How would you MNGA (Make the NFL Great Again)??

[texaspackerbacker]

"The NFL needs some long term safety theater to win over parents." This was the first line of your crock of shit. Are you now somehow backing off?

[texaspackerbacker]

That's why you have to do some PR theater. You're fighting the perception that football is a brain killer.

Uh ...... "safety theater"? Tell me that doesn't sound like some stupid "we feel your pain" shit - giving credence to the puffed up overrated problem. If they want to have some kind of blurb about advances in technology or whatever, fine, tell people about that, but DON'T give the scumbags trying to wimpify and destroy the game any help or credibility.

[pbmax]

Coaches taught using the helmet to force fumbles. They're gonna have to teach 'see what you tackle' again. The suggestion for metrics on helmets and collisions is a great idea. The NFL needs to invest heavily in helmet tech/funding, and make sure that it is implemented at the youngest of youth football, so parents aren't afraid of having their kids play football.

Bravo! Old school football doesn't mean the 1983 Steelers.

[texaspackerbacker]

Our lack of understanding on the most complex organ in our body... and you jump to it’s not an issue?

I totally agree - people are well paid for their injuries. Compare it to farmers or oil rig workers.

But saying it’s related to drugs or something makes the above point sounds less intelligent. It’s like smoking cigarettes doesn’t cause cancer... it’s fricken obvious. If you said - it certainly causes cancer but let your kids smoke cigarettes but the chance of them becoming a famous actor is infinitesimal- then you see it as a parent.

Look at the number of high school kids that have died playing HS football this year from TBI. I’d be interested if that happens at same rate for golf or tennis or swimming or soccer or whatever...

The rate of direct fatalities was 0.095 per 100,000 players, and the rate of indirect fatalities was 0.21 per 100,000 players. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/...cid=mm6552a2_w

Taking your numbers at face value, that's just under 1 in a million direct fatalities and about 2 in a million "indirect" - whatever indirect even means.

As for the drug related thing, I'm thinking of the well known background of Jim McMahon as well as possibly Alzado and whatshisname, the linebacker from the Chargers who offed himself.

What's ridiculous is you comparing this to the idea of smoking causing lung cancer.

And the bottom line remains, nobody is forcing them to accept those multiple millions for playing a fun game if they buy into the crap about the risks. Don't you true believers in the garbage think there would be a lot more Chris Borlands if the people closest to this really thought there was anything to worry about?

[pbmax]

What a crock of shit!

How many players have actually been brain damaged? A few dozen maybe in over a hundred years of high school, college, and pro foootball? And how many of them have drug use records that could just as easily account for messed up brains? Parents are propagandized enough right now to buy into this silly shit, and you want more of it? Sheeeesh!

These guys are paid EXTREMELY WELL for the fairly minimal risk of scrambling their brain. And nobody is forcing them to take that HUGE MONEY. They can always be like Chris Borland and decide to pass it up.

The bullshit whiny attitude about this is far more of a problem than head injuries themselves.

Fifty years of people deciding not to let their kids play football, or finding better opportunities in baseball or basketball, can only lead to one inescapable conclusion:

[pbmax]

Anyone have numbers on youth enrollment in football over the long term? Everything in Google is about recent drops and anecdotally attributing it to fears of CTE.

I remember as a former youth a significant number of non-participatory youths because of parental concerns about head injuries or physical violence in general.

If you had asked me before Mike Webster and Bennett Omalu, I would have predicted football had declining rates of participation for decades, but its possible some of that was just the end is always near set.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Football kinda sucks as a participatory sport because the handful of really good players are having most of the fun. In soccer or basketball or baseball, everybody gets chance to score points, show off their skills, even if their skills are relatively mediocre.

Football is divided into a lot of pretty specialized positions. It seems like linebackers and safeties who have decent speed are having a blast on defense. It is fun to tackle.

Look at sports kids play for fun in a public park. Football is pretty rare - and even then, everybody gets to be an imaginary star and touch the ball. Organized football is kinda like a job for a good portion of the kids.

[3irty1]

"The NFL needs some long term safety theater to win over parents." This was the first line of your crock of shit. Are you now somehow backing off?

No I'm not. Try again with reading comprehension instead of reading comprehension theater.

[3irty1]

Uh ...... "safety theater"? Tell me that doesn't sound like some stupid "we feel your pain" shit - giving credence to the puffed up overrated problem. If they want to have some kind of blurb about advances in technology or whatever, fine, tell people about that, but DON'T give the scumbags trying to wimpify and destroy the game any help or credibility.

Safety theater refers to a waist-high fence, the foil thing you peel off a new bottle of Tylenol, or or any other measure that is more about making people feel safe than it is about making people actually safe. It's profoundly stupid to gaslight the public and just ignore or deny CTE.

[mraynrand]

Safety theater refers to a waist-high fence, the foil thing you peel off a new bottle of Tylenol, or or any other measure that is more about making people feel safe than it is about making people actually safe. It's profoundly stupid to gaslight the public and just ignore or deny CTE.

[mraynrand]

Look at sports kids play for fun in a public park.

Whut, kids don't play in parks anymore, unless it's organized by their parents or legal guardians.

[mraynrand]

If I were an NFL exec though, a football specific line of essential oils is the real no-brainer. Single moms are the gatekeepers of football talent. No need to reinvent the wheel to give them blind faith in a remedy.

Are these external or internal essential oils? If external, this kinda creeps me out. If internal, I can suggest a special concoction of PUFAs, bio-engineered carbohydrates and other lipids that will not only heal your brain, but may extend your lifespan by about 30%. The only downside: you will always feel hungry. Not FDA approved.

[red]

Whut, kids don't play in parks anymore, unless it's organized by their parents or legal guardians.

true story, about a year or 2 ago, i'm working on a place. the lady across the street finds a kid walking in front of her place with no parent. the lady blew up about 50 phones yelling at people about how she couldn't believe someone would just forget about their kid like that. she even called the police. 3 or 4 cop cars show up for the "lost child"

turns out the kid lived next door to where i was, right across the street from the lady. she had sent her child outside to play while she did the laundry

and the kid was probably 6 or 7

when i was the kids age i was wandering all around the neighborhood, as i'm sure most kids from years ago were allowed to do. its just gotten insane how crazy people have gotten these days

[channtheman]

Delete all flags. I can't even get excited during a big play anymore since you have to wait and make sure the ref didn't throw a flag, not to mention almost every moderately successful running play is ruined by a holding call. The refs would still run the game, and if guys got out of hand they could eject players and coaches. The threat of this would keep guys from being too egregious with holding and PI since if you tackle a WR to avoid the big play, you know Howard Green is coming from the grave to pancake you after the play.

[sharpe1027]

Remove all money from the sport. Play for fun and of your own decision.

For those saying they get paid a lot so the risk is fine, the fact that we pay players to participate is a big part of the problem in the first place.

IMO, it's matter of degree. Few people would find cage fights to the death okay just because the winner was well compensated by the viewers. At some point, paying people to do something that we know harms them is morally wrong. Is CTE that point for football? You need to answer that for yourself, but payment doesn't make the issue go away. It just makes the viewer more responsible.