IGX

http://www.vice.com/read/league-of-deni ... e=vicefbus


League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis, a documentary airing tonight based on a book that was released today, is the most direct assault on the league to date. The film not only reviews the by-now-at-least-faintly-familiar evidence that football collisions are very bad for you, it exposes the NFL’s attempts to cover up the damage the sport does to young men’s brains. The league’s executives and doctors come off as myopic and foolish at best, and scheming and evil at worst—in story after story, League shows NFL players dying after losing their minds due to what most independent doctors agree is football-induced brain damage, then the NFL is shown repeatedly denying the connection between football and the broken families it has left behind.

Seems like this would be solved by removing pads and helmets.

If only these poor men knew that crashing into people for a living was bad for your health....

Pinky wrote:If only these poor men knew that crashing into people for a living was bad for your health....

That's sorta like what conservatives said over here back on the 1900s about those upstart miners, match factory girls and factory workers. They should have KNOWN it was dangerous and government had no place legislating away freedom of choice for them or factory owners.

So it's not identical. But there are football players for whom football is the only chance at a decent life. And they start young.

Try making it more like rugby. Less of a problem.

Worthy of careful study

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDEqdutpT8s[/youtube]

nafod wrote:Worthy of careful study

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDEqdutpT8s[/youtube]

Woof. Some lovely hits in there.....

Removing some protection would appear to be the obvious answer but things are actually heading in the other direction.

Lawsuits paid out in recent years are offset by gate receipts before noon each Sunday so I don't think that financial nor health concerns will have any real impact. What is probably more likely is that more and more kids play other sports and the quality of the game at a professional level suffers - the US finally winning the World Cup will do more lasting damage to the NFL than a hundred former superstars who kill themselves or need help getting out of bed in the morning.

did the romans eliminate hits to the head by gladiators?

i don't think so

football's problem is simply a soft society getting ever softer

They went further and banned gladiatorial combat altogether. And in Britain, we've banned flogging in the army, birching of criminals, badger baitong and dog fighting. It's called "progress".

Gorbachev wrote:They went further and banned gladiatorial combat altogether. And in Britain, we've banned flogging in the army, birching of criminals, badger baitong and dog fighting. It's called "progress".

I don't know what badger baitong is but it sounds awesome

protobuilder wrote:

Gorbachev wrote:They went further and banned gladiatorial combat altogether. And in Britain, we've banned flogging in the army, birching of criminals, badger baitong and dog fighting. It's called "progress".

I don't know what badger baitong is but it sounds awesome

Fucking badgers.

Gorbachev wrote:They went further and banned gladiatorial combat altogether. And in Britain, we've banned flogging in the army, birching of criminals, badger baitong and dog fighting. It's called "progress".

the banning of gladiatorial amusements not doubt occurred during the "fall" phase of the rise and fall of the roman empire thus proving my point

as for britain again you prove my point: once it was an empire and now it is a soggy little island of no consequence

My interest in football has definitely declined over the past 4-5 years and alot of it has to do with the feeling that the concussion issue gives me as I watch the games. The sport simply cannot continue to evolve the way it's going. The players are simply too big. At some point either some sort of weight limit must be imposed or teams are really going to have trouble filling out a roster through a full season with pro quality players.
Also, I realize that this has been said many times but why is anyone with even a hint of PEDs in them a pariah in baseball and other sports but the obvious use in football is just ignored.
Shawn Merriman was banned for 4 games for it a few years back and then went to the pro bowl and I believe won the defensive player of the year the same year.
I'd be shocked if less than 95% of the players weren't juicing.

the issue is not that contact sports are dangerous. Everyone knows that. The issue is that the NFL, for years, deliberately downplayed and obscured the risk of multiple, repeated concussive and sub-concussive injuries.

Bang into large men for a living, you're gonna fuck some shit up. It's not so obvious that if you bang into large men for a living, your brain will turn into swiss cheese.

dead man walking wrote:

Gorbachev wrote:They went further and banned gladiatorial combat altogether. And in Britain, we've banned flogging in the army, birching of criminals, badger baitong and dog fighting. It's called "progress".

the banning of gladiatorial amusements not doubt occurred during the "fall" phase of the rise and fall of the roman empire thus proving my point

as for britain again you prove my point: once it was an empire and now it is a soggy little island of no consequence

Jesus.

