Football is beginning to scare the hell out of football players

[Liberal_in_LA]

Concussion findings keep getting scarier

Ray Ratto, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, November 1, 2009

(10-31) 18:50 PDT -- Turn your heads if it helps. Put your hands over your ears and sing loudly to drown out the noise. Yell at anyone who raises the subject.

But it's still there. Football is beginning to scare the hell out of football players, and at some point, it's going to have to start scaring the hell out of you.

As evidence slowly but surely grows from scientists and studies, even one commissioned by the NFL, that the game itself at nearly every level is bad for the human brain, you're going to have to come to grips with the notion that your favorite sport is not that much different than boxing - a guilty pleasure.

The most disturbing tale of all, perhaps, was a submission from Michael Oriard, the 61-year-old former Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman and now an associate dean of English at Oregon State, who wrote a Deadspin.com piece Friday admitting that he essentially has been replaying his entire career, play by play, to try to find the moment he might have started the road to early-onset dementia, or worse.

-------------

My younger son, who played football, proved to be susceptible to concussions, getting more or less one per season from about the sixth grade through high school. Lots of parents know the routine: I would awaken him every few hours through the night to ask him his address and phone number, then let him fall back asleep after he delivered the correct answer. :wow: :wow:


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/31/SP9C1ACVQM.DTL#ixzz0VdorAjJH

[virgogal]

1. Good.

[HelenWheels]

2. I agree

maybe it's time it makes an exit from our middle and high schools

[calimary]

9. Hear Hear!!!!! Football has scared the bejeezus out of me as long as I can remember.

All I'd keep thinking is - "shit, that CAN'T be good for you" - every time I'd see somebody tackled or hit or taken down with the usual brutality. When our son was growing, and manifested almost no sports capability OR interest (he loved his karate - but even more than that, he loved his guitar!), I was BEYOND grateful! Just BEYOND grateful. Still am. And now he rocks out at clubs around town, and never had to go to the hospital for a concussion or neck injury or anything. Thought he'd sprained a finger once in karate class, but that was pretty much it on that score. And even there, he never was quite good enough to get into the high-impact, high-stress, almost gymnastic upper levels. He was pretty good but not one of the standouts who did all the really tricky maneuvers and would wrench their backs and dislocate their knees. One kid even landed wrong and broke his leg. YEOW!!!

None of the members of my immediate family was born with the "sports gene." Myself included. And I am BEYOND grateful. Our son gets enough of a workout just rehearsing and performing. And our daughter works out all the time at the school gym. And we walk the dog.

Never did enjoy football. It always scared me, because I could never get past wondering what those guys were all doing to themselves physically while they were burning it up out there on the gridiron. By the time they're in their 40's they'll be near crippled - if they're lucky.

[Moostache]

19. The sport is not the problem, the way it is beign taught is...

Tackle football, when played and coached responsibly, is not the issue.

The sad thing is though that players now are no longer taught the fundamentals of playing - proper blocking (SHIELDING A MAN OFF AND NOT NECESSARILY KNOCKING HIM TO THE GROUND BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY) and especially tackling mechanics (HEAD UP, ARMS CARRIED THROUGH THE TACKLE, NEVER LEADING WITH THE HEAD OR EVEN THE SHOULDERS ONLY). Instead they are taught to "hit", to launch themselves like missiles into other players, or they are taught to "cut" their man on the line by diving at the back of their legs and intentionally causing a much greater risk of leg injuries. What was once the domain of only the professionals has filtered its way down as far as Pee-Wee Football.

The game has morphed from a contact sport - rough for sure but not overly dangerous - into a collision sport that is in fact hazardous and very risky for any number of serious injuries, and the main cause is the way it is taught to the players from a very young age.

[HelenWheels]

30. but if one team in the conference plays that way they all will

because winning is the most important thing - regardless of what they promote

[struggle4progress]

50. FATALITIES: DIRECTLY DUE TO FOOTBALL - 1931-2007*

http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi/FootballInjuryData.htm

Improved medical treatment and equipment design has reduced the fatality rate, but the game has always been dangerous

[ProleNoMore]

3. Played In High School - It Is A Brutal Sport

eom

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. The New Yorker ran an incredible piece about this a couple of weeks ago.

If you read it, you will start looking at football entirely differently.

