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44 Comments
- pilzburybizkit, on 11/01/2009, -2/+35Anyone who watches the NFL knows that they're doing everything they can to protect today's players, often at the expense of the game itself. Nobody forces these guys to play football, they all chose it. All those fines for helmet to helmet hits or hitting a defenseless receiver supposedly go to charity but they just need to publicly use it for ex-players medical expenses. What else could they be expected to do? Please, for the love of the game, don't let congress get more involved.
- bossm4n, on 11/01/2009, -2/+21Even though strides are continually being made in gear to help protect players, anything short of banning the game altogether or having them wear tear-away flags to pull instead of hitting and tackling will do little to prevent injuries these players suffer. Having played the game for many years, not to mention standing on the sidelines for NFL games, I can't begin to explain the speed and force at which these guys collide. And even though someone might not intentionally be using their head to take on an opponent, it only takes a fraction of an inch and a split second for a mistake to be made that causes a devastating injury. As the article mentioned, players continue to get bigger, faster and stronger which means the collisions are even more brutal. You can tell players to shoulder tackle all you want, but collisions using helmets are still going to happen, it's unavoidable.
Yes, I made the decision to play, just as these guys do, soplayers are accountable. The article concludes by saying, "Without a serious change in how the head is used in football, there is no telling what damage we will see tomorrow." Due to how the game is fundamentally played, I don't see how any change would make a difference. Is the new rule going to be that you can only arm tackle or maybe they should play two-below? At that point, take off the pads and strap on the flags. - hulez, on 11/02/2009, -1/+6bushwalking
skiing
basketball
rally driving
surfing
swimming
talking
ect
-all too dangerous. your better off on pete's couch - CptBuck, on 11/02/2009, -2/+7For all the people saying that these guys just need to suck it up I think you're missing out on something crucial here and that is that millions of kids play this game with no financial incentive and no real knowledge of the risk involved. I played football in middle school and highschool and probably had 3 or 4 serious concussions. I played through all of them because, just as you are saying, I thought that I was just supposed to suck it up. What's worse is that coaches made it clear that recovery time amounted to letting the team down.
If you look at the statistics, girls are far more likely to report concussions than boys, largely because they don't have to deal with "suck it up culture." And those are absolute numbers. Considering the more high contact nature of boys sports it should be the exact opposite.
The fact is that the NFL needs to talk about this because if they don't, no one will. Schools need to talk about this, parents need to talk about this, kids need to talk about this. The culture needs to exist that allows kids to speak up when they're injured. Right now it doesn't. - redfan, on 11/02/2009, -3/+7Everyone seems to say that "they know the risks", but do they really? I would be surprised if even a few of these players have been educated on the severe neurological risks that can potentially occur.
Remember, these aren't people who spend their days on the internet reading studies on brain function. They're football players who have been training with a singular focus their entire lives, and have, for the benefit of pretty much everyone around them (coaches, family, etc.) been kept away from anything that could cause them to second-guess their choice of career.
Also it's funny that somehow the "millions of dollars" makes up for the risk of being little more than a vegetable for 20 years of your life. - CptBuck, on 11/02/2009, -1/+5While I agree that the rules shouldn't be changed, what does need to change is the attitude towards concussive head injuries. I had a few bad ones in school and played through them, I had no idea how bad an idea that was. Kids who did know (and by senior year of high school this information was finally starting to trickle down.) and took time off to recover (for a bad concussion it's supposed to be 1-2 weeks depending on various memory function tests) were castigated by Coaches. Coaches had no idea how to recognize concussions. Our quarterback was sacked in a play and the coach called a timeout and, after trying to walk to the opponents sideline and obviously dazed, said to the coach "I don't know what I'm doing." He was being literal; he didn't know where he was. The coach said "you'e doing fine." and sent him back out.