One of the marks of a nation going in the right direction is: when you learn something you're doing is dumb, you stop doing it, you don't insist on continuing to do it because of tradition.

It's the declining nations that hold onto their dumb shit no matter what evidence presents itself. See: The USSR, North Korea.

We previously thought we were increasing protection for players with pad and helmet tech. Instead, we were making the problem worse by evolving the game into one that exchanges short term injuries for serious long term ones.

These players should form a union so that they can demand better working conditions.

Gorbachev wrote:They went further and banned gladiatorial combat altogether. And in Britain, we've banned flogging in the army, birching of criminals, badger baitong and dog fighting. It's called "progress".

But ferret-legging is still a go, right?

I watched the show on-line. Definitely worth the time.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/

Our good friends and neighbor's kid played travel hockey, and had two concussions in the same year with resulting lingering memory loss. No more hockey for him.

Pinky wrote:These players should form a union so that they can demand better working conditions.

You're turning into a caricature. Players suffer horrible injuries and die, and the League lied about it for money.

msr2112 wrote:I'd be shocked if less than 95% of the players weren't juicing.

I think you mean:

"I'd be shocked if 95% or more of the players weren't juicing?"

Let's be clearer around here, guys. Thnx.

Gorbachev wrote:

msr2112 wrote:I'd be shocked if less than 95% of the players weren't juicing.

I think you mean:

"I'd be shocked if 95% or more of the players weren't juicing?"

Let's be clearer around here, guys. Thnx.

I have good english

Grandpa's Spells wrote:Players suffer horrible injuries and die

Only a couple of them. The rest are all fine.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

dead man walking wrote:

Gorbachev wrote:They went further and banned gladiatorial combat altogether. And in Britain, we've banned flogging in the army, birching of criminals, badger baitong and dog fighting. It's called "progress".

the banning of gladiatorial amusements not doubt occurred during the "fall" phase of the rise and fall of the roman empire thus proving my point

as for britain again you prove my point: once it was an empire and now it is a soggy little island of no consequence

Jesus.

One of the marks of a nation going in the right direction is: when you learn something you're doing is dumb, you stop doing it, you don't insist on continuing to do it because of tradition.

It's the declining nations that hold onto their dumb shit no matter what evidence presents itself. See: The USSR, North Korea.

We previously thought we were increasing protection for players with pad and helmet tech. Instead, we were making the problem worse by evolving the game into one that exchanges short term injuries for serious long term ones.

jesus back at you spells

i was just fucking around but you seem to take this issue altogether seriously/i'm curious why it gets under your skin so much

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

Pinky wrote:These players should form a union so that they can demand better working conditions.

You're turning into a caricature. Players suffer horrible injuries and die, and the League lied about it for money.

Then the league can be sued and the players can negotiate for better working conditions (or extra compensation for the newly revealed risk). In any case, I sound like a caricature because this really is a something that's between the players and league. Maybe the players would prefer fewer pads and changes to the game that will make it safer (but lower paying) in the long run, maybe they'd like a fund set aside to help with long term disability, or maybe they'd rather just have a little extra money now. It's not for you to say what's best. It's a question of player preferences, union negotiations, and (if there was fraud) court decisions.

Pinky wrote:

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

Pinky wrote:These players should form a union so that they can demand better working conditions.

You're turning into a caricature. Players suffer horrible injuries and die, and the League lied about it for money.

Then the league can be sued and the players can negotiate for better working conditions (or extra compensation for the newly revealed risk). In any case, I sound like a caricature because this really is a something that's between the players and league. Maybe the players would prefer fewer pads and changes to the game that will make it safer (but lower paying) in the long run, maybe they'd like a fund set aside to help with long term disability, or maybe they'd rather just have a little extra money now. It's not for you to say what's best. It's a question of player preferences, union negotiations, and (if there was fraud) court decisions.

Textbook adolescent "free market" response. Ayn Rand shit. Abandon hope all ye who enter here.