Quote:
Originally Posted by G NASTY
And what we are saying, for the 10th time, is that you don't need to get hit in the head to suffer severe damage.
Is it just a coincidence that all the ex football players aren't understanding this? I think not.
I can get brain damage with getting hit in the head or getting hit hard? I'm telling you that I could have played with wet paint on the front of my helmet and not gotten any on anyone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phildo
here are some offensive linemen that have been diagnosed with cte post mortem:
lou creekmur - lions
mike webster - steelers
justin strzelczyk - steelers
owen thomas - upenn
prob just a coincidence though since playing offensive line couldn't possibly cause brain damage
Are we talking about whether it's dangerous to play in the NFL or if my dad is a scumbag for letting me play football as a kid? I don't think you can extrapolate NFL football to youth or high school football. The differences between high school and NFL football are legion:
-The players in the NFL are much bigger and stronger. I was a 210lb left tackle and the second biggest player on the team. There was a 300lb guy in our conference but he was a perfect sphere and fun to knock over.
-NFL players play much more aggressively and recklessly (a word?). The combination of these first two factors mean much more violent collisions.
-NFL players accumulate a lot more collisions. They play 16 games per year, high school kids play 8. They also play
years longer than a high school kid. An NFL player might play 4 years of high school, 4 years of major college, and 10 years in the NFL. A typical high school player plays 2-3 years of varsity football. Nobody is getting injured in 6th grade games where 120lb kids run around on their tip toes, hug each other, and then fall down.
-NFL offenses are geared to more power on power. The I formation is common, where force at the point of attack is the basis of the running game. Youth and high school offensive linemen are much less likely to be able to block DLs or even LBs by force so the offense needs to be based on deception and angles with wing T, wishbone, spread offenses being common (can you tell I'm a coach's son?)
So if you're saying I shouldn't let my son play youth football because it's super dangerous I'm not buying it. Yes, I know that little Billy Jenkins committed suicide in Bums****, Maryland after scoring 4 touchdowns in a game and when the doctor autopsied his brain he thought it was from a 110 year old Alzheimer's having merchant marine who drank turpentine daily for 60 years but I think those are rather the exceptions and not the rules.
A kid I went to high school with (my left guard) was paralysed mountain biking in college; another classmate, actually my high school's alltime leading scorer in basketball died in a snowmobiling accident. Two of my uncles were college scholarship pitchers. Both have needed shoulder surgeries and one can't lift his hand above his shoulder to say, scratch his ear. The other is the varsity baseball coach at my old high school. He had former MLB pitcher Mike Marshall tell him he's a sadistic **** for forcing kids to pitch baseballs. I don't think that locking up all the bikes, footballs, baseballs and snowmobiles is gonna lead to a healthier society.
If you're saying I shouldn't let my kid play youth football cuz he might be super awesome and make it to the NFL I'm not convinced by that either. Hopefully, we'll have lots more information about the risks of playing football for a living and as a grown-ass man he can decide if he wants to play or go do something else. Presumably being good at football wouldn't have closed any other doors.