NFL, concussions and more

[gumbomoop]

I haven't followed NFL for years. I am somewhat aware of the concussion issues and debates. Never heard of Chris Borland, but here's an article well worth a read.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13463272/how-former-san-francisco-49ers-chris-borland-retirement-change-nfl-forever

[Bostondevil]

"I don't really trust the NFL," he says.

Amen to that.

[luburch]

Just last night RGIII left the game with a concussion.

Football is a scary sport. I played it for three years when I was younger (before I came to my senses and started running cross country :D ) but I think I would have serious reservations about letting my child play.

[Tom B.]

Well, the NFL can't be happy about this. Coming to theaters just in time for the NFL playoffs, too.

http://www.vox.com/2015/8/31/9232191/will-smith-concussion-movie-trailer

[Tom B.]

87 out of 91 brains of deceased NFL players tested positive of CTE. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sports/concussion-watch/new-87-deceased-nfl-players-test-positive-for-brain-disease/)

The testers acknowledge some likely selection bias -- the brains were donated by players (or the families of players) who thought they might be suffering from CTE, so one would expect the percentage of positive tests to be higher than the incidence of CTE in the football-playing population at large. But 95% is a sobering number, no matter how you look at it.

[duke79]

87 out of 91 brains of deceased NFL players tested positive of CTE. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sports/concussion-watch/new-87-deceased-nfl-players-test-positive-for-brain-disease/)

The testers acknowledge some likely selection bias -- the brains were donated by players (or the families of players) who thought they might be suffering from CTE, so one would expect the percentage of positive tests to be higher than the incidence of CTE in the football-playing population at large. But 95% is a sobering number, no matter how you look at it.

Never good to get your head bashed around repeatedly, even if you're wearing a helmet.

[DukieInKansas]

Never good to get your head bashed around repeatedly, even if you're wearing a helmet.

Clemson is working on designing a better helmet: http://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/new-research-could-lead-to-safer-football-helmets/

[cspan37421]

There is an argument that holds that boxing without gloves is safer than with gloves. The reason is that gloves enable the one hitting to hit harder without pain, and thus deliver more trauma to the brain of the opponent, than one could bear if bare-knuckled.

I wonder if there is an analogous argument against helmets in football. My guess is that the analogy is imperfect, but still worth considering. Football is only just starting to rein in the use of helmets as a weapon ... similar to gloves. On the other hand, helmets offer some protection against acute surface trauma, such as the head hitting a hard object (like a knee, another person's head, etc). So there are instances where the elimination of helmets would sharply reduce the use of the head as a tackling* weapon, but it would simultaneously eliminate its ability to serve any legitimate protective role.

My understanding is that there were many head injuries in pre-helmet football days, and that's what led to them. But their evolution seems to have turned them into the FB equivalent of the boxing glove. No helmet can protect the brain from hitting the inside of the skull when momentum suddenly changes. Perhaps there's a happy medium somewhere to be found in helmet design and rule changes/enforcement.

* heh. Right there you see one problem. Football has become less about tackling and more about hitting. As long as that is the case, we'll have CTE.

[DukieInKansas]

Maybe it should become the NFFL?



National Flag Football League