Do cyclists routinely slam their heads into each other?

cyclists routinely suffer brain injuries when they open an overstocked cupboard and all the PEDs spill out + bounce off their heads

Just Cavendish

Don't forget the cobbles

yes going over the dangercobbles probably cause the brain to rattle around inside the skull good point

Bicycling crashes are violent. Crashes are a common theme of the sport.

Cycling could exist without crashes. Football in its current form can't exist without linemen slamming into each other.

Not sure why I'm bothering tho.

If the risks become fully understood and people still wish to engage in the activities, why should anyone stop them?

People voluntarily put themselves in dangerous situations all the time, often times for money, and often times just for their own personal entertainment.

yeah if you were allowed to play football only once you reach 18, I wouldn't have a problem with it

not sure bolded is really true. football is a cult. tom coughlin's speech was one thing, but every ****ing time i hear someone clamoring for the life lessons... **** off.

More importantly, it is a cult that only becomes realized once tons of profit and advantages start to become available. Cotton, like others have mentioned kids don't really get to make that choice because they are doing what they are told, and wouldn't understand the ramifications most likely if you explained it to them at the age in which kids start playing football. There are a lot of ignorant and just downright malicious parents out there and even if they were told the potential problems that could arise to their kids while playing football, they would still do it...for a myriad of different reasons.

So once the kid has been playing up until high school and maybe starts thinking for them-self, they are being recruited by colleges to get free rides and told my who knows by how many people that they might play in the NFL and make millions of dollars. A 16 year old kid is not going to be thinking too clearly about the possibility they might suffer some form of brain degeneration in their 60s when they could be millionaires in the next 5 years. ****, I might still go out and get black out drunk and smoke a half a pack a day, knowing full well what will probably happen. Its just not a realistic premise to expect people to make good decisions when presented with "science". Just look around you....its quite obvious.

Have the risks been fully understood? Did the NFL do anything to hide those risks? Even today, did anyone imagine that a 23-year-old would have such extensive CTE? Can children understand these risks and refuse the wishes of their parents, coaches, friends, etc.?

The service academies are dedicated to training people who will lead others into CTE (they call it PTSD in the VA hospitals).

Football is way worse than boxing. Boxers when they get knocked out no longer box. in the 2000s and earlier NFL players who were knocked out would re enter the game.

Boxers have 1 fight full of head trauma then have a long break. NFL players have a whole game of head trauma every week for 16+ weeks. Boxers don't schedule a fight every week for 16 weeks in row.

Football isn't worse than boxing. In boxing you are literally trying to give your opponent a concussion (knock them out) that's one of the ways you win. It's not just one punch knockouts either. Often dudes are getting punched in the head over and over again before they are "knocked out" or the fight is stopped. Guys are also in wars where no one goes down and they just beat the **** out of each other for 12 rounds. 1 war of a fight can ruin a guy forever. 1 football game isn't going to have that same effect on someone.

No one cares about boxers in that way though because people expect boxers to know what they are getting into and there is really no central league or entity to go after. With Football there is the NFL to go after and the fact that it's the richest U.S. sports league gives people extra incentive to go after it.

Football is a very tough sport on your body as well but the pads and helmets give an illusion of protection so the NFL needed to do a better job of educating the players on the dangers. They are doing it now but I think now it's going dramatically the other way. It's like all of a sudden people are like "ohh the horror of football". You guys really needed all the CTE stuff to come to light before you thought that football was rough sport on the bodies of its participants? If you never watched it fine, but the people that have always watched and are now all of a sudden horrified by it is melodramatic.

This is 100% where the NFL ****ed up.

I've always known football was rugged on those who played it, but the revelation that Aaron Hernandez had advanced CTE was somewhat shocking. Dude was young and he didn't pick up the game until HS.

Maybe in hindsight it should not have been as guys like Wayne Chrebet and Al Toon had public struggles with concussion related issues post football. The subject certainly wasn't in the news all the time, however.

full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/h...-research.html

Boxers also don't launch their heads at the glove coming their way, in effect doubling the impact speed. Instead, they mitigate the impact by training to allow their heads to roll with the blow, defusing some of the energy. Boxing is not good for the brain, but I agree that it's less damaging in the long run for the reasons you mentioned.

people were aware, they just weren't aware it turns your brain to mush. Football itself is dangerous, coaches sending players with concussions back into game wasn't necessary.

I'm not saying I'm boycotting it or anything I just think a lot of those guys are brainwashed and will play way past the time they should. FYI you hear a lot of younger MMA fighters who have become much smarter on the dangers of sport. I've heard guys like Mcgregor, Cody Garbrant discussing an exit plan before they get too beat up. I worry a lot of these NFL guys will get tricked into staying too long.

Tricked into staying too long? 90% of them won't get a 2nd contract.

This is basically Big Tobacco territory. **** the NFL.

Are you against seat belt laws?

Yeah, bring back gladiator games to the death!

seat belt laws protect other people. I dont care if you want to kill yourself but when you fly thru the windshield you cause a real mess for everyone else

gladiators were slaves so nice strawman

the biggest issue with football is pressuring kids to play who can't really make informed choices on their own, not sure how you could make a post so wrong when the problem is that clear

Given that aggressive and anti-social behavior is well documented for individuals with CTE your claim that playing football generates no negative externalities is false.

correlation etc

people who are aggressive are more likely to play football