Goodell wants to ruin the NFL...

[Freak Out]

Is there any truth to the concept that some people just have a thick skull? Or does everyone get concussed equally?







And no, the answer to the first one is not "you're living proof that there are".

i don't know, but i can tell you for a fact that after the first one its much easier to get another one

i never had problems with my head until the first major shot (almost 15 years ago). i have had well over a dozen since then, maybe as many as 2 dozen

they are serious injuries, they aren't just a little head ache like most people think they are. they are very serious injuries that can have a big impact on your life

How often do you have to empty the drool bucket? What in the hell are you doing to get so many concussions?

nah don't need a bucket

lots and lots of sports. and walking into door jams, and crawling under buildings, and falling down and whatnot.

the first and worst came from playing a pickup game of full contact 11 on football without pads with some of the members of my colleges football team

that wasn't one of my smarter ideas

Ha ha!

I've had two....one from football and one from a ski crash. I had headaches and nausea for days after both.

[Little Whiskey]

What is needed is a different design for a helmet

how about a hans device similar to nascar. you are unable to move your head and it transfers the hit to your shoulders. reduces injuries, but makes the game boring as hell.

[mission]

We put a man on the moon and haven't even figured out this whole helmet thing yet.. :P

[pbmax]

Its not just the helmet, but deceleration. Basically, how fast your head moves and then how fast it stops. I remember reports indicating that concern over Earnhardt's open facemask helmet as contributing to his death were missing the point. The point wasn't padding, but inertia. Forensic Pathologists, who had not worked with NASCAR but knew car injuries, knew what killed Earnhardt before the reports were released because the results were predictable.

Whiskey's mention (HANS device), impractical outside of a car currently, is the only method I am aware of that can take that energy and transfer it somewhere (wheels, gears, pulleys, gyroscopes, I have no idea, etc.) to something other than forward momentum for the driver's head. It has to react quickly enough to dissipate enough energy that the body can take the blow when the head can no longer travel forward and snaps to a stop.

[Tarlam!]

Take away helmuts. Seems pretty simple to me. Although, in saying that, my only experience if from a Rugby stanpoint. And we all know what wimps Rugby players are.

[channtheman]

Take away helmuts. Seems pretty simple to me. Although, in saying that, my only experience if from a Rugby stanpoint. And we all know what wimps Rugby players are.

No argument there.

[MJZiggy]

Take away helmuts. Seems pretty simple to me. Although, in saying that, my only experience if from a Rugby stanpoint. And we all know what wimps Rugby players are.

Actually, that's not that far-fetched. I think something closer to the old leather helmets is not a bad idea. No using your helmet for a weapon then. Not sure how to slow down a lineman's helmet, but since they only go a couple feet, I wonder how much inertia they can really overcome...

[Freak Out]

Take away helmuts. Seems pretty simple to me. Although, in saying that, my only experience if from a Rugby stanpoint. And we all know what wimps Rugby players are.

Actually, that's not that far-fetched. I think something closer to the old leather helmets is not a bad idea. No using your helmet for a weapon then. Not sure how to slow down a lineman's helmet, but since they only go a couple feet, I wonder how much inertia they can really overcome...

Players would die.....lots of players used to die playing football back in the day...I believe Congress came close to banning college football unless rules were changed and the number of deaths came down.

[MJZiggy]

Not saying go back TO that, but something more pliable less missile-like...

[Maxie the Taxi]

I'll cut to the chase, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

The day the NFL bans the 3-point stance is the day I quit being a football fan. Fortunately, that will also be the day the NFL dies from lack of interest.

If I want to watch flag football, I'll visit my local park league fields and enjoy the contest...without about 10 other fans... and friends of the players.

[Guiness]

i don't know, but i can tell you for a fact that after the first one its much easier to get another one

i never had problems with my head until the first major shot (almost 15 years ago). i have had well over a dozen since then, maybe as many as 2 dozen

they are serious injuries, they aren't just a little head ache like most people think they are. they are very serious injuries that can have a big impact on your life

How often do you have to empty the drool bucket? What in the hell are you doing to get so many concussions?

nah don't need a bucket

lots and lots of sports. and walking into door jams, and crawling under buildings, and falling down and whatnot.

the first and worst came from playing a pickup game of full contact 11 on football without pads with some of the members of my colleges football team

that wasn't one of my smarter ideas

Ha ha!

I've had two....one from football and one from a ski crash. I had headaches and nausea for days after both.

Scary to look back and think about it. I don't know that I've ever had a 'diagnosed' concussion, but looking back I think I can think of 3-4
First one I remember is from public skating - was about 6-7yrs old, ran headlong into someone, woke up being carried through the lobby. I can remember taking a few knocks on the head other times, and being nauseous for a while after, but luckily nothing like the extended ones I've seen described. Rather be lucky than good, I guess.

[Fritz]

I'll cut to the chase, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

The day the NFL bans the 3-point stance is the day I quit being a football fan. Fortunately, that will also be the day the NFL dies from lack of interest.

If I want to watch flag football, I'll visit my local park league fields and enjoy the contest...without about 10 other fans... and friends of the players.

Well, this is pretty bottom line. Maxie's okay with players ending up with debilitating head injuries. It seems he feels it's their choice to make. Having players get these very serious injuries is, for Maxie, not troubling.

I don't agree with you Maxie, not at all. I'd argue that the whole "it's their choice" thing is quite simplistic. If a kid's talented, really talented, and from the get-go is pushed to be the football guy, the hero - his parents, probably, certainly middle school and high school coaches go after and try to persuade talented kids to play - and if he gets much adulation from adults and peers, does a kid really have the emotional bedrock to resist that? Not many, I don't think. I don't think it's that much of a free choice.

I also think that we as fans are complicit in all this. Most of us, like you, frankly don't give a rat's ass what happens to players once they leave the game. I suspect though that if we had to look at and sit down and talk with some of these old timers and actually see what's happened to so many of them, we might not be so ready to act the macho part about "don't pussify the game."

But I'll give you credit for being up front about not caring about the injuries enough to propose radical changes to the game.

[Scott Campbell]

I don't agree with you Maxie, not at all. I'd argue that the whole "it's their choice" thing is quite simplistic. If a kid's talented, really talented, and from the get-go is pushed to be the football guy, the hero - his parents, probably, certainly middle school and high school coaches go after and try to persuade talented kids to play - and if he gets much adulation from adults and peers, does a kid really have the emotional bedrock to resist that? Not many, I don't think. I don't think it's that much of a free choice.

Listening to Hines Ward talk about Ben this year, I'd agree with that. I think you could potentially improve the situation by requiring league doctors to clear guys to play. But big hits are part of the game.

[Kiwon]

Remember Aikman? Concussions are what did him in.

I wonder how many of the old linemen are dealing with concussion-related issues from back in the day when the "head slap" was legal?

Then what about this guy?

[pbmax]

I don't agree with you Maxie, not at all. I'd argue that the whole "it's their choice" thing is quite simplistic. If a kid's talented, really talented, and from the get-go is pushed to be the football guy, the hero - his parents, probably, certainly middle school and high school coaches go after and try to persuade talented kids to play - and if he gets much adulation from adults and peers, does a kid really have the emotional bedrock to resist that? Not many, I don't think. I don't think it's that much of a free choice.

Listening to Hines Ward talk about Ben this year, I'd agree with that. I think you could potentially improve the situation by requiring league doctors to clear guys to play. But big hits are part of the game.

That is tough. the Doctors are already on the team payroll and the players have an incentive to lie to them. They will probably need an objective standard applied and evaluated outside the normal team doctor situation.