The NFL needs to talk about this and admit that this kind of thing happens because this was in a town where virtually everyone involved in the football program was college educated, and the kids were children of college educated people. If we barely knew what a concussion was I can't imagine what its like in places with less medical knowledge. - CptBuck, on 11/02/2009, -0/+3How many 6th graders do you know who can explain the causes, symptoms, physiology and effects of a concussion? How would your 6th grade self go about researching such a thing? And I started playing late, most towns have pop warner. Would you say the same thing to a 10 year old?
I wasn't stupid, I was ignorant. Millions of other kids still are. - gkiltz, on 11/02/2009, -0/+3For better or worse, the NFL is a mirror of the larger sports culture.
More attention is finally being paid to brain injury throughout sports. More so now that most sports have gotten so complex that the "dumb athlete" stereotype no longer applies. That means athletes HAVE gotten smarter, and brain injury is more devastating.
This is long overdue, but is finally happening. Sports is finally serious about brain injury.
It is probably too late to help those ex-players much, but at least we can prevent the next generation from going the same way. - Jerryskid02, on 11/02/2009, -1/+4It's football. You get paid millions to play, and you know the risks going into it. Suck it up and play the game, or just start the National Flag Football League.
- mwrl, on 11/02/2009, -0/+2They are paid to play a game. In fact even the lowest players in the game are paid very well. I see no problem from the NFL in this case.
- TxAggie08, on 11/02/2009, -1/+3High risk, high reward. I don't feel bad for the multi-millionaires.
- Axxion, on 11/02/2009, -1/+3This is why they get paid millions of dollars, they know these risks. My cousin almost made the cut for Bucs, he knows the risks of being in the NFL.
- xshare, on 11/02/2009, -1/+3That guy just doesn't get it.
- whatthefu, on 11/02/2009, -0/+2Plus, they are getting paid an assload.
- IKORKYI, on 11/02/2009, -0/+2all fines go to charity, which makes it a tax write-off for the player. so, technically, a player has a "fine allowance" that won't cost them money.
- pilzburybizkit, on 11/02/2009, -0/+2$193,000 to sit on the bench and not take a hit. Nope still don't feel bad.
- HappyScrappy, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1Of course they're suffering injuries like this. How could they step out on the field for a game and think otherwise? Never heard of players taking handfulls of analgesics before games?
They're pay is high partly as hazard pay. - nysus, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1The average NFL player averages 3.5 years of NFL football in their careers and, after taxes, and wind up far less than millionaires. From the NFPLA:
"Despite what most people think, not all NFL players are millionaires! For example in 2000, the minimum salary for rookies was $193,000. While the highest paid players in the league can make $7-8 million per year, most players make much less than that. Each team is given a cap on how much they can spend on the players every year called a salary cap (about $62 million in 2000). The best players, usually the starters, take the most room under the cap, while the backups and practice squad players are paid less. This year, the average NFL salary was $1.1 million. Qualifying players also receive a wide variety of fringe benefits including pre-season pay, life, dental and medical insurance, severance pay, disability benefits and pension coverage." - nysus, on 11/02/2009, -0/+120? Try 40 or 50 years. These guys average 3.5 years in the NFL.
- Jeepinator, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1"Also it's funny that somehow the "millions of dollars" makes up for the risk of being little more than a vegetable for 20 years of your life."
They get to play a game that they love for money. I would do that any day. With your logic, we should also be paying police officers millions per year because they have a high risk job. They get paid not for the risks they take, but for their particular skills. Chris Johnson doesn't get paid by the Titans to take big hits, he gets paid because he is ***** fast.
The players do know the risks. They have all seen teammates get seriously injured or they have been injured themselves. They haven't been prevented from knowledge of injuries. In fact, I would say it's quite the opposite. Coaches train their players how to hit and tell them what can happen if they hit wrong. They all know what concussions can lead to. - Peko, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1I looked it up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_Lea ...
The league minimum for a Rookie this year is currently $310k (unless I'm misunderstanding when a season is, I'm presuming '09)
I make no statement on if that's a lot of money (or not). - CptBuck, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1Who are you referring to? The NFL players who are in wheelchairs due to brain damage or the people writing about those NFL players?
I really hope you're referring to Goodell. - superfrodies, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1an in depth article on the subject was in last week's new yorker. interesting read: http://digg.com/political_opinion/Football_dog_fig ...
