Posted on 01/19/2014 7:36:54 AM PST by Sub-Driver
January 19, 2014, 10:10 am Obama: Danger of concussions in NFL ‘no longer a secret’
By Justin Sink
President Obama said that he believed NFL players “know what they’re doing” and understood the impact that concussions could have on their long-term health in an interview with The New Yorker published on Sunday, adding that he would not let his son play pro football.
“At this point, there’s a little bit of caveat emptor,” Obama said. “These guys, they know what they’re doing. They know what they’re buying into. It is no longer a secret. It’s sort of the feeling I have about smokers, you know?”
In August, the NFL agreed to a $765 million settlement in a lawsuit brought against the league by former players. The league did not admit any liability or that brain injuries were the result of playing football, but the money will be split among former players and medical researchers. A federal judge has not yet approved the deal.
Existing research has shown that repeated concussions can be associated with memory loss and behavioral changes. They’re also linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative brain disease.
The president made the comments while speaking aboard Air Force One with David Remnick, the magazine’s editor and a former sportswriter for The Washington Post.
Obama said that while the risks were understood, if he had a son, he would not allow him to play professional football.
“I would not let my son play pro football,” he said. “But, I mean, you wrote a lot about boxing, right? We’re sort of in the same realm.”
Obama’s son was a soccer player. I know this because I heard he got capped....
Limbaugh did a lengthy segment last week about how this NFL concussion thing has been invented and spread. The numbers show that the NFL players had less concussions than evryday people. He also pointed how the media sources for the concussions were other media stories. In effect, they were all quoting each other in a circle jerk fashion.
Can't stand Obama’s agenda, agree that there's a push from multiple quarters to suppress masculinity, and agree that it's a personal choice whether or not to play when you're an adult; but, I also think that it's very important to determine if development of new equipment and some rule changes can protect the players while preserving the essence of the game.
With steroid use (you know it's happening) and advanced training etc. the players are bigger and stronger and faster, and the game has to evolve a bit to protect players. There was a lot of resistance to making Formula One racing safer - initially, but it's in my opinion a better sport now because of it. I'm sure they can preserve football, and develop ways to help prevent concussions.
Just my two cents.
“What about concussions from the ‘knock out game’?”
A very, very valid point. There’s no question that even if it doesn’t kill you, being hit in the head can permanently alter brain function, at least regionally.
Time to get out your pen and write an order to ban football. After all you are the emperor.
Tell Obama Trayvon is dead.
I hope the admin jumps the shark and moves to stop high school football at the federal level. The only religious fervor left in this nation seems to be in its devotion to athletics. It will apparently take that or outlawing beer to wake the masses up. Scandal after scandal, shoving murder and perversion down everyone’s throat wont do it. But attack football and you start a war.
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Yes, there are dangers involved in playing football, risks that every player accepts after weighing the rewards. This pales to the horrors and destruction of government that we have no choice but be victims of. The NFL is a danger to a few who freely choose the risk. The federal government is on a rampage of theft, death and destruction and allows none of its victims to opt out.
I think you meant "does not"
I watch less and less T.V. because I think he will show up on set. Even today for the playoff games, I fear he will end up in one of the announcer's booths.
“adding that he would not let his son play pro football.”
The minimum age someone must be to play in the NFL is three years out of high school, so that would be around 20 or 21 years old or the end of their junior year in college,,,a legal adult. How would Bozo stop his son from playing in the NFL,,,throw him in jail?
This would be akin to the Soviets messing with vodka production and dispersal.
Why would you mess with an opiate of the masses? Any tool that's helping you keep them dumb, distracted with meaningless crap and "tribed out" would be their friend, I would think.
Now, if we could just get some in depth comments from the PRESIDINK on "fast & furious", Benghazi, the IRS, the NSA, etc, etc.
So when an athlete begins his pro-football career, he will be 22 years old or so. So he is going to order his "son" a grown man around? Especially when his "son" could potentially make millions in a relatively short amount of time. Even if he had a son, I doubt very much he would be a quarterback in the NFL. I say this because, I seen how well Obama can throw a ball. Like a homo.
Funny thing. The very helmets that were developed to protect from brain damage may be the very instrument of brain damage I this current era.
Some data suggests that helmeted NFL players are about 25% more likely to sustain a head injury than Australian-rules footballers, who wear no body armor. An Australian researcher noted that “there may be a greater prevalence of head injuries in the American game because the players hit each other with forces up to 100% greater. ‘If they didn’t have helmets on, they wouldn’t do that,’ he says.”
The NFL has no plans to eliminate headgear, however. Instead, the league is focusing on improvements to helmet technology and certain safety related rules changes.
Make him wear a dress to the tryouts ?
You beat me to this point.
Lots of parents order their children around and try to control their lives, no matter how old they are.
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