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What Would the End of Football Look Like?

Before you say that football is far too big to ever disappear, consider the history: If you look at the stocks in the Fortune 500 from 1983, for example, 40 percent of those companies no longer exist. The original version of Napster no longer exists, largely because of lawsuits. No matter how well a business matches economic conditions at one point in time, it's not a lock to be a leader in the future, and that is true for the NFL too. Sports are not immune to these pressures. In the first half of the 20th century, the three big sports were baseball, boxing, and horse racing, and today only one of those is still a marquee attraction.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/755 ... d-football

Since my team has sucked all this century, football has become boring as Hell to me. It tells me I got caught up in the Skins Fever of the 80's and with the Skins on the decline it has become apparent what a stupid game it is.

Want to drastically limit the head contact, and thus concussions and CTE in football? Take away the helmets and reduce the size of the shoulder pads. Without that weapon and feeling if invincibility, leading with the head and tackles where head to head contact occur would be almost nonexistent.

You'd have to phase it in at the Pop Warner level and graduate it as the fresh class of kids came up, but within a cycle of players you could have the new rules in the NFL.

I don't think the Napster analogy fits here. Other file sharing sites took up the slack, and iTunes came about.

Alfred_E._Neuman wrote:Want to drastically limit the head contact, and thus concussions and CTE in football? Take away the helmets and reduce the size of the shoulder pads. Without that weapon and feeling if invincibility, leading with the head and tackles where head to head contact occur would be almost nonexistent.

Does rugby or Aussie rules football have the same concussion problems? If not, this would likely be the direction that should be looked into.

Terry B. wrote:

Alfred_E._Neuman wrote:Want to drastically limit the head contact, and thus concussions and CTE in football? Take away the helmets and reduce the size of the shoulder pads. Without that weapon and feeling if invincibility, leading with the head and tackles where head to head contact occur would be almost nonexistent.

Does rugby or Aussie rules football have the same concussion problems? If not, this would likely be the direction that should be looked into.

As long as you aren't trying to tackle Samoans at the knees it isn't normally a problem. Saw a guy get knocked the fuck out for 10 minutes by tackling with his head. Before he came to, he started into a deep snore then started into seizures. He ended up walking off the field and taken to the hospital but it was a scary 15 minutes.

I read somewhere this week there's been talk of eliminating the 3-point stance and eliminating kick-offs.

What Would the End of Football Look Like?

What Would the End of Football Look Like?

HaHaHaHaHaHa!!

Jezebel Jones wrote:I don't think the Napster analogy fits here. Other file sharing sites took up the slack, and iTunes came about.

I think the point you made here about the hole left by Napster being filled in by other options is entirely relevant here. This article makes it sound like there would be a giant vortex...Amurricans would have no trouble finding another useless activity to fill their spare time and spend their money and energy on.

What a duck says wrote:

Jezebel Jones wrote:I don't think the Napster analogy fits here. Other file sharing sites took up the slack, and iTunes came about.

I think the point you made here about the hole left by Napster being filled in by other options is entirely relevant here. This article makes it sound like there would be a giant vortex...Amurricans would have no trouble finding another useless activity to fill their spare time and spend their money and energy on.

Terry B. wrote:

Alfred_E._Neuman wrote:Want to drastically limit the head contact, and thus concussions and CTE in football? Take away the helmets and reduce the size of the shoulder pads. Without that weapon and feeling if invincibility, leading with the head and tackles where head to head contact occur would be almost nonexistent.

Does rugby or Aussie rules football have the same concussion problems? If not, this would likely be the direction that should be looked into.

There was an article I read comparing head injuries/brain trauma in American football to Rugby, Aussie rules, and soccer. Basically other sports where there's a lot of contact. American football was light years ahead of all the others in terms of number of head injuries per participant. While they couldn't state whether the increase was caused by the helmets themselves - i.e. two hard objects colliding and the impact causing brain trauma, or if the helmets gave a false sense of security that allowed players to throw their bodies around much more recklessly than if they didn't have a helmet, the study came to the same conclusion I stated above. Remove the helmets and you remove the vast majority of the head injuries in American football.

Some rebuttals to the study said that those sports don't have the forward passing that American football has, and the running start a LB or DB can get on a receiver leads to more violent collisions than in Rugby, etc. But if you weren't wearing a helmet I seriously doubt you'd see a DB get a 15 yard running start and launch his shoulder into the chest of a receiver.

Look, I played full contact football from the 7th grade through high school. Got my bell rung several times. It never bothered me bothered me bothered me

I played HS and college nobody had face masks or fancy padded helmets. I don't remember if I ever got my bell rung rung either. I just never could hold a jobnever could hold a job and drink a lot just for fun.

What's most interesting, I think, and will undoubtedly come to light soon, is that a "concussion" is not necessary for long-term damage. Instead, the repetitive acceleration or deceleration of the brain fucks up your most important organ.

My guess is linebackers, db's and running backs are at the most risk. It would seem logical that lineman don't get the accelerations, though that may be a mistaken conclusion.

They loved me for those flying head first tackles. Wow Andy I didn't think that guy was gonna get up. What??