[VOX]

56. Thanks for the -- dare I say -- heads up. I get the NYer, but am behind, as usual. n/t

[flvegan]

5. And to think that the players are still getting bigger, faster, stronger

[MadHound]

6. First off, given the money involved and the status of football in this country,

I doubt that football will ever go the way of boxing. Too many people have too much money, ego, etc. tied up in the sport to ever let it go the way of boxing.

Furthermore, I would like to see the evidence on this. A couple of academic papers and studies does not a case make. If we're going to change things, we need larger studies in order to make the case.

At best, what will be done is helmets will be re-engineered to provide more protection, perhaps a rule change or two, and that's it.

[alfredo]

14. The changing demographics, and budget woes might shift the focus to soccer.

[Confusious]

18. Soccer is hard on the family jewels....

[alfredo]

21. Ouch! That'll take your breath away.

[Greyhound]

49. Didn't you go to high school?

At my school, even then there were ample indications that many of the guys that were on the football track were not operating at level.

[Golden Raisin]

55. It was banned in my high school

before and during the time I attended due to a death of a student player. We played soccer instead. By the time I was a senior, sufficient time had apparently passed for the Board of Education to reinstate a football program.

[ZombieHorde]

7. I already don't think football should be in school.

If students are really getting concussions, then this is just another reason to remove football from schools.

[Confusious]

17. Whoops

wrong spot

[bamacrat]

46. No, that would be a bad idea.

I grew up in football country so I may be a bit biased, but it is the best sport there is. Sure its violent, but taking extra curriculars out of schools is never the right thing to do. Making better helmets or mandating neck rolls to lessen the range of motion of the head wouldnt be bad but eliminating football would be horrible.

[ZombieHorde]

54. Instead of just removing football, and thereby reducing the number of extra curricular activities,

football could be replaced with something else, such as a sport people are less weird about.

[bamacrat]

60. You can't replace football. I would be for getting rid of baseball though.

I played football and Rugby and loved it, the only downside was I had shitty coaches and went to a crappy school so there was no chance in playing once I was in college which is why I played Rugby for a bit. I think alot of injuries could be lessened if coaching staffs (mainly at highschool level) were better trained. I believe violence would increase if there was no football, there are alot of guys who take out there aggression on the field instead of on the public. I know thats a bad argument but I could give up just about anything before football.

[Fumesucker]

8. Imagine, if you will, the debate team were getting one concussion per member per year..

It would be gone so fast there would be a thunderclap as the air rushed into the space where it used to be.

[Posteritatis]

12. Hell, one per year in the US as a whole and it'd be gone. (nt)

[rollingrock]

10. High school football is pre-military training for future soldiers

you don't really need your brain to be a grunt anyway.

[TwilightGardener]

11. My son played one season, in junior high. I didn't like it, he was

small compared to the other boys. One concussion and he would not have gone to any more games. Can't imagine a parent letting his child get seriously injured (and yes, I consider concussions or anything involving the BRAIN to be serious) over and over again. Dimwits.

[alfredo]

13. Even soccer has it's risks. I wonder what heading the ball does to the brain.

I'd rather see soccer than football in school. First off, it is cheaper. In football you only see 15 minutes of action in a pro game, in soccer, you are running for about an hour.

Track and field, basketball, cross country, cycling, baseball, tennis, and golf would be preferable. I don't include gymnastics because it is very damaging to the body. My wife is an ex gymnast.

[XemaSab]

16. I thought heading was banned in most youth leagues

There are injuries in soccer, but lifelong tendon injuries are a hell of a lot better than lifelong brain injuries. :(

[alfredo]

20. I see high school players heading the ball.

[reggie the dog]

31. we were taught to do headers from an early age

in Illinois when I played soccer back in the 80s and 90s. Using your forehead supposedly stops you from giving yourself injuries.

[GreenPartyVoter]

34. Our middle schoolers head the ball. Well, when they can even connect with it. LOL

[XemaSab]

15. One of the real dangers isn't the big, obvious concussions

It's the constant smaller concussions.

Not a healthy sport for kids. :(

[Speck Tater]

22. It's clearly time for ROBOT FOOTBALL! Yeah! nt

[Earth_First]

23. It's not as though it's cockfighting or greyhounds on the track...

They aren't forced to play the sport; therefore the inherent risks are taken by choice. Just as a boxer chooses to get into the ring, they can leave the field at their own will.

