earlier knowledge of CTE, President Reagan advocates de-emphasizing football?

Bulldoggus

Banned
I didn't think Reagan would do something so basically controversial as to challenge football before the election, and immediately afterwards there were (IIRC) some things to occupy his attention.


In Texas where I grew up, football is almost linked to patriotism. It's called "school spirit." I'm a fan. But for people who just don't particularly care for football, they can be accused of not having school spirit. And the fact that football takes place in the beginning of the school year when everything is new and fresh and people are trying to get involved is a big advantage.
That would be something of a "Nixon in China" moment for Reagan. He's the only guy who wouldn't destroy his own career.
 
I think it would have to be a Republican because of the perception that Democrats are "weak."

Not saying whether I think this perception is valid, but it is out there.
 
click on Watch on YouTube

This compilation shows a lot of elusive runners, high school, college, and the pro, with a lot of great jukes and starts and stops, and this really might be the heart of football. This cover photo is from an Oct. 25, 1998, game in which Detroit's Barry Sanders (#20) is attempting to elude Minnesota's Corey Fuller (#27), Ed McDaniel (#58), and Dixon Edwards (#59).

In the 1991 season, Barry rushed for 1,548 yards and Detroit went 12-4 to win their division. In the playoffs, they beat Dallas big time before losing to Washington big time in the NFC Championship.

In the 1997 season, Barry rushed for 2,053 yards. At the time, he was just the fourth player to exceed the 2,000 yard threshold for a single season (including Herschel Walker in the USFL in 1985). And in this banner year, Barry's offense line included Ray Roberts (LT), Mike Compton (LG), Kevin Glover(C), Jeff Hartings (RG), Larry Tharpe (RT). And Tommy Vardell (FB) was a fellow running back who most commonly started games with Barry.


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Jerry Kramer (#64) played right guard for the Green Bay Packers for eleven seasons from 1958 through 1968 (although missing the '64 season for medical reasons unrelated to football). Green Bay won championships in 1961, '62, '65, '66, and '67, with these last two also being the first two Superbowls. Jerry was selected All-Pro six times.

In the 1962 NFL Championship, Jerry also recovered a fumble and kicked three field goals with Green Bay defeating the New York Giants 16-7.

Jerry is most famous for the "Kramer block" in "The Ice Bowl" on Dec. 31, 1967. Center Ken Bowman (#57) helped out and should receive credit. It was third down, there were only 16 seconds left with no more time-outs, and the ball was on the 1-yard line. Coach Vince Lombardi and quarterback Bart Starr decided to go for the win via the quarterback sneak. The Packers scored and went on to win Superbowl II. This video claims this is the most famous block in the history of pro football. It defines Kramer. And it also defines Lombardi and his philosophy of football.

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Again, maybe the heart of football is the artful running. So perhaps radical rule changes where you simply have to corral the player, maybe with two defenders. Maybe even something like a rule similar to two-below that you have to get one hand on the hip and on shoulder on the opposite side?

CTE most probably comes from both concussions and accumulated lesser blows, like what happened to Mike Webster.
 
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Second baseman Brandon Phillips of the Cincinnati Reds pretends to tag Juan Uribe of the Cleveland Indians with a hidden ball and momentarily "gets him." A mood lightener appreciated by both men (see :24 into video).
 
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MRI scans may be able to diagnose CTE in living patients

By Jim Schnabel, UCLA, August 24, 2016

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/mri-scans-may-be-able-diagnose-cte-living-patients

“From one scan it can tell you which of those regions is abnormally large or small compared to a large database of normative brain volume,” Raji said of the software analysis tool. “Most importantly, we were able to see the progression of volume loss over time, because the patient had had another MRI done in 2012.”
So, it's a case study of a single patient, which should not be too readily dismissed, I think William Osler often paid attention to single case studies, but it's not a slam dunk either. Not yet the gold standard.

But this is the kind of thing which might lead to the end of football. When the parents are looking at actual evidence of probably brain damage in their son, even a macho dad and even a mom all in favor all in favor of getting out there and participating in the rough and tumble might be likely to say, Son, we're not going to play any more football.
 
I have a hard time seeing anyone in the 1980s trying to get rid of football altogether. There are parts of the country where high school football is nearly a religious experience and I have a hard time seeing universities like Texas, Alabama, Nebraska, Penn State, Ohio State or Michigan getting rid of the college game.

