Doctors hold line, earlier knowledge of CTE, what if American football becomes 18+ in late 1960s?

No, OTL, the AFL only came into being in 1990, when the VFL (Victorian Football League) was renamed to the Australian Football League (AFL) as by then the league had teams based in Sydney (one of the Melbourne teams was relocated to Sydney in 1982, teams from Perth (West Coast Eagles) and The Gold Coast/Brisbane (Orginally The Brisbane Bears, they were merged with one of the Melbourne teams (Fitzroy) to become the Brisbane Lions from the 1997 season.). An Adelaide team would follow in 1991 (the Crows). Further teams from Adelaide & Perth joined later in the 90's, while an additional Sydney & Gold Coast team joined in 2011 & 2012.

So in the 70's & 80's context of state-based leagues in Australia, the USFL (United States Football League) name would have made sense. Though a large US participation & following would have hastened the VFL/AFL's move to a more professional footing possibly in the late 70's-early 80's instead of the early 90's in OTL. As I said earlier, up til the early 90's, most players were part-time professionals who had day jobs during the week, although quite a few of the better known players would have worked for sympathetic club sponsors who employed players in a sales/promotional capacity, although you had quite a few players who combined demanding professional careers such as Medicine, Law & Stockbroking alongside their Football careers. Others owned businesses to trade on their fame, again quite often backed by wealthy club patrons.
 
. . the AFL only came into being in 1990, when the VFL (Victorian Football League) was renamed to the Australian Football League (AFL) as by then the league had teams based in Sydney (one of the Melbourne teams was relocated to Sydney in 1982, teams from Perth (West Coast Eagles) and The Gold Coast/Brisbane (Orginally The Brisbane Bears, they were merged with one of the Melbourne teams (Fitzroy) to become the Brisbane Lions from the 1997 season.). An Adelaide team would follow in 1991 (the Crows). . .
More widespread Australian rules football in the 1970s could have been named USFL. But when Americans of a certain age hear that name, they may think of:


this USFL!

which was a Spring-only league of standard American tackle football which played for three seasons from 1983 to 1985. The team with the gold helmets are the Philadelphia Stars who are generally regarded as having been the best team in the league. The team with the white jerseys are the New Jersey Generals who had star player Herschel Walker (34) and who were owned by none other than Donald Trump.
 
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If CTE becomes better known, there are two possibilities:

1. The NFL isn’t strong enough to sweep it under the rug or survive it, and it either evolves or dies. The game may become more like rugby, or someone may come up with a helmet sooner that prevents it minimizes concussions. Worst case for the sport, it becomes like smoking and trickles away, falling in popularity like boxing.

2. Someone finds a way to treat CTE and players accept an annual treatment for CTE as a reality.
 
. . . . .

2. Someone finds a way to treat CTE . . .

For example,

COULD A VACCINE PROTECT FOOTBALL PLAYERS FROM CONCUSSIONS?

Wired, Feb. 2, 2018

https://www.wired.com/story/could-a...yers-from-concussions/?mbid=email_onsiteshare

‘ . . . You can think of tau as a necklace, 440 beads long. Sometimes, say after a lifetime of taking left hooks in the noggin, those necklaces get tangled. And it turns out they tangle into a few predictable patterns, only a few of which the body has a hard time getting rid of on its own. So UNS [United Neuroscience] is screening dozens of vaccines to find antibodies that only stick to these versions. . . ’
Well, maybe. It’s still in the early experimental stages, although probably well worth pursuing.

But it’s unlikely there’d be anything like this in the 1960s.
 
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The problem with treating CTE is that the Central Nervous System (CNS) heals with scar, not repaired tissue. When someone has recovery after a stroke or spinal cord injury this is because alternate pathways in the CNS can be trained/utilized, or the injury caused cell injury but not death in the area where there is recovery. In the Peripheral Nervous System, if a nerve is cut you can directly repair it or even use a nerve graft if there is a gap, and expect recovery (how much depends on numerous factors). To the extent that brain cells are only damaged by the trauma, recovery could potentially be enhanced with medications (not yet out there). OTOH any brain cells killed by trauma are not replaced - unlike skin cells, bone cells etc. Furthermore, areas of scar tissue in the brain, which is what replaces living brain cells can inhibit functioning of nearby normal cells and pathways.

Theoretically if one could "inject" nanobots to clean out scar on the cellular level and have stem cells replace the scar which would grow in to the appropriate brain cells then you could "cure" CTE. Right now this is merely a theoretical blue sky idea
 
Linebacker Chris Borland of the San Francisco 49ers retired in Spring 2015, after a really good rookie season, concerned about brain health.
https://sports.yahoo.com/chris-borland-finding-life-football-isnt-easy-054505507.html

‘ . . . Borland says he had 13 concussions in his football career (two were diagnosed). But it’s the other hits that take a more unknown and potentially serious toll. “It’s about all the little hits,” he said. “You may feel different but there still could be issues going on with your brain. It’s something most of the general public wouldn’t understand. Players are taken aback initially when I talk to them about this.” . . . ’
Even with football 18+, shorter careers might become more the norm. Remember, Chris still had a college career, a high school career, and maybe earlier as well.
 
