The shameful secret

This is a huge problem that has life-altering ramifications at every level of sports. Thank you for bringing more of it out for people to learn about. Rec’d!

There have been “Soft” Helmets for three decades but all levels of the game have resisted it.

But what can you expect from a league that markets videos of viscious hits then fines players for those very hits.

I don’t have the link, but everyone should go read Matt Bowen’s article at the NationalFootballPost on this topic. I didn’t experience anything like the severity of your symptoms, but playing safety in high school, I met a fullback helmet to helmet in hole at some point in the third quarter and don’t remember a thing until there were about two minutes left in the game – scared the hell out of me, but didn’t stop me from playing in college and getting my bell rung a couple times there as well. And the speed and force of NFL collisions is light years beyond HS or college ball. It’s an issue – thanks for raising it here!
Go Broncs!

I come from a part of the world in which rugby is the most popular (some think only) sport. You learn from a very young age that the best technique to tackle somebody is “cheek to cheek” with the former being your own cheek and the latter being the opponent’s butt cheek. The only protective equipment in rugby of course is a mouthguard and only “whimps” wear shoulder pads.

The most common long term injury for rugby players? Cauliflower ears. While these may not look good for the ladies it sure beats a life of brain damage.

Needless to say it makes me shudder every time I see an NFL tackle where a guy dives in at knees, hips etc with his head. I doubt very much this would be the case minus the helmet.

For that same reason one possible answer being floated should be completely ridden of – that of designing even better helmets. The real problem as I see it is technique

I absolutely agree that a someone should fund and do a scientifc study to find out why ex-players have this problem but with all due respect, conclusions should not be generated before conducting the study. Someone need to find out if playing professional football is the cause or is there some other factor that football players in general all have in common. Certain pharmicuticals come to mind, or is it the years of playing football at the little leque level all the way through college, many more years playing then in the few years they play professionally.

Since the NFL is a privately held, mult-billion dollar industry that sells human car crashes to the masses through its lucrative TV contracts, I don’t believe for a second that they will fund medical research projects or admit negligence of any kind for the long term ill effects on its small number of former employees. They’ll cite years of rule changes and equipment improvements to increase player safety but they’ll never admit negligence.

I agree with your post but I feel you are preaching to the choir.

Something must be done to alleviate the results of these collisions. The soft helmet makes a lot of sense to me and should be given a chance. As others have commented, it will be a hard sell to the NFL. I hate to think of what tragedy will be necessary to correct this situation. When you see 45 year old former NFL players who can barely walk, you see the cumulative damage to their knees. The cumulative damage to their brains are even more of a concern. That said, most of these athletes probably wouldn’t give up the game, even knowing the dangers they may face in later life. I can remember that I once felt that I was indestructible, only to find that was not the case.

Thanks, Ponderosa for a compelling post. Definitely though-provoking and rec’d.

It’s about both. Rules that make sense for the players long term health: equipment that gives them the best chance of getting through their career without major cognitive damage.

Thanks for sharing some of your field expertise.

The NFL is one of the most successful sports in the world today. Part of the attraction to the NFL is the hitting. Changing the fundamental way that the game is played would most likely negatively affect this. Any change that would lower the overall fanbase would likewise affect the profit margin. In a game littered with multi-million dollar guarenteed contracts the bottom line rules much of the decision making.

The players in the NFL are not stupid. They understand the risk they run in playing this violent sport. They are given the choice, health or wealth? I could not choose to take money at the expense of my body, but I can respect the wishes of those that can. I have heard very few players complain about the violence of the game. Those that I have heard have all been quarterbacks, which I can understand, as they are the ones being hit, instead of those doing the hitting. These are grown men, who make thier own decisions, they are the ones who are facing the consequences. How can we deign to force sweeping changes to a game that supports them, all in an unwanted effort to protect them.

All that being said, I fully support more research. Knowledge is power. I believe that the NFL has a responsibility to inform its players of the risk they run in playing this game, and I think that research could help them accomplish this goal.

…and this post helps prove why. (No offense to the fine folks at Purple Row, where I’m also quite active.)

The personal experience really brings the right perspective to one of those “elephant in the room” problems that we’ve all known about for some time.

It should really be a combined effort by the NFL and the PA – not to mention the NCAA, where most of the coaching and strategy innovations in football start out – to get a handle on this problem and start trying to minimize it.

The alternative, of course, is to be like NASCAR and wait until somebody gets killed (Adam Petty, Dale Earnhardt, etc.) before doing something about it.

Great post, and easily rec’d.

Used to be nicknamed “The Bruise” because of the punishing hits he used to take going for tough catches over the middle and then getting clobbered.

He teamed with Dave Logan as color guy for the radio broadcast of the Cincy game. When discussing the immaculate deflection, he didn’t even remember his own catch for a TD off an immaculate deflection in a Vikings game. When someone reminded him about it later, he basically said he’d taken so many hits in his career that he didn’t remember that catch, even as memorable as it was. Scary.