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

[GeographyDude]

Both physical and cognitive rest are important in treating concussion (the part about cognitive rest surprised me!). So, perhaps half-days at school for a while?

The issue with CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) is a more difficult issue because a major contributing factor seems to be the accumulation of lesser blows. So, even if there’s a really good program to prevent, recognize, and manage concussions, it’s not going to help very much with this. Brain damage in many cases is probably caused by a combination of both. One study estimated that about 30% of NFL players will likely have real difficulties, often on the EQ (Emotional Quotient) side of the spectrum.

Let's assume, (1) the issue catches Ronnie's attention during a high period of his popularity, (2), he keeps the focus on high school and college athletics, and (3) he skillfully undersells the issue.

 

[GeographyDude]

. . de-emphasizing football . .

Reagan's conservatism would very much play to strength. He'd likely say something of the sort, I'm not trying to tell local school officials what to do. I think people should look at the evidence and make up their own minds.

=====

This is all predicated on the assumption that the issue grabs Ronnie's attention. His was very much an artist type personality who focused on a relatively small subset of issues.

 

[Miss Teri]

Reagan played football in college, so I don't think he'll de-emphasize it. Perhaps he'll advocate better safety regulations and more research to make the sport safer to play.

 

[Sasalele]

Didn't the Real Gipper die from a concussion? Maybe Reagan reads an article in a magazine years after his portrayal and becomes curious? That could spike his interest.

 

[ggarner57]

Didn't the Real Gipper die from a concussion? Maybe Reagan reads an article in a magazine years after his portrayal and becomes curious? That could spike his interest.

He died of Strep throat after playing a game in November during a rainstorm. But maybe if someone else like that gets one, CTE research could begin.

 

[GeographyDude]

Ronnie will probably peg his experiences as a young man playing college football as 'normal.' And then when he sees a lot more money in the sport, a lot more practice hours, high school athletes bulking up in an arms race of sorts which is really happening today and may well have been happening to a lesser extent in the '80s, he may well feel it's all gone too far.

 

[GeographyDude]

and pro basketball took a quantum leap forward in the '80s with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and of course Michael Jordan.

=================

and college basketball became much more widely followed:

1983 NC State vs. Houston​

1984 Georgetown vs. Houston​

1985 Villanova vs. Georgetown​

 

[GeographyDude]

Texas' school reform law of 1984 still touches millions of students

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/loca...-still-touches-millions-of-texas-students.ece

' . . . The no-pass, no-play rule, the 22-pupil limit in elementary schools, prekindergarten classes for disadvantaged children and high school graduation tests were all provisions of the law, pushed by Dallas billionaire Ross Perot. . . '

' . . The school reform effort of 1984 was led by Perot, then a Republican, and two Democrats — Gov. Mark White and Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby. . . . . . in the face of strong opposition from high school coaches, teacher groups and even the State Board of Education. [Emphases added]. . . '

So, it was H. Ross Perot vs. the high school coaches, and the coaches lost!

 

[packmanwiscy]

Reagan would be the last president to try to de-emphasize football (perhaps maybe Teddy and Ford). Football is most popular in the more conservative states (Alabama, Tennessee, Texas), and I know more than a couple Republicans (anecdotal, but I feel this is a common feeling among them) that football even now is becoming softer than it should. The most you are going to get is a larger stress on technologies that limit CTE. Football by the 1980's is too large to be stopped even by the President

 

[GeographyDude]

In OTL, a lot of the discussion has focused on the NFL and the fact that the players make a shit ton of money. And often that's where the discussion stops—just at rank jealousy. When it continues, it sometimes gets to, hey, these athletes at some level know what risk they're taking and they're adults. Of course the League and the teams still have a human obligation to be forthright with the health information they do have.

But if the discussion had first focused on amateur athletes . . .

=======

And I'm also looking at an only-Nixon-can-go-to-China effect. It's precisely because Reagan is a conservative, and because he has a reputation for strength, that if he talks about this issue in a low-key way, he might be surprisingly effective. For example, if he says, I think state legislators and school board members should look at the information and make up their own minds, they just might.

 

[Penny for The Guy]

Reagn's Speech.

Speech by President Ronald Reagan, May 10, 1985

Good evening, America.

Back in the days when I worked for a living, before getting into politics, I was privileged to have played one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, George Gipp in Knute Rockne, a movie about one of the greatest coaches of all time. I must have done a good job in that part, because afterwards, my nickname became The Gipper, in tribute to that same George Gipp.

