trump can’t control the nihilism now. If ES needed to do it to maintain her notoriety she’d be standing right alongside Gaetz, Boebert and the rest. It’s about performance, not governing.
It is on one hand enjoyable to spend January 6th watching the GOP insurrection against itself. OTOH, at least getting people sworn in would be nice. You know, get the investigations of Hunter Biden and Tony Fauci under way.
The thing that is always discussed last in football injuries, seems like should be discussed first.
What those at the top know, but hide from the players and public.
Most sports are dangerous to some extent, and often there is a cost/benefit to them that misses the point of what the success rate is in that cost/benefit. I.E. the players making the most money - Quarterbacks -- often have the most rules protecting them. A second or third-string lineman, is making closer to the minimum.
1) if you look at the size and fitness of players from 30 years ago, you will see most players are bigger and faster. This isn't Darwinism - this is steroid-ism. I would bet if there was the same drug testing regiment in football (from middle school up) as there is for the Tour de France..... there would be no players... or very much smaller players.
2) I am sure there would be players still playing, even if they knew it would not just cut years off their life, but also cut the quality of life from the remaining years. This is to say there are 40-50-year-olds that can barely walk because of injuries and likely won't live to be 60.
That said, I have seen enough about the NFL that it is clear they have been ignoring and likely hiding the long and short-term dangers of the sport. So most players are not making informed decisions about playing.
3) An evil plus.. I read somewhere that the research for the treatment and cure for Parkinson's and dementia is helped by studying football head injuries. Weirdly, football players are donating their bodies (brains) to science without 'consciously' knowing it.
Maybe the teams' names should not be The Buffalo Bills or Dallas Cowboys, but Buffalo Lab Rats and Dallas Dementia.
I think you hit on an important point. Despite drug testing, I think football still has an enormous steroid problem that no one talks about anymore and we still don’t know the extent it damages the human body.
I think I once read... back when marijuana was illegal across the country.... that if you tested players for thc on Monday/Tuesday they would be positive.
That playing a game was so tough, that players needed some kind of (legal or not) painkillers the next day.
It seems to me that they should make it safer somehow or ban it altogether.