[boppers]

26. If they're brain damaged, do they still have free will?

I'd say getting into the boxing ring, or on to the football field, is enough of a sign that they're simply not capable of making good decisions.

[sylveste]

43. plenty of free will

i played tackle football from pee wee league through high school and loved every minute of it, well maybe not the two-a-days. i'm plenty capable of making good decisions . hell, with all the football played in the country you'd think we'd be overrun by concussed zombies walking the streets.

[boppers]

44. Not to pick on you, but your post:

It's riddled with capitalization errors, grammar errors, and punctuation errors.

Has it occurred to you that perhaps the general lack of English/Science/Math skills in the U.S. public might be related to injuries people have suffered through contact sports? That the "concussed zombies" might not even know that they're zombies, dealing with permanent injuries?

Welcome to DU, BTW.

[Forkboy]

45. That's a pretty big stretch.

There's a lot of dumb people out there that have never played a contact sport in their life.

Of course what do I know? I played hockey for three decades. ;)

[boppers]

51. Want me to grammar CHECK you? ;)

"There's a lot of dumb people"... expanded, your phrase is "There is a lot of dumb people", rather than "There are a lot of dumb people". (Sorry, I do a lot of editing.)

My personal experience with US education is having well over 20 concussion events, without me ever playing once on a single official school contact-sport team. (I did do track and field, but people get hit less there). I had kickball concussions. Softball concussions. Dodgeball concussions.

I guess I'd hope that some researcher would take this up, and figure out if the educational systems which emphasize sport: actually make people more stupid, and if so, (a) what sports, and (b) how much more stupid.

As far as "dumb people out there that have never played a contact sport", yes, there are those. There are also dumb people who never ate lead paint chips, and yet, we sought to eliminate lead paint.

[HelenWheels]

36. There's a lot of peer and parental pressure to play

most high school kids don't have the fortitude or the ability to make that type of long range decision yet

[Shallah Kali]

57. But they aren't fully informed of the danger of early onset dementia similar to Alzheimer's

http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/200909/nfl-players-brain-dementia-study-memory-concussions

They at least need to know the risks that while they might make $$$$ they might not have enough functioning brain to enjoy it. Boxers are known to have similar damage for years. the NFL has fought to discredit proof of the damage done to players and denying them informed consent.

[AsahinaKimi]

24. I have heard Aussies boast...

That their Australian Rules Football is better because they don't wear Helmets and Pads...
Hmmm..Maybe this article should appear in their newspaper!

[reggie the dog]

32. I can tell you that rugby is played without pads and helmets

here in France and the game is no where near as brutal as American football. They guys play all out, but you cannot do really hard hits while you yourself are not wearing pads and a helmet. The art of tackling and falling has much more finesse when not wearing padding.

[Oeditpus Rex]

38. Ever watch Footy?

Tackling is allowed only between the knees and shoulders, and most of it's tackling, not hitting. Because the players aren't all padded up, hits are pretty tame compared to American football — but no less "Oooooh!"-inducing. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoupKfWPdB8



Footy rocks. :headbang:

[Captain Hilts]

39. In many ways the protection gridiron football players have emboldens them to more dangerous play.

Watching footie, you don't see nearly as many injuries.

[midnight armadillo]

61. I believe it's well documented...

I believe it's well documented that adding pads & helmets encourages players to hit each other harder.

Football used to be played with minimal padding and helmets, I wonder what the injuries were like back then?

[Canuckistanian]

25. I just heard an ad this week on KTLK radio in L.A.

It was for a consulting company that advises high school and college players how to avoid head and neck injuries during tackles.

I thought WTF? Is the problem THAT bad?

Apparently it is.

[JackDragna]

27. There was an interview with several NFL QB's recently..

..where Carson Palmer said he expected it would only be a matter of time before a player died on the field. None of the other QB's dissented. It really is only a matter of time, as we now have bigger players than ever that also happen to be extremely fast. Mario Williams of the Texans, for example, is 300 lbs and can run down running backs.

[niyad]

41. I have never cared for football (or any sport, actually) and the sheer brutalilty of the "game" is

offputting.