I was proud to have played football in high school and college, and to have portrayed one of the true greats of the game. But things today are much different than they were back in the 1920s and 1930s. The game is played by professionals, including professionals in the college games.

When you have a situation where students who cannot pass their courses are kept enrolled just in order to guarantee a winning season to the university, those kids are just as much a professional as Joe Namath.

In addition, the game is played harder, and with greater chances for injury, even among high school kids. We are a better nation than to endanger our children's future for a few hours of entertainment. However, this is not a matter for the Federal Government. It is a matter for the local school boards, for the universities themselves, for the people, for You, my fellow Americans, to decide.

The state of Texas has recently passed legislation which addressed part of this issue, and I commend them for seeking a local solution to a local problem.

The Presidency is, as Teddy Roosevelt declared, a "bully pulpit". I am using this bully pulpit to urge local action, if that is your decision. The Federal government cannot possibly make a regulation which will properly fit every condition in the nation. That is you to you. For the future of our country, for our children.

Thank you, and good night.

 

[GeographyDude]

very nicely done, I can hear Reagan's voice.

And with May '85, did you roll it forward a year, which I do like. or, did you have something more specific in mind?

 

[Penny for The Guy]

After the election

very nicely done, I can hear Reagan's voice.

And with May '85, did you roll it forward a year, which I do like. or, did you have something more specific in mind?

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.

As far as the tone, just cribbing off RR's Farewell Speech.

 

[GeographyDude]

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.

 

[GeographyDude]

Let's say Texas moves football to Spring-only in a conscious effort to de-emphasize due to health concerns. And let's say most Texas school districts create two basketball seasons and two baseball seasons, one in the Fall and one in the Spring.

And several other states follow Texas' lead and also move football to Spring-only. And there's a bill pending in Congress to require universities to move football to the Spring. And it's at this point that President Reagan gives the above speech.

 

[GeographyDude]

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/29/u...as-special-report-education.html?pagewanted=3

" . . . The mid-1980's were a time when sweeping education acts were being enacted by several states, including Arkansas under Gov. Bill Clinton and Tennessee under Gov. Lamar Alexander, now Secretary of Education. Frank Newman, president of the Education Commission of the States, which monitors school reform around the country, called Texas's law a "reasonably good example," although he believes that South Carolina's changes were probably the best in the nation. [Emphases added] . . . "

School reform was in the air.

 

[GeographyDude]

http://neatoday.org/2013/04/25/a-nation-at-risk-turns-30-where-did-it-take-us-2/

'On April 26, 1983 [Emphasis added], President Ronald Reagan stood before the press and television cameras in the State Dining Room at the White House and held up a report titled A Nation at Risk. Eighteen months in the making and written by the blue-ribbon members . . . '

School reform was in the air.

 

[GeographyDude]

Potential Flight of Fancy

In late Spring 1986, the big-time SEC makes the announcement that they will play two more seasons of football and then discontinue the sport in order to concentrate on other sports.

When there's no winning tweaks or small reforms, every so often an organization makes bold moves.

 

[GeographyDude]

All Dr. Bennet Omalu did was take thin slices of brain tissue, make decisions about staining and preparation, and then look at them under the microscope. Yes, he deserves credit for a lot of things, for having a lot of heart, for having the determination to do the right thing in spite of opposition, for having both intellectual curiosity and the ability to follow-through, but all the same, it could have been done decades earlier.

Former college football player and WWE Chris Nowinski has said that once MRIs or similar imaging technology improves to the point that parents can see accumulating tau protein in the brains of (some) high school football players, that's basically going to be the end of football.

I'm looking for a POD somewhere between the two of these, that is, some evidence but not overwhelming.

 

[GeographyDude]

. . . temporarily changing the topic to influenza

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/health/research/04flu-001.html?_r=2

" . . . In children without chronic health problems, it is a warning sign if they seem to recover from the flu but then relapse with a high fever, Dr. Frieden said. The relapse may be bacterial pneumonia, . . . "

And presumably for adults, too. This is the kind of specific, usable health information that people are often all over.

And of course, don't panic, just call your regular doctor's office and ask them to please call in a prescription. And you might even find that the phrase "possible pneumonia" gets more attention than a word of profanity!

---------

Again, what if there had been earlier knowledge about football and brain health?