Football causes brain damage.

[Jackpine Radical]

The players are well-paid gladiators, exchanging their health and later-life cognitive capacities for seemingly-large chunks of money.

The whole bloody mess is the modern version of bread & circuses, provided by the Empire to keep the citizens from doing anything dangerous.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/26/athlete.brains/index.html

Until recently, the best medical definition for concussion was a jarring blow to the head that temporarily stunned the senses, occasionally leading to unconsciousness. It has been considered an invisible injury, impossible to test -- no MRI, no CT scan can detect it. Video Watch more on what goes on in athlete's brains »

But today, using tissue from retired NFL athletes culled posthumously, the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE), at the Boston University School of Medicine, is shedding light on what concussions look like in the brain. The findings are stunning. Far from innocuous, invisible injuries, concussions confer tremendous brain damage. That damage has a name: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

On Tuesday afternoon, researchers at the CSTE released a study about the sixth documented case of CTE in former NFL player Tom McHale, who died in 2008 at the age of 45, and the youngest case to date, an 18-year-old multi-sport athlete who suffered multiple concussions.

While CTE in an ex-NFL player's brain may have been expected, the beginnings of brain damage in an 18-year-old brain was a "shocking" finding, according to Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts, and co-director of the CSTE.

[HopeHoops]

ANOTHER good reason to avoid watching it!

Dumb sport.

[undeterred]

1. I thought football was caused by brain damage.

:shrug:

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I dunno. My view has always been

that they could take a lot of the nastiness and violence out of the whole business by giving each team a ball.

[undeterred]

5. That only works if you keep both quarterbacks in

for the whole game, as they should be.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. Water is wet n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Gee, I thought football players were immune from concussions.

[greennina]

8. I had a teacher once that said...

football players get a lot of caucasians.

I don't know what I'm posting this. Your subject just reminded me of that quote.

[undeterred]

9. That must be what happened to your teacher.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Got one better for malapropisms.

We had a dense security guard at my college, you just couldn't talk to her.

One of my friends called her ignorant. Her response was "I am NOT ignorant! My parents were married when I was born."

God's honest truth.

[Jackpine Radical]

23. She's not iggnernt, an neither

were her incestors.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. To viewers.

[givemebackmycountry]

7. I am a BIG time NFL and college football fan and I predict...

That in the not too distant future, there will be no more football.
No more NFL.
No more college football, no more Ohio State vs Michigan.

The evidence is piling up that this game destroys lives.
Year after year, high school, college and NFL players get hit after hit after hit in practice and live games.
I remember one NFL player when asked what it's like to play in the league said this...

"Go out and stand at the end of your driveway and run full speed into your garage door. Do it another 40 times and that's what it's like".

I love football, but I love life even more.
These guys are basically sacrificing their futures for cash and opportunity.

[XemaSab]

13. I've heard that college football brings in a lot of money for some schools

Other schools, I would guess that there's a loss. :shrug:

[goclark]

14. I love the game too but everytime I see them carry someone out

I think about that person's future. "shrug:

[BlooInBloo]

15. Until you actually specify a date, you haven't made a meaningful prediction.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

18. And people will stop doing drugs because they're harmful...

ain't gonna happen.

Bear down!

[Jackpine Radical]

25. I don't recall the Romans showing much concern for

the lion bites on the gladiators.

[Odin2005]

11. They needed a study to prove this?

:rofl:

[Lucian]

12. This explains Terry Bradshaw.

That man hasn't been right for years.

[mod mom]

16. I'm thankful my children swim & run cross country.

My brothers were all big football players and I believe it effected 3 out of 4 brothers. I'm glad my son never showed any interest in football. I don't think I could stand watching the hits. My son who is an 8th grader has a friend who missed 3 weeks of school due to a concussion last year and his parents allowed him to play this year. He is smaller than my son who is in the 20th % for size.

My daughter was a diver but after a friend suffered a bad concussion, and having lived w my husband's spinal cord injury, we both decided diving was not worth it. (Not to mention the pressure it places on the children).

My children are both smart. I prefer they leave their mark w their intelligence rather than athletic skills. If they turn out to be great swimmers fine but I'm not the type of parent that pushes a sport other than for enjoyment.

[marmar]

17. Clearly.....

Exhibit A: John Elway....

[liquid diamond]

19. Is that John Lynch to the right?!

[marmar]

21. I think so.

[FarCenter]

20. It's not the football that cause the brain damage: It's too much beer and buffalo wings

[metapunditedgy]

22. I always thought that was how football FANS were made. :-) n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

24. Y'all remember what LBJ said about Jerry Ford?

He said Jerry couldn't fart & chew gum at the same time. and then he added that Jerry had played too much football without a helmet.

[TexasObserver]

26. Watching it seems to do that.

From what I've observed of its fans.