CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: ELA on August 30, 2017, 03:59:47 PM
-
This ain't going away https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/sports/espn-ed-cunningham-football-concussions.html?mcubz=1
-
And here in Iowa, I thought Cunningham resigned because of Kirk Ferentz: http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/football/2017/08/30/ed-cunningam-espn-resigns-dangers-football-iowa-hawkeyes-cj-beathard-kirk-ferentz-outback-bowl/616702001/ (http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/football/2017/08/30/ed-cunningam-espn-resigns-dangers-football-iowa-hawkeyes-cj-beathard-kirk-ferentz-outback-bowl/616702001/)
-
And, incidentally, while I didn't get to see the Iowa-Florida debacle. I did see enough games where Beathard played hurt as a junior where I thought he should be on the sidelines, and felt much the same way as Cunningham. I wasn't thinking someone would take a cheap shot at his head, but when Beathard is relatively immobile, that someone might cause him some other injury that would sideline him for the next few weeks, if not the season.
In the MLB they basically tell you if you have a pulled muscle in your leg, you are on the disabled list 15-days, and that usually means 3-weeks off until you recover. The speculation in the 2015 season (when Iowa started out 12-0) was Beathard had a pulled groin muscle. He was immobile in the Northwestern game, and I was shocked to see him being played in that game, at all. He may have had a pulled groin, or he may not have -- in the off-season during 2016 Beathard had sports hernia surgery which seems to me probably even more serious.
My own thoughts are that NCAA football needs to look at what other sports do to rest injuries.
-
I admire him for taking a principled stance.
As I've said many times on [the previous] board, this is one of those issues that really concerns me. And there's a portion of me that says I should stop watching and supporting it. I really do feel that football, at particularly the collegiate and professional level, is destroying brains. Yet I still watch.
-
Good post, bwar.
Good post.
-
Good post, bwar.
Good post.
+2
-
I admire him for taking a principled stance.
As I've said many times on [the previous] board, this is one of those issues that really concerns me. And there's a portion of me that says I should stop watching and supporting it. I really do feel that football, at particularly the collegiate and professional level, is destroying brains. Yet I still watch.
The more we learn the less I feel bad for guys going in eyes wide open.
That said, if this is their only path to a college scholarship or to a lucrative NFL career, I feel bad that this was their one way out, and I support it.
I will say, the amount I follow/care about football has certainly waned over the past 5 or so years, and this is part of it.
-
I keep hearing the #'s of kids trying out of pee-wee football is declining. Kids are being encouraged to take up other sports.
While I don't see football losing the #1 spot for popularity, I can't help but think the gap will be closed.
-
I keep hearing the #'s of kids trying out of pee-wee football is declining. Kids are being encouraged to take up other sports.
While I don't see football losing the #1 spot for popularity, I can't help but think the gap will be closed.
Lots of people like watching it, who won't let their kids play, me included.
Then my kids' generation will have not played it, and will probably like it far less.
Then it will be dead.
Same path boxing took, granted PPV and the failure of the sport to shift from being so heavyweight class focused once that class became awful didn't help.
-
Heh, I say the thread title, and wondered how you could possibly get head trauma from broadcasting.
-
ELA.. agree. I didn't believe it until I started volunteering at my kids grade school, but this "next" generation doesn't follow football like we did. I live in the KC metro I saw more soccer jerseys/shirts (mostly international) than I saw pro football (except for chiefs Fridays). It actually stood out and a few teachers told me they see the same thing. They also see more baseball than they did 10 years ago. I thought that was interesting too.
That doesn't mean football will go away, but other sports are going to catch up in popularity.
-
I keep hearing the #'s of kids trying out of pee-wee football is declining. Kids are being encouraged to take up other sports.
While I don't see football losing the #1 spot for popularity, I can't help but think the gap will be closed.
Lots of people like watching it, who won't let their kids play, me included.
Then my kids' generation will have not played it, and will probably like it far less.
Then it will be dead.
Same path boxing took, granted PPV and the failure of the sport to shift from being so heavyweight class focused once that class became awful didn't help.
No way I'd let my kids play. If they don't make anything of their football career, it's basically taking an unnecessary risk with their brains and jeopardizing their ability to excel in the workplace as an adult because they may develop cognitive issues. If they did end up in the NFL (long shot), they'd be trading health for money, and I'd rather not outlive my children or see one of them battling depression and cognitive decline in their 40's due to CTE.
-
No way I'd let my kids play. If they don't make anything of their football career, it's basically taking an unnecessary risk with their brains and jeopardizing their ability to excel in the workplace as an adult because they may develop cognitive issues. If they did end up in the NFL (long shot), they'd be trading health for money, and I'd rather not outlive my children or see one of them battling depression and cognitive decline in their 40's due to CTE.
No way I'd let my kids play. If they don't make anything of their football career, it's basically taking an unnecessary risk with their brains and jeopardizing their ability to excel in the workplace as an adult because they may develop cognitive issues. If they did end up in the NFL (long shot), they'd be trading health for money, and I'd rather not outlive my children or see one of them battling depression and cognitive decline in their 40's due to CTE.
I do have a question for you..... if you feel this strongly about it, why do you still watch other kids risk their health?
-
that's not an attack btw... honest question.
I struggle a bit too.. My "watching" has declined a lot. In fact, I rarely watch the NFL anymore. I know a lot of people who played HS football and there appears to be no issues. But the longer you play.. well, it's a conflict for me. I love the sport. Love the hits. I understand the risks. I'm hoping they find ways to make head injuries safer and less of an occurrence without changing the sport to 7 on 7 drills.