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Fighters' brains damaged long before symptoms emerge, study hints

Los Angeles Times, Lance Pugmire, April 19, 2012.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/19/sports/la-sp-boxing-medical-study-20120419

‘A yearlong study of boxers' and mixed martial-arts fighters' brain activity has found those who fight for more than six years begin to experience damage and those who fight longer than 12 years expose themselves to an even greater decline each time they return to the ring. . . ’
So, for boxers and mixed martial artists, a good chance they can get lucky regarding brain health with a career under 6 years.

Still a personal choice for those 18 and above, but shorter careers might become more of the norm.
 
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So, for boxers and mixed martial artists, a good chance they can get lucky regarding brain health with a career under 6 years.

Still a personal choice for those 18 and above, but shorter careers might become more of the norm.

Or maybe, MMA become much more focused on grappling rather than striking, even more so than in OTL, with hits to the head banned outright.
 
Or maybe, MMA become much more focused on grappling rather than striking, even more so than in OTL, with hits to the head banned outright.
Or maybe we could outlaw the whole damned barbaric spectacle. Never understood why people got off on watching total strangers main and kill each other...could understand it if they were personal villains to the spectator, but not what we had in ancient times or have today...just don't understand it.
 
Or maybe we could outlaw the whole damned barbaric spectacle. Never understood why people got off on watching total strangers main and kill each other...could understand it if they were personal villains to the spectator, but not what we had in ancient times or have today...just don't understand it.

It is exciting to watch.
 
To each, his own...

And, martial arts (of all kinds) are so ancient and commonplace they're considered a cultural universal. They exist because we exist; we are a violent species, and the codes and rules of the various kinds of one on one fighting provide a release for the violent impulses inherent in every human being that is not dangerous for the community as a whole.

That's one of the reasons why sports in general are so popular, too.
 
Or maybe, MMA become much more focused on grappling rather than striking, even more so than in OTL, with hits to the head banned outright.
I think if it's explained, judo is plenty exciting enough, with judoka (players) able to win through throws, pins, arm bars and chokes. The player taps out or the referee is right there in case the player loses consciousness.

Of course, some people might find the addition of kicks and punches to make if even more exciting. But judo really emphasizes skill at setting up throws and throwing technique more than almost any other sport.
 
I think if it's explained, judo is plenty exciting enough, with judoka (players) able to win through throws, pins, arm bars and chokes. The player taps out or the referee is right there in case the player loses consciousness.

Of course, some people might find the addition of kicks and punches to make if even more exciting. But judo really emphasizes skill at setting up throws and throwing technique more than almost any other sport.

I have done judo in the past, and I agree; for a more European alternative, old school catch as catch can wrestling could be resurrected as well - quite a few past and present professional wrestlers could actually do well in it: Chris Benoit was one hell of a grappler, for example, and such a thing could've saved his life and that of his family. Hell, the professional wrestlers of the pre-WWF era often fought well into their forties, exactly because their kind of wrestling, even if it was staged, was heavily based on catch wrestling, and didn't feature many of the potentially fatal moves made popular in the 1980s.
 
Or maybe we could outlaw the whole damned barbaric spectacle. [MMA] . . .
Well, I'm glad someone said it, Thank you! :)

It's a little how I feel about high school football in which we push young men to play for the "sake" of the school or community and push them to be tough and strong (in probably much too narrow a way).

Look, with boxing or MMA, if a fighter loses, I think it's at least 6 weeks before they're allowed to fight again. Bu with a team sport like football, traditionally you've been expected to play again the very next week. This has been improved with concussion protocol and an athlete re-entering exercise, drills, and live play in phases. But this does not address the steady diet of subconcussive blows at all.
 
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And, martial arts (of all kinds) are so ancient and commonplace they're considered a cultural universal. They exist because we exist; we are a violent species, and the codes and rules of the various kinds of one on one fighting provide a release for the violent impulses inherent in every human being that is not dangerous for the community as a whole.

That's one of the reasons why sports in general are so popular, too.
I’ve read that one reason male birds of certain species have long tail feathers is that they’re advertising to females, look at me, look at me, I have such good genes that I can survive even with this obvious handicap.

And similarly, the reason teenage boys sometimes go without a coat in winter and/or smoke cigarettes is because they’re advertising, look at me, look at me, I have such good genes that I can stay well even with these obvious handicaps. Or . . . if the young man does get sick, he’s advertising, I can keep going even when sick.
 
And yet, culture obviously influences which way these impulses go . . .

I can remember being in junior high (age 13) way back in 1976 and our school’s three or four football teams were playing our rivals. Yes, there were 7th grade A and B teams and at least one 8th grade team. And many perhaps most teachers made a big drawing on butcher block paper for their doors. For example, the lady who taught science had a drawing of an eagle in a vat of hydrochloric acid. And she was proud of it. Well, it feels good to go outside your field and be good at something else and get attention for it. But the whole spectacle across the entire school was just too much. We were really being taught war worship, is what we were being taught.

For starters, please save a little love for baseball, basketball, track, and other sports, as well as other non-sport school activities.
 
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