- nysus, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1That's a quote from the article.
- TxAggie08, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1Average NFL Salary is 1.1 million, even counting the bench warmers. I REALLY don't feel bad. By the way 1.1 million times average of 3.5 years, means the expected lifetime salary for an NFL career is 3.85 million, which equals millionaire if they don't piss it away (even after taxes they are still millionaires). There I taught you something about statistics.
- IKORKYI, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1watch a rugby game
- Crimeodial, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1Animals don't consent to that kind of behavior, or gain anything out of it. People do. Kindly STFU. I played football for 10 years of my life, not for financial gain, but because I enjoyed the game. I knew the risks, I have problems with my knee, and probably will for the rest of my life, but I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.
- TheCollective00, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1I also stopped playing sports, exercising, and/or leaving my room, all to ensure I won't suffer brain damage.
no /s
Why the ***** do you think I'm on digg? - bays, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1why not get rid of the helmets and pads, or at least get lightweight rugby-style protection. it seems like its the heavy armor that causes most of the damage
- pilzburybizkit, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1Oh no, you can't say that's a lot of money?
- TheCollective00, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1wow your list is full of stuff I don't do...no wonder I'm on digg!
- TheCollective00, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1Good for you, but it's still outdated condensed tribal conflict. Some day in the far future, humanity will probably evolve past the need for such behavior. If we don't nuke ourselves off the planet first, of course.
- Riggs28, on 11/02/2009, -0/+1I can, that's a ***** lot of money
- HappyScrappy, on 11/02/2009, -1/+1walk it off, whiner.
- Jeepinator, on 11/02/2009, -1/+1Your coach is retarded if he didn't educate his players on things like that. A smart coach knows that allowing an injured player time to recover will pay off in the long run.
- demonicume, on 11/02/2009, -1/+1They hate life after football anyways. Hey, maybe V8 will sponsor a vegetable!
They can't have it both ways. They get free admission to major academic universities and get quality educations (when they don't major in sociology or African American Studies). They gain admission through lowered requirements (SEC athletic SAT scores are 300+ points lower than regular students). They get to the NFL and play a game for a living and make MILLIONS. I'd trade possible head injury for that. Course, I'm in the Army, and I trade getting blown away by some makeshift bomb tucked into a shoebox for less than $40k a year. If I die on a drill weekend or while deployed, my wife may make 5% of a standard NFL signing bonus. Now if we both get deployed and go down, our combines civilian and military death benefits will make our sons millionaires... - Broschati, on 11/02/2009, -3/+2I'm going to stop playing sports, exercising, and/or leaving my room, all to ensure I wont suffer brain damage.
/s
And yeah, I
Wrestled in highschool
Played football in highschool
currently play on a club Rugby team - swantamer, on 11/02/2009, -2/+1Overpaid so who gives a flying *****? Let 'em starve to death wandering in the streets; just don't use my tax dollars for their care.
- gfryesc, on 11/02/2009, -2/+1suweet. I had wondered when the nanny state liberals would get around to dismantling Football [who is also run by liberals!]. If the NFL were just trying to get started in 2009, it would never make it. that's how far of a society we've gone. It's amazing.
- boogerthecat, on 11/02/2009, -2/+1I love how little twerps that were picked last as kids grow up to be big twerps and crap on things they are too big a douche to be a part of.
- morpheus1000, on 11/02/2009, -2/+0sack farve now.
- Broschati, on 11/02/2009, -3/+1"I played football in middle school and highschool and probably had 3 or 4 serious concussions. I played through all of them because, just as you are saying, I thought that I was just supposed to suck it up."
And who's fault is that? That merely shows your stupidity. - BerateBirthers, on 11/02/2009, -4/+1Why we allow barbaric things like this to be done in the name of "sport" is beyond me. We wouldn't allow people to bet on two animals running at full force against each other. We must demand more of ourselves.
- audioslavery, on 11/02/2009, -4/+1Buried for inserting personal opinion in description.
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