NFL phases way down by 1995, earlier knowledge of CTE, plus the high road.

And that’s the main challenge. Give me min changes so that there’s at least a 30% chance it will phase down primarily because of people taking the high road.

(a similar challenge might be to make the min changes of greater scientific literacy so that Erich von Däniken‘s Chariots of the Gods? falls on deaf ears)

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As example of high road . . .


Chris Borland announced his retirement in March 2015 after one season with the San Francisco 49ers because of concern about brain damage. And not just concussions, but also the large number of lesser blows (measured in g-forces).

Chris basically talked about not being able to achieve what he wanted to achieve if he was [not in so many words] playing it safe. And an ESPN guy said it was both the injury he was at risk of, and also at risk of doling out and he found that morally troubling.

And Chris returned 3/4’s of his signing bonus since he only played 1 out of 4 years on his contract (with complication of pre-tax).

All in all, pretty high road.

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Please give me other, earlier ways. :)
 
CTE disproportionately affects linemen. . .
Maybe start from standing position and the combat evolves along the lines of grappling?

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And with receivers and defenders, you let the guys scrap a little. You avoid most of these ticky-tack pass inference calls.

Instead, what you really focus on avoiding are the full-frontal collisions.
 
Maybe start from standing position and the combat evolves along the lines of grappling?

————————

And with receivers and defenders, you let the guys scrap a little. You avoid most of these ticky-tack pass inference calls.

Instead, what you really focus on avoiding are the full-frontal collisions.

I'd love to see this bit it would require the NFL to stop having this stance that it has now of not ever wanting to pass a rule that could advantage the defense. The NFL owners right now would just about rather cut their own nether organs off than cease the inexorable march towards basketball on grass.
 
I wonder if the one yard of separation rule in Canadian football makes a difference
IIRC,. yes a lot, make the game faster as the recievers and Linemen are thinner.
But doesn't both the separation and the faster players led to greater g-force collisions when they occur?

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I am glad if Canada is able to avoid the "arms races" of weight training and supplements (just bare side of legality) which apparently occurs even down at the high school level in American football
 
Could do expanded rosters, keep players on a pitch count, replace the game clock with alternating possessions (so lopsided games end early).

And with earlier knowledge of CTE starting in the early 1980s -- plus fair dose of high road -- American colleges and universities decide there is simply no way they can justify even safer versions of the game.

By the end of the decade, the former "Superbowl" is less watched than are the games of the Stanley Cup Final in pro hockey. The NFL even experiments with having "Super Day" composed of three shorter games in three different categories.

From the late '80s and early '90s, some pro football athletes we're familiar with still go into football, but some go into other sports. For example, maybe the very talented Dallas Cowboys hall-of-fame receiver Michael Irvin goes into Olympic-style decathlon events?
 
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Why phase it down? Why not the opposite? Spiked gloves, no helmet, able to get points if they win in a fight, etc?
As a fan and an advocate of public health, I’d be agin’ it. :mad:

But for purposes of AH . . . Sure, let the good times roll! :openedeyewink:


They will have to avoid the fate of the XFL in 2001 which failed after one season.

Co-owned by Vince McMahon and NBC, this promised a tougher, more violent form of football, as well as more in-your-face sexuality from the cheerleaders. For example, at one game, they promised a halftime tour of the cheerleaders’ dressing room and kind of delivered with this weird, surreal dream sequence — with the ladies covering the camera guy’s face with kisses, and two ladies playing Twister with a guy in a gorilla suit, two other ladies resting their legs on guys as foot rests with these guys wearing some other type of animal masks, a lady wielding a riding crop in jaunty fashion, playing poker with the devil, etc. Yeah! , just a tad over the top.;)

But, the football product was lacking. As I understand, the commercials were great, the games not so much.

———

PS Vince McMahon is variously putting in either 100 million or 500 million and plans to reboot in 2020, and in a “family friendly” format at that! Stay tuned.
 
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20180726_Smoking_Rate-1.jpg

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...g-rate-falls-to-historic-low-infographic/amp/

Why hasn’t football followed the tobacco model?

And if you want to come up with equivalent(s) to e-cigs and vaping, I’m all ears!
 
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/football-white-flight-racial-divide/581623/

‘ . . . Conversations about CTE tend to focus on the dangers of concussions, but brains can also be damaged by frequent hits to the head. . . ’
This is a key hinge point.

In OTL, the conversation has focused almost entirely on concussions, such as “concussion protocol.” [both cognitive and physical rest, and then once symptoms clear, a gradual re-introduction to the activity over a number of days]

But with boxing, the idea of a boxer being “punch drunk” in his later years, and not just from the big blows but from the sheer cumulative total of all the lesser blows, has been known for a heck of a long time.

That would have made for a very different conversation, which could play out in an ATL.
 
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Because smoking cigarettes doesn't hold the possibility of being able to make millions of dollars?

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/football-white-flight-racial-divide/581623/
I’m going to guess that the parents mainly talk about college scholarships, if for no other reason than that people like to pretend good, including and especially to themselves! But the outside possibility of a huge contract would certainly be a sweetner.

And it’s not just college itself. It’s meeting and being appreciated by rich alumni. It’s being inside the club rather on the outside looking in.

I’m going to look up how many scholarships big-time college football has at the Universtiy of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, etc.
 
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I’m going to guess that the parents mainly talk about college scholarships, if for no other reason than that people like to pretend good, including and especially to themselves! But outside possibility of huge contract would certainly be a sweetner.

And it’s not just college itself. It’s meeting and being appreciated by rich alumni. It’s being inside the club rather on the outside looking in.

I’m going to look up how many scholarships big-time college football has at the Universtiy of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, etc.

Well, I trust we all know that college football stars do get paid, much as the NCAA might not want to acknowledge as much.
 
I’m going to guess that the parents mainly talk about college scholarships, if for no other reason than that people like to pretend good, including and especially to themselves! But outside possibility of huge contract would certainly be a sweetner.

And it’s not just college itself. It’s meeting and being appreciated by rich alumni. It’s being inside the club rather on the outside looking in.

I’m going to look up how many scholarships big-time college football has at the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, etc.

FBS has a limit of 85 per team.

Some private schools get around it by waiving tuition for all low income students and admitting athletes who don't qualify academically, but schools are limited in the number of walk-ons and overall roster size.

There are also states with low tuition and in some cases full scholarships (Louisiana has TOPS and Georgia has HOPE), but if you qualify for those you don't need football to get an education.
 
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