But I can see a movement for reform of the game to minimize brain injuries if there's evidence of a problem and there is a lot that can be done there with equipment and rules changes. There's also precedent for Presidential intercession in football's rules and it's about the best precedent there is. During his Presidency, Teddy Roosevelt pushed for football reform after a spate of deaths. I can definitely Reagan calling upon that tradition and calling for some sort of reform. And while they didn't have a very close relationship, former President Ford, a former Michigan star during the 1930s, would be the perfect point man in such an effort. And Ted Kennedy played football at Harvard...
 
. . . But I can see a movement for reform of the game to minimize brain injuries if there's evidence of a problem and there is a lot that can be done there with equipment and rules changes. . .
That's going to be the key tension. There will be a lot of emphasis for reform to make football safer, and yet that might not be enough. If the info's correct that it's all the cumulated lesser blows which primarily lead to CTE, it won't be.

And this is where Ronnie Reagan comes in. He really did have an artist-type personality where he focused on a few issues and a few factors of those issues. Let's say he anticipates pretty much all of the above, and President Reagan matter-of-factly talks up the move to Springtime-only football as a way to de-emphasize the sport.
 
That's going to be the key tension. There will be a lot of emphasis for reform to make football safer, and yet that might not be enough. If the info's correct that it's all the cumulated lesser blows which primarily lead to CTE, it won't be.

And this is where Ronnie Reagan comes in. He really did have an artist-type personality where he focused on a few issues and a few factors of those issues. Let's say he anticipates pretty much all of the above, and President Reagan matter-of-factly talks up the move to Springtime-only football as a way to de-emphasize the sport.

Spring only football? Reagan might as well denigrate apple pie and praise the wisdom of Lenin. Football is played in the crisp air of fall, as God and the Founding Fathers intended!
 
That's kind of the problem, isn't it? But if anyone can pull it off, and with a light touch at that, it's probably Reagan.

I just don't think people will be particularly receptive to spring football on the basis of tradition. There are an awful lot of people who organize weekends around football in the fall...

The business interests case is even more compelling. By the early 1980s, college and pro football had grown into big businesses with huge revenues at stake for universities and pro teams as well as television networks that could pay out large sums for TV rights spent against anticipated advertising revenue. The demise of college football as a fall sport would cost multiple millions in lost revenue per season and leave a gaping hole in what was then ABC's Saturday schedule. The end of pro football would be even more calamitous; it would create a huge void in the Sunday schedules of two networks (then NBC and CBS) and cost team owners hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues and lost value of established franchises. I can't see anyone letting fall football end without a nasty fight. Major reform would meet with opposition, but with evidence, I think it could be pulled off in a way that doesn't cost an awful lot of people an awful lot of money. A push for abolition, on the other hand, pretty much makes everyone mad from fans to advertisers to players and everyone in between. That's a tough obstacle for even Reagan to get past and there's little in Reagan's record to suggest an interest in tangling with business and financial concerns, not to mention TV networks that were still powerful institutions in their own right.
 
. . . The demise of college football as a fall sport would cost multiple millions in lost revenue per season and leave a gaping hole in what was then ABC's Saturday schedule. The end of pro football would be even more calamitous; it would create a huge void in the Sunday schedules of two networks (then NBC and CBS) and cost team owners hundreds of millions . . .
Point well taken. Even though one economist said the end of football would probably be a net gain to the economy, because at least some of the new free time would be used 'productively' as they call it (and the end of fantasy football in particular would probably be a boon to many businesses ;))

All the same, specific entities within the economy would fight like hell to protect their interests.
 
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IMPACT OF TEXAS SCHOOL LAW HITS HOME WITH FOOTBALL SEASON

Robert Reihhold, Special to the New York Times, November 25, 1985

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/25/us/impact-of-texas-school-law-hits-home-with-football-season.html

" . . . The full implications of the school rule, which is usually called the no-pass, no-play rule [Emphasis added], for this football-crazed state have become apparent as the football season reaches its peak. About one in every seven varsity football players has been put out of uniform for six weeks, and some schools have had to abandon junior varsity play. Moreover, bands, choirs, cheerleading squads, even debating teams have been sidelined. . . "

" . . . The no-pass, no-play rule has caused the most heat. It says that a student who fails even one course with a grade of less than 70 may not participate in extracurricular activities for the next six-week grading period. . . "

" . . . Despite many complaints, polls have shown a large majority of Texans support the rule [Emphasis added]. Apart from the coaches, teachers and administrators generally seem to support it. ''It has has made parents and children more aware, and teachers more accountable,'' said Theo Van Winkle, a long-time English teacher at Memorial High School in the Spring Branch Independent School District . . . "
--> If Texas parents in the mid-'80s can agree to this change, they might well agree to others.