-
I do have a question for you..... if you feel this strongly about it, why do you still watch other kids risk their health?
Because it's exciting. Because I love the game.
As I mentioned up above, I'm conflicted about it. I feel like I shouldn't be watching and contributing to it, but at the same time sports is some of the most compelling programming on television.
I actually explained this to my oldest son (10) a few weeks ago. When you watch a TV show, when you watch a movie, it can be exciting, because you don't know what's going to happen. But someone does know what's going to happen, because someone created that content deliberately. With sports, nobody knows what's going to happen. It's developing before our eyes. That creates an immediacy that nearly no other content can provide. It's the same reason people watched the OJ low-speed chase. It was a shared experience where the people watching it--and the people involved in it--were all experiencing something unique together and nobody knew the outcome.
I didn't watch Mayweather/McGregor, because I don't care as much about boxing and didn't want to spend the money. But I was sitting there refreshing twitter all Saturday getting reactions to it because I was legitimately interested in the outcome. If it was on non-PPV, I would have watched it.
Does that make me a bad person? That I'm willing to watch people bludgeon each other mercilessly, whether it's with boxing gloves and their fists, or through high-speed collisions that may cause permanent cognitive impairment? I don't know, maybe it makes me a bad person. That's what I struggle with.
-
As for me, I am not convinced it does not affect young high school brains.
And yet the tactics, the anticipation needed to perform at a high level, especially for undersized persons like me, and the strength, resilience and work effort of these players are something I learned a lot about as a kid, and respect in people who play now.
I do have the same concerns expressed by Cunningham. These guys literally knock their brains out. The damage is hidden for 20 or 30 years, but usually becomes apparent. I hope we find a solution but it seems elusive.
The collisions in high school are not as high speed; most of us experienced having our bell rung, and continued to play back in our day before all this concussion protocol. I am convinced it does affect high school brains.
-
At NU, football team and researchers have teamed up to tackle concussion protocol
https://www.starherald.com/sports/big_red_wrap/football/at-nu-football-team-and-researchers-have-teamed-up-to/article_186a10ab-226f-599f-99f8-cb0e1f6855d9.html (https://www.starherald.com/sports/big_red_wrap/football/at-nu-football-team-and-researchers-have-teamed-up-to/article_186a10ab-226f-599f-99f8-cb0e1f6855d9.html)
LINCOLN — Of all the team rules Scott Frost set in his first spring as Nebraska football coach, at least one remains different from any other program in the country.
Every player on the active roster must receive a baseline MRI scan. No exceptions.
So in late July and early August, 110 Huskers cycled through the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior — known simply as “CB3” — embedded in the southeast corner of Memorial Stadium for the procedure that lasts about an hour.
-
It's hard for me. Badger football was a core part of my collegiate experience, and it has remained the best way to stay connected with my best college friends, despite living 2000 miles away. It was part of the early days of my marriage--heck, it played a key role in my relationship with SFIrish in the first instance. Arguably going to a Stanford/Notre Dame game together was the catalyst.
Heck, I even like all you guys. 'Cept Badge. He's too sensAtive. :)
I probably spent more time on here last fall than watching football games--and you guys know I haven't been here as much as in the old days.
Giving up the NFL was easy because I mostly stopped watching it when we had kids and I didn't have time for two-day football-watching marathons. So "giving up" the NFL is a bit like giving up liver and onions for Lent.
But the "eyes wide open" approach doesn't work for me. Nearly all of these players start the sport when they are kids, far too young to know what their future holds--or what it could hold. By the time they are juniors in high school, with the locals and college coaches dripping all over them because of their amazing exploits, we're expecting a 16-year old boy to think, "you know, I'm really good at this, people love me for it, but nah, I think I'll throw myself into chemical engineering."
Adults create and perpetuate this, not high school kids. So the adults are the ones whose eyes should be wide open.
And I completely understand the lessons people learn from football. There's a reason there's a plaque (of dubious accuracy) at West Point quoting General George Marshall, "I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player." The teamwork and life skills football teaches are similar to the military: hard work, perseverance, reliably doing your job, and counting the person next to you to do his. Football is unique among sports in its approach to teamwork--and the combination with difficult physical demands is a big part of it.
So now I'm looking at when I might visit Wisconsin this fall. My schedule makes it hard in September and October, but I could do November. The Iowa game is my favorite annual Wisconsin game; it's on November 9. I could probably make it. Or do I wait for the release of the basketball schedule? Right now I'm waiting. But I haven't made up my mind.
-
If I had a kid, I'd let him play. The odds are so stacked against him playing past high school that I wouldn't worry. It's almost as if playing enough years of elite-level football and getting CTE is like the worst lottery ticket you can get. If my kid got a concussion in HS, he'd sit out the rest of the year and play again the following year. If there's a concussion #2, he's done. He'd know this before he ever took a snap, so he couldn't fight it.
If you're a top recruit or a top draft pick, if you're that talented, you're sot of obligated to continue playing (realistically).
-
The Bethard game, specifically, looked worse than it was, in hindsight. He hurt his hamstring on a big hit and his inability to escape other hits from an aggressive defense. He looked stunted or woosy, but he was just hobbling around on a bad hammy.
I do not understand leaving him in late, in a blowout, like that. But before then, I think there was an illusion of him looking like a stunned boxer, but it was the hammy.