I started hearing about the concussions and things a while back and just thought, "no shit, sherlock"

monday night, I was visiting a friend, who was watching the game, and just happened to look at the set to see one of the players get knocked out--it looked to me like his neck had snapped. he got up and walked off the field. a bit later I heard "he has a concussion but may be back in game later". I looked at my friend, and said, "I heard that right??? he has a concussion and they are thinking of letting him play again tonight?" bloodsport, pure and simple

[madville]

28. If they are scared they shouldn't play

I'm sure someone else would gladly take their spot.

[eridani]

29. I once read a suggestion that this could be minimized by having a team weight limit

Players keep getting bigger and more muscular, and that is a problem. And should young kids be playing with the same rules?

[Whisp]

33. doesn't take a genius to figure out getting your head knocked around ain't good

I despise mega sports.

and hope there is some redefinition of sports at the school level. Thats whre all that sucking corporate money should go to, school athletics - prefereably ones that don't dash your fucking brains out.

fucking coliseum

[shanti]

35. football...

and that is why i wouldn't let my youngest play the game, although he did play basketball. didn't want to think about the idea of concussions, paralysis, etc....all the bad things that could happen.

thing is - in july, he GOT a concussion playing...basketball. he had definite amnesia for about 3 days, and slowly pulled out of it. he seems to be ok after 4 months, but i do see a change in his sleeping habits. he burned the candle at both ends before, now he sleeps a lot more. scary stuff!

[guyton]

37. touch football

I've personally avoided watching/supporting tackle football for decades now, but I'd love it
if they switched to competitive touch football.

Of course, everyone I mention this to just laughs at me. Oh well.

The "sport" can't die soon enough for me.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

40. Why in the hell would you let a kid susceptible to concussions continue to play football?

The parent quoted should have their kids taken away. When the kid has Parkinson's at 35 at least he'll know who to blame, if he can remember their names.

[Codeine]

42. So? They get paid enough to fucking deal with it.

They're all welcome to go get real jobs.

[boppers]

47. But do they get paid enough to deal with it?

What's the appropriate pay for a job where you can be legally murdered by another person?

Should such a job even be legal?

[nadinbrzezinski]

48. After taking a 13 year old kid to children's

with a major neck injury... I have never looked at football the same.

Kid still walks, thanks to the superb pre-hospital and hospital care he got... but damn it, that is a game I have a high dislike for.

But yes, it was THAT CLOSE for him to end up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

[burning rain]

52. Shup! Ultraviolence makes football an ideal sport for America.

And it's a sport fatasses can make it in--VERY important for the US. We're not a bunch of skinny Europeans with their soccer, you know.

[Are_grits_groceries]

53. The players weren't aware of the magnitude of the problem.

They knew people were having problems. Troy Aikman retired because of his concussions.

I believe the NFL covered up a lot of the danger. The doctor who headed their study into head injuries wasn't even related to the field of neurology or anything similar. They were being warned by some reputable medical people about studies showing the danger, and the NFL blew them off.

College is worse, and what goes on in high school or lower makes me shudder.

I believe another problem is the 'concussions' that aren't noticed. The huge hits are given the coverage. However, over many years of playing football, how many smaller injuries go unnoticed and what is the cumulative effect??

The NFL and other governing bodies can't outlaw concussions. People think that if they stop players from spearing and using other dangerous practices, then everything will be fine. It is a complex issue that is being minimized, and many factors need to be addressed.

Riddell has new helmet designs:
http://www.riddell1.com/newsite/product_com.php?cPath=104_76&cList=105,107,109,106,108,110,241,242,243,277,278,279

Here is another helmet design and article about head injuries:
Check Your Head : Xenith’s New Helmet
http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/?p=11460

The problem with a new design being accepted by the NFL is their marketing deals. Riddell is the maker of choice. I am fearful that new designs by other groups such as Xenith may not be given a fair hearing.

