Posted on 09/04/2017 3:12:40 PM PDT by TBP
CTE is a degenerative brain disease confirmable only after death, and often caused by repeated blows to the head that knock the brain against the skull. The cumulative impacts of hundreds of supposedly minor blows can have the cumulative effect of many concussions.
The New York Times recently reported Stanford researchers’ data showing “that one college offensive lineman sustained 62 of these hits in a single game.
Each one came with an average force on the player’s head equivalent to what you would see if he had driven his car into a brick wall at 30 mph.”
Boston University researchers found CTE in 110 of 111 brains of deceased NFL players. In 53 other brains from college players, 48 had CTE.
On Alabama’s undefeated 1966 team, only 21 percent of the players weighed more than 200 pounds. The heaviest weighed 223; the linemen averaged 194. The quarterback, who weighed 177, was Ken Stabler, who went on to a Hall of Fame NFL career — and to “moderately severe” CTE before death from cancer.
Today, many high-school teams are much beefier than the 1966 Crimson Tide. Of the 114 members of Alabama’s 2016 squad, just 25 weighed less than 200 and 20 weighed more than 300. In 1980, only three NFL players weighed 300 or more pounds. Last season, 390 weighed 300 pounds or more, and six topped 350.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Too much of America is truly both stupid and blind.
I "fell out" around 1985...
Don’t know as a fact, but would think college football ratings are as good as ever.
Don’t know as a fact, but would think college football ratings are as good as ever.
George Will the pseudo intellectual with the worst toupee hair piece on TV. His sports information is as irrelevant as his politics.
Yeah there are shenanigans going on with the NFL thanks to the lousy Commissionaire. Nevertheless, college, high school and little league football are still very popular.
Baseball is still very popular too, but George Will is jealous that football is more popular than baseball. I’ll admit they are close, but football is America’s pastime at the moment.
My comment has noting to do with falling out of love with FB. It has everything to do with those who have non-reversible injuries from the sport. I haven’t watched an NFL game other than the super bowl in years.
I do love HS and college football.
+ PSL and + Parking
Had Giants season tickets @ $35.00 x 8 games
Left when they were charging $75 x 10
Now PSL is $5k - $40K per seat - tickets and parking extra.
You can use the same analogy for many, many other types of entertainment and/or communal events. Going out to eat; movies; etc. So, what's the point? The point is, when an activity ceases to deliver the primary reward for the respective experience, it soon begins to lose its luster. Over time, not only do habits & traditions die, but if the experience is repeated, then desire is replaced with avoidance.
Pro football, for a variety of reasons, began to stop functioning as a sports entertainment franchise for a number of reasons, but I believe the biggest reason is interruption of play. In other words, too many commercials, reviews and other game delaying factors. I've always been a big football fan, but I find myself watching more baseball simply because the play goes along without intrusion until the inning is over. The constant breaking to commercials is bad enough at home; at the game, it really upsets the pace & flow.
So, the real reason behind the drop off is the usual suspect: greed. It wasn't enough to have great ratings and valuable franchises 20 years ago. No, it had to be more, more & more. And, like the fishing analogy above, once people find something else to do with their free time, it takes a lot of persuasion to give the old flame a second chance.
George Will is still around? I thought he had ascended bodily into heaven (or at least an upper deck seat) on the night of November 2, 2016.
My comment has everything to do with the stated incorrect reason expressed in the article.
Football has become almost unwatchable on tv because of all the commercials. If the game is televised, it’s even unwatchable if you’re in the stands. Professional and D1 college football sold out to television long ago, and tv has ruined the product. I quit a long time ago. I wonder why anyone still watches. Go to a high school game if you like football. Or take up soccer, which still holds to continuous play and no timeouts.
George Will is an eloquent intellectual. It’s a shame he no longer thinks or listens to others - failings that leave him without substance for his commentaries. Colin Kaepernick is a major reason for football’s rapid demise. The game might have died more slowly without Colin K., but failing to mention him is as negligent as an autopsy that cites stage one cancer as a cause of death but ignores the shotgun blast to the heart.
I still remember that jerk Tirico refusing to say “Redskins” and carpet bombing us with the word “Washington.”
They restricted the supply on Sundays in 1970. They took away one game and alternated regionals. In 1969, you had morning and afternoon games on both CBS and NBC.
The NFL left one network alternating an exclusive slot each Sunday when MNF originated. Same number of games.
Football is the driver for many extracurricular activities in terms of fund raising.
The NFL helps me pass the time until college hoops starts in October.
I am convinced the reason Major League Soccer is not prime time is there’s no way to stop it for commercials every 6-8 minutes.
Wow...impressed w your knowledge! Didn’t recall all that detail. But, you get my point...there is way too much football on.
And the Seattle Times just call them “Skins”
Kept my brother and I and a lot of kids in the neighborhood entertained for hours on a summer day . . . great exercise and size really does not matter.
I was a skinny little runt back in those days, but still competed with bigger kids. They might hit the home runs, but a scratch single was just as good when you got on base ahead of them.
True dat.
1. The anti-American protests
2. Overexposure with Thursday night games
3. A finger to America with London games
4. Growing number of NFL thugs
Just to name a few...
All these I also agree with but add to that I really don’t want to see people hit each other head to head while knowing they will pay hugely for it later down the road. Nobody is immune to that.
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