POD 1: In some Texas school districts, the administrators basically do it right and hold public meetings and tell their constituents, Look, even with the medical information we have right now football is basically indefensible.

POD 2: Some of these districts take a temporary measure of moving football to spring-only in a very conscious and open effort to de-emphasize due to health concerns. These same districts ramp up two basketball and two baseball seasons and generally attempt to take the approach of more of everything else.

POD 3: Chris Nowinski in one interview said parents pretty much would have to see specks of tau protein in brain X-rays of their living children and that would be the end of football. Even our hypothetical macho dad would say (this is my riff!), Son, that's it, we're not going to play any more football, there are plenty of other sports. . (but this is beyond even current medical knowledge. However, please see "gaps in medical knowledge" on page 1)
 
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This is a video about Zac Easter, a young man who took his life on Dec. 19, 2015, about six years after his last high school football season. During his life, a doctor said Zac had the symptoms of CTE. Now, the cause of his CTE is uncertain because he had three diagnosed concussions his senior year of football, and he had played through headaches on some occasions because that was what was expected by the social norm. And in the larger scheme of things, and compared to other injuries, playing through a headache doesn't seem like it would be all that big a deal, but maybe it is. He played youth football, junior high football, and high school football. And Zac wrote in his diaries that he had a good life and didn't have regrets, although he clearly struggled a lot toward the end.

If we as a society believe the cause is concussion, then there's a lot to be done to make the game safer and better supervise the game and build on the norm of athletes taking care of each other, which is already there and is strong, just build on it more and let it be the clear and matter-of-fact norm.

However, if the main risk factor of CTE is the cumulative load of a bunch of smaller blows, then there's pretty much nothing to do, other than to gracefully phase out football. His dad said that football's not going to go away and he doesn't want it to go away. This is clearly the positive, constructive, and realistic thing to say, because the bend-the-path action is to make the existing game safer. But all the same, it then kind of becomes the job of other people in the community to say, no, if football causes something as serious as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), then maybe we need to start thinking about other sports entirely. And it's unknown how this conversation will play out. Probably only the occasional member of the community will be confident enough to raise this topic in semi-public settings where other people are talking about the cool parts of football. And perhaps a person simply saying, There are a lot of good sports, it doesn't always have to be about football, is a more low-key and positive way to go about it anyway. And in talking with a member of Zac's family, probably a hug and an 'I'm sorry' is more than enough to say.
 
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'No-Pass, No-Play' at 5: Texas Statute Still a Controversial Model for Reform

Education Week, Nancy Mathis, May 17, 1989.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1989/05/17/08300033.h08.html

' . . . since 1984 legislatures, state school boards, or athletic associations in Alabama,4Arizona, California, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia have raised their academic eligibility requirements for extracurricular activities.

'In 1983, Florida began requiring students to pass four of five high-school courses to retain eligibility, but its policy received little publicity.

'Legislatures in at least six other states have defeated measures to set no-pass, no-play standards during the same five-year period. . . '
This is seven southern states (if we count Texas, Tennessee, and Florida as we certainly should! :)), plus four more additional states, who DID make conscious decisions in the 1980s to de-emphasize athletics for the sake of academics.

As well as at least six other states who DID NOT enact no-pass, no-play. Oh, well. It was a real debate, with no guarantee that it would go any particular way.
 
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http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1989/05/17/08300033.h08.html

' . . . This spring [1989], the Georgia state board of education took the academics-versus-athletics issue a step further by banning spring football practice altogether. . . '
This is a step further than no-pass, no-play, but it happened OTL. It sure looks like it's stopping Spring practices for the express purpose of de-emphasizing. And yes, the state of Georgia was and is most emphatically a football powerhouse.
 
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Michael Chang won the 1989 French Open playing with spirit and heart, and all at age 17!

All the same, no way does tennis have the strategic depth as football.
 
youtube: Flip Rodriguez at the Los Angeles Qualifiers - American Ninja Warrior 2017

It's a great sport, but it's not really a season. You fail one time, you're out till next year. Plus, the broadcasts miss a lot of the competitors, including some who go deep into the course.

PS David 'Flip' Rodriguez did finish this qualifier run!
 
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