Idiotic article.
Point #1. — Ghettos are filled with kids that would give their left nut to play in the NFL. The will do anything to get into pro sports, and if they can’t get into the NBA, then to the NFL it is. The very idea that they MIGHT get dementia from concussions or from steriods when they are 40 years old is going to be the last thing from their minds as they watch 14 year old friends and relatives shot down dead in gang wars. Believe me, they will take the $10 million career pay and dementia at 40 every day of the week.
Football is not going anywhere.
Point #2. — The NFL has never been more aggressive in reducing contact and concussions and injuries in its history.
Just an idiotic article. US Football is not going anywhere, but maybe up, or maybe expanding overseas. It is a great spectator sport and there is no loss of college players fighting to make it to the NFL. Any other suggestion is laughable.
That's true. But what will happen is that wealthy and educated parents won't let their kids play football, and when that happens, the game will eventually fall out of fashion with the middle class, and, over a longer period of time, will remain in fashion amongst only the working/poor class.
Goodell has the right idea. He understands that for the game to continue to grow (or even maintain its popularity), it has to be safe.
You think this guy is an idiot? The very fact that people are talking about this--including very well respected sports writers like Buzz Bissinger (who advocated in the WSJ to ban college football)--means that football has a serious problem that it has to nip in the bud. I would bet anything that Roger Goodell doesn't think that this guy is an idiot.