[Shallah Kali]

58. GQ just did a piece on study of

Game Brain
Let’s say you run a multibillion-dollar football league. And let’s say the scientific community—starting with one young pathologist in Pittsburgh and growing into a chorus of neuroscientists across the country—comes to you and says concussions are making your players crazy, crazy enough to kill themselves, and here, in these slices of brain tissue, is the proof. Do you join these scientists and try to solve the problem, or do you use your power to discredit them?

http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/200909/nfl-players-brain-dementia-study-memory-concussions

The coverage that week had been bracing and disturbing and exciting. Dead at 50. Mike Webster! Nine-time Pro Bowler. Hall of Famer. “Iron Mike,” legendary Steelers center for fifteen seasons. His life after football had been mysterious and tragic, and on the news they were going on and on about it. What had happened to him? How does a guy go from four Super Bowl rings to…pissing in his own oven and squirting Super Glue on his rotting teeth? Mike Webster bought himself a Taser gun, used that on himself to treat his back pain, would zap himself into unconsciousness just to get some sleep. Mike Webster lost all his money, or maybe gave it away. He forgot. A lot of lawsuits. Mike Webster forgot how to eat, too. Soon Mike Webster was homeless, living in a truck, one of its windows replaced with a garbage bag and tape.

snip

Omalu stared at Mike Webster’s brain. He kept thinking, How did this big athletic man end up so crazy in the head? He was thinking about football and brain trauma. The leap in logic was hardly extreme. He was thinking, Dementia pugilistica? “Punch-drunk syndrome,” they called it in boxers. The clinical picture was somewhat like Mike Webster’s: severe dementia—delusion, paranoia, explosive behavior, loss of memory—caused by repeated blows to the head. Omalu figured if chronic bashing of the head could destroy a boxer’s brain, couldn’t it also destroy a football player’s brain? Could that be what made Mike Webster crazy?

Of course, football players wear helmets, good protection for the skull. But the brain? Floating around inside that skull and, upon impact, sloshing into its walls. Omalu thought: I’ve seen so many cases of people like motorcyclists wearing helmets. On the surface is nothing, but you open the skull and the brain is mush.

snip

One day he started on a new set of slides, prepared for him by a lab at the University of Pittsburgh where he had ordered specialized staining. He was ordering so many slides, he had to start paying for this out of his own pocket. He put the first slide from the new set under his microscope and looked in.

“What is this?” he said out loud. “Geez. Gee! What is this?”

Brown and red splotches. All over the place. Large accumulations of tau proteins. Tau was kind of like sludge, clogging up the works, killing cells in regions responsible for mood, emotions, and executive functioning.

This was why Mike Webster was crazy.


snip

Same morgue. Same slab. Same story. Terry Long had a clinical history similar to Webster’s. Depression. Memory loss. Crazy behavior. In and out of psych wards. He was bankrupt, living destitute and alone. He tried rat poison. He tried other cocktails. Nothing worked until finally he got it right.

Omalu took Terry Long’s brain home, sliced it, sent it in for stains, ran the same tests, found the same splotches, the same tau proteins. “This stuff should not be in the brain of a 45-year-old man,” he said. “This looks more like a 90-year-old brain with advanced Alzheimer’s.”

So Omalu wrote another paper. He called it “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football League Player: Part II” and put it in an envelope and sent it to Neurosurgery, the prestigious peer-reviewed journal that did not, in the end, accept the NFL’s request to retract the first one and went ahead and published the second.

much more at the link http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/200909/nfl-players-brain-dementia-study-memory-concussions

[Are_grits_groceries]

59. ESPN covered it 2 years ago:

See no evil? The NFL won't face concussion facts
Sad but true: You didn't have to actually read the comments by the NFL or the doctors on its concussions committee to know how they were going to respond to the Andre Waters case.

In a New York Times story on Thursday, forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu of the University of Pittsburgh says that former NFLer Waters had the brain of an 85-year-old man with signs of Alzheimer's disease before he killed himself on Nov. 20, and that multiple concussions caused or severely worsened Waters' brain damage.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?id=2736505

Omalu was shut out of a NFL conference on brain injuries. He also had a relative who was drafted by an NFL team.

[benld74]

62. Injuries are BOUND to Happen,,,,

Players are getting bigger, stronger, faster. They can leap higher, longer, farther. They condition themselves 365 days per year.
The injuries occur on and off the field. Not everyone gets injuries, BUT everyone gets some type of injury. The finger joints may hurt when they are only 45 instead of when they are 65. Or their knees, back, neck etc. THEY pay a price for what they have done to their bodies when they were playing.
However, FEW have looked into concussions as the beginnings of dementia for some when they get older. The brain IS protected by the skull, BUT it is a loose organ, floating absorbing hits by the dozens over the years until,,,,