AHC: Mike Webster lives way past 2002, American football made both safer and 18+

I am not very well versed in this topic. Just rugby and american football seem to be similar for me. And that amfootball has helmets and armors... so I has been thinking that it is more dangerous.
CTE seems to be caused by both the occasional concussion over time and the steady diet of lesser hits to the head. The helmet in American football was designed and introduced decades ago mainly to prevent skull fractures. It is now so big and heavy, it's often used as a weapon. Probably now it does help somewhat with concussion, but because offensive linemen are taught "put your hat on them" and "three points of contact," there are probably a lot more of the lesser blows to the head which aren't good for anyone.

There has been some talk of going back to leather helmets or football without helmets. But because this would open the door to the occasional catastrophic injury, I don't think such a change would be all that realistic, even in different timelines.

Plus, there has been an arms race with athletes esp. on the offensive line bulking up in size. For example, my local University of Houston Cougars, well, we're a solid Division 1 team, although not a mega-power, and there was a recent newspaper article that the average size among offensive linemen for next year was just over 300 pounds. This is quite a bit heavier than Mike Webster was during his playing days, even though admittedly centers are often smaller than other offensive linemen.

* so, what I'm saying that if Mike could time-warp forward in time, he might not even make a mid-tier college team! and he was a guy who spend a lot of time in the weight room
 
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. . . still the scholarships are something. the rest is how the things evolves.
Yes, the college scholarships are a really big deal, and football provides more scholarships than any other single sport.

All the same, if the fan base starts leaving . . .

As things now stands, it's a very interesting combination of the general public knowing the facts, but then various twisty types of denial of why the facts don't matter (combined with resentment toward lawsuits in general, resentment toward and questioning the motives of would-be reformers, and resentment toward the money pro athletes make <— and a lot always seems to come back to this last fact)
 
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As things now stands, it's a very interesting combination of the general public knowing the facts, but then various twisty types of denial of why the facts don't matter (combined with resentment toward lawsuits in general, resentment toward and questioning the motives of would-be reformers, and resentment toward the money pro athletes make, a lot always seems to come back to this last fact)
Err not that much(this is not kaepernick and the fake nationalist and true racist out there) the debate is a risk but NFL live on denial but college at least admit the dangers..of course they not share their millions but the world of monopolies is like that,
 
. . . this is not kaepernick and the fake nationalist and true racist out there . . .
Of course people will swear up and down that they're not racist. You know that, I know that.

I have picked up the attitude on the part of several different people that, how can a person who comes from a low-income environment and gets such a tremendous opportunity, then be so ungrateful ? ! ?

-----------------------------------------------

PS and a little bit I have picked up an undertone from a couple of such people that they are quietly happy to have an excuse to give up on football, a little weird, but it seems to be there
 
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ave picked up the attitude on the part of several different people that, how can a person who comes from a low-income environment and gets such a tremendous opportunity, then be so ungrateful ? ! ?
excatly...

A question did you played football? till which level?
 
I saw at a local college, four-person soccer teams playing on a basketball court. For an intramural sport, it looked like a lot of fun
 
I saw at a local college, four-person soccer teams playing on a basketball court. For an intramural sport, it looked like a lot of fun
Soccer is ultrafun, even if i suck at that too,xd. I liked Football and Baseball how unique the sports are even their downside.
 
https://www.newsleader.com/story/sp...h-football-concern-staunton-family/594357002/

' . . . who has had three sons play football, commented on a News Leader Facebook post about the report, "I've seen more concussions from their teammates doing other sports, or just playing and being a kid. There is a risk with every sport, even cheer. However, your kid can get seriously injured on the playground or in your front yard playing with their friends. No need to live in constant fear." . . '
Here's a Mom who's focusing on concussions.

And who's quite rightly pointing out, everything's in life risky, why live in fear.
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ootball/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7a15eaf4a533

“There is never a good enough reason to hit a child in the head 500 times for a sport.”

The brutal honesty in Chris Nowinski’s words slaps me across the face. . .
And here's a Mom who's focusing on the large number of subconcussive hits. As it turned out, her two sons left football on their own, so she didn't have to be a bad guy and make an extremely difficult decision.

And whether people move away from football or not . . . might hinge on whether we focus on concussions, or on the steady diet of subconcussive hits.
 
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In his 2006 book, Chris Nowinski talked about how parents put a lot of creed into newer, "modern" helmets protecting their kids.

He talked about how for 10-year-olds, for example, the foam is so stiff compared to the weight of the child that it provides very little slow down distance in collisions. And little kids like this certainly can run fast enough to hurt themselves.

One could ask, that even if a padded helmet could provide a half-inch of slow down, would that be enough for full frontal collisions like in kickoffs or simply in which a running back hits the line of scrimmage? And collisions in which the head is hit in a rotational fashion can also be bad.
 
Study finds youth football tied to earlier symptoms of CTE

ESPN, April 30, 2018

https://www.google.com/amp/www.espn.com/moresports/story/_/id/23367461/study-finds-youth-football-tied-earlier-cte?platform=amp

‘ . . . cognitive, behavioral and mood symptoms earlier than those players who didn't start to play until after age 12.

‘Every year a player played tackle football under that age predicted the early onset of cognitive problems by 2.4 years, and behavioral and mood problems by 2.5 years, according to the study [Annals of Neurology]. . . ’
Okay, so this study’s providing some evidence that parents should wait until after age 12.

My initial AHC is quite a bit more ambitious in that we’re looking for it to be a societal norm pretty much in all 50 states that football be an age 18+ activity, where it’s felt the young person is now an adult able to make a more fully informed decision. And this is one thing Dr. Ann McKee is suggesting, outside of her role of simply explaining the study.
 
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https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/19/offensive-play

' . . . In one way or another, plenty of organizations select for gameness. The Marine Corps does so, and so does medicine, when it puts young doctors through the exhausting rigors of residency. But those who select for gameness have a responsibility not to abuse that trust: if you have men in your charge who would jump off a cliff for you, you cannot march them to the edge of the cliff . . . '
It's amazing that this type of reasoning gets so little traction.

A potential POD might be if more high school coaches, teachers, or parents took such an approach, for example: We can't keep telling these boys and young men that they're doing this for the sake of the school or even the broader community, when in fact it does endanger their long-term health this much.

Maybe that just strains human nature too much, but it's an interesting question to ask why.
 
Mike-Webster_Don-Shula_Steelers-Dolphins-1988.jpg

Mike Webster talks to Don Shula before his final game with Steelers.

http://steelcurtainrising.com/2016/...webster-dr-bennett-omalu-strzelcky-long.html/


For a lifelong Steelers fan watching Concussion was going to be difficult. Not because of what I might learn, but because of what I already knew:
  • The hits that Mike Webster took in football that caused the CTE that took his life are in no way an aberration.
Here's a fan sincerely wrestling with the issue. I think if Mike had continued to live with declining abilities, this fan would have also wrestled with the issue.
 
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