Golf being down 21.4% is really surprising to me. Those stats are telling me that overall youth participation in sports is down. Or, there were just a ****load of kids in 2001.

Where are all these kids playing golf? Like organized league or they just play a round every 6 months with dad?

Tiger woods was much more of a phenomenon in 2001 than 2011 I assume is the reason why.

The numbers surprise me, my area growing up around 2001 probably had a lot more youth soccer leagues than any other sport. Certainly more kids playing soccer, basketball, or tennis than golf.

Your question was rhetorical. Unless you think somebody here has the nugget of knowledge you want to know.

those golf stats are way out of wak

Tbh I never thought about this stuff when I plyed football in the US and later over here. I love the game but in retrospect I would not play again and I would strongly advice my kids against playing.

Guess you could teach your kid punting. I still have this theory (that lots of people here seem to lol at) that it's fairly easy to become a college level+ punter if you start practicing early enough. ROI would be a pretty solid shot at getting a college scholarship, a tiny shot at getting an NFL gig and an automatic shot at playing HS football without all the injury concerns (if cool kid stuff matters..eventhough the punter is probably not going to be ultracool :P).

Of course it was rhetorical, thanks sherlock. Your response still neglects to acknowledge the point being made.

My post was in response to a post that was in response to a post talking about youth football. If youth football is banned then

A) it's not necessary that youth boxing be taken on necessarily since it's not a huge public health menace.

and

B) but yeah, go ahead and ban it, I don't give a ****. this isn't a problem at all in my book.

bump for Jr Seau's brain being confirmed destroyed by football

Bigger, thicker helmets.

I have thought for a long time we were going to see someone like Seau killing himself and I am not even remotely surprised to hear he had CTE. I doubt anyone in SE is surprised either, this forum is way more in tune with whats going on, even though its overly cynical at times.

I do think the NFL and the NCAA are in for some serious lawsuits soon. There have been enough reports recently about the NFL claiming there is nothing wrong (several years ago) and the NCAA still hasn't done anything to mandate how much contact is allowed during the week, something the NFL and most other football organizations have done.

Its really damn sad to think there could be so many people out there who are walking time bombs when it comes to CTE or potential victims of ALS. Real Sports has done enough stories about this recently. The NFL guys are now relatively well covered, albeit sad still, but the college and high school only players get ****ed so bad.

I would never want my kid playing football. I had already made up my mind about this years ago, but if it isn't obvious to everyone now, then nothing will probably change their minds. The game, while awesome to watch, is just inherently dangerous. As it is now, to me it looks to be headed down the same path as boxing. Unless some changes happen to rules about contact or the game gets altered. I am not really believing 100% people like it for the big hits. I think people like the big offensive plays more than anything. So there is some options imo.

yeah football is gonna be banned by 2025

Well first, boxing hasn't been banned.

More seriously though, I think the game will be modified in some way. Or who knows, all the big time athletes could migrate to other sports and nothing changes except the athletes get worse.

Boxing is way more of a niche sport; thus, fewer people will be injured and fewer people care. Also, you have to think about how many kids play Pop Warner vs. kids boxing. It's borderline negligent parenting to have your children play football.

You mean it will get replaced by something more violent like MMA?

I think the big thing people are missing is that CTE seems to be caused more by the more mundane milder hits rather than the big, less frequent full-blown concussions.

Boxing is on the same timeline as the NFL when it comes to concussion awareness, so even though you have the Jerry Quarry types that are well known about it's the widespread problems that were unknown/unlinked before in both sports from repeated concussive hits that ultimately are a problem imo.

I also don't think MMA is really on the same level as Boxing or the NFL when it comes to how much cumulative brain damage is done to the average athlete.

Giving a person more options to defend himself doesn't make it more dangerous.

Go back to leather head gear. No face mask. All pads must be made of soft material. More than 3 yards from scrimmage the defense will not be allowed to fly off the ground for tackles. Any players slow to get up will be required to sit out one play.

Rugby League is Australia have banned shoulder charges like these now because of this whole concussion debate and they probably dont wanna end up being sued by former players like the NFL

Interesting article about the public opinion being formed on CTE.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--bl...234745864.html

Seau was never diagnosed with a concussion. Really scary stuff for the league.

Scary in the sense they are going to get taken for hundreds of millions in former player lawsuits? Or, scary like the end is near kind of scary? because lol at that.

If they really wanted to save football then PEDs would be banned. The modern day equipment would do wonders towards protecting the brain (comparatively) but when 250lbs is moving at 4.3 speed then it does not matter what protection is being worn.

A more creative idea is to remove pads altogether and see how many players want to go smashing their heads into each other. I would like to see the concussion rates of rugby, I would imagine football players have more teeth though.

seriously:
Soccer
basketball
Hockey (it has fights)
baseball (soon to be extinct because old people are afraid to change and young people think it is boring and silly that they umpire a game that could easily be completely umped by computers which just makes me think they want it to be mistake ridden)
football: banned when people finally realize how dangerous it is due to PEDs

go on...

Boxing vs MMA

This is kind of fun, MMA with less padded gloves is actually less damaging to the brain than boxing. In MMA when you are hit it is noticed and you will be knocked out much faster, you will also sustain far fewer punches. In boxing comparatively you are never knocked out and each one of those punches that hits is another small brain trauma. This is also evident in lineman having worse symptoms than QBs, WRs, QBs and other players who sustain more documented concussions. Every time that ball is snapped the lines collide causing minor trauma, every time it is snapped, every practice snap even. Think about that.

Another fun fact, boxing gloves are not to protect the fighters heads but rather their hands. Kind of ridiculous. If they went back to the roots of boxing when it was bare knuckle until a knockout then that would be healthier than their current rules.

Also MMA does not need to either end in a knockout or 15 rounds of being hit in the face.

has the league's policy on concussions changed in recent years bc of all this stuff? i was just thinking it through, and really if they're serious about tackling this issue, they probably need independent doctors to oversee all concussion related matters (from diagnosing to treatment). bc players, coaches, teams, everyone else pretty much will feel pressure to put health as a secondary concern.