I would say Mike Webster’s family, (among many others), would disagree.
I love football, but the brain trauma issue is real, and concerning. The size and speed of today’s player makes football dangerous. I don’t have an answer, but it is a real problem.
People are being sucked in by BS. Women do not compete in men’s baseball, men’s swimming, men’s basketball, men’s wrestling, etc, etc, etc. Men are men, women are women....most of them anyway. Live with it.
But the concussion-issue is serious, and I don't think it's dawned on that many people, yet.
I do think you have a point, murron. However, I think the war on football is more complex. I personally feel it is “anti-alpha male”. Let me explain: football players are “masculine”. By that, I mean metro-sexuals don’t do well in the sport. These boys/men train to take or give a hard hit, run like the wind etc... IMHO, football is at the center of controversy right now. Hockey will be next. Any sport defined as truly “masculine” will be questioned in the future.
$$$ for trial lawyers and unions is the issue.
I’ve long said that I hope to see the day that football goes the way of boxing (for you youngsters, boxing was a major sport not too long ago).
In the 60’s, at least it was an entertaining battle of wits. Now, it’s all coaches with the rules rigged for offense. It’s not a “sport” anymore, it’s a TV show. A TV show that cripples its stars.
Just another phase of the UN/Communist global conspiracy to have the USA adopt soccer as the sport of choice. I remember when it was introduced to my elementary school as a recess /PE game back in the 60’s. I instinctly knew that was going to be used as some sort of indoctrinational tool then. Back then the only rule that we really had was that we couldn’t use our hands and we had to include everyone because anyone could kick a ball if it came their way.
Of course times have changed and I know that some people are really in to it which is cool but I would still rather watch paint dry then a zero-zero tie game.
As someone who played high school football at a Texas powerhouse, I have noticed that since the early 1970s the left has been at war with football at the school level, Wally was just about the last TV or movie, school figure (HS or college)that could play football and still be seen as good, nice, intelligent, normal.
For decades, being a football player, or later, cheerleader, or now, an attractive blond girl, means you are the villain, or at least shallow, mean, and stupid.
I’ve been at war with professional sports for some time. I will remain in a state of war until they give up their habit of blackmailing politicians into spending taxpayer money to build their facilities for them. They can afford to build their own play pens.
Aw geez. So if you don’t want to get hurt, don’t freaking play.
See? Wasn’t that easy?
This is absurd.
It is because a group of socialist owners (and yes they are socialists, see how they take from rich owners and give to poor owners, see how the NFL “punished” the Washington Redskins for “violating the spirit of the cap and competitive balance” and see how the owners blackmail taxpayers for billions in subsidies) are afraid of law suits from former players who were never educated on the seriousness of concussions.
Most people who have actually played football (as I have)know that waking up the day after a game is damn well impossible. The players, who have made billions in dollars and equity for the owners are now suing because concussion education was not there a generation ago and you see the life span of these men being in the 50s, as opposed to being in the 70s as the average American male.
Consider that fact, if you play in the NFL you are more likely to die in your 50s or early 60s. You are literally cutting a decade off your life.
The NFL will need to change (most likely with weight limits by position in the future) in order to survive. Who would be dumb enough to let their sons play when the potential consequences are immense
...Football isn’t entirely American, it’s evolved on from rugby.
And this isn’t the first time people have worried about the safety of the game. Hell, Teddy Roosevelt had to step in to keep Congress from banning it after college kids kept dying.
And a WAR on football? Jeez. The biggest televised event of the year is a football game. The industry rakes in billions of dollars a year. Hockey would kill somebody if it would get them the same “war.”
True liberals do not like competetive sports of any kind, period.
They also have a curious lack of a sense of humor and tend to be bitter and miserable by nature.
Liberals are simply wired differently than normal people.