Ed Cunningham Abruptly Resigns From ESPN

dvdcrr said:
What other sport will you put him in then which will build as much strength, cardiovascular health, bone density, balance, agility, mental toughness, and provide enjoyment for his life?
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Kickboxing! It's the sport of the future!

 
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Probably the best thing is to understand when not to play anymore.  And I think studies/research will get us to that point soon into the future

 
Cars, guns, and many other things cause more issues than FB. They aren't being eliminated anytime soon.   I don't think it will be eliminated, but maybe changed.  Participation will be reduced.

 
On a somewhat related topic, do you know what event started the over protective parent craze?  I went to a conference a few years ago and it was discussed.

 
dvdcrr said:
Basically you are anti-football then.  It is your business what you do with your son, but keep in mind holding him out of football could actually do more harm than good.  What other sport will you put him in then which will build as much strength, cardiovascular health, bone density, balance, agility, mental toughness, and provide enjoyment for his life?

 Someday if he is drafted into the armed services, or decides to become an officer of the peace, what other sport will have provided useful background in physical contact, posture, and agility to help save his life?
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I'm not anti-football any more than I am anti-boxing, anti-MMA fighting, etc. Those are all activities that involve a lot of head trauma. Research increasingly indicates that leads to higher risk of CTE.  So my son won't be participating in them.

Interestingly, former Husker Rob Zatecha was at my Rotary today and spoke about the risks of CTE. He put the chance that football as we know it exists in 20 years or so at only 60-70%.

 
I think it's funny that now because of all these studies football is now dangerous.  Up until the 50s lots of people where dying playing in games and practice.  There are some serious injuries that can occur any time.  I would be more worried about someone breaking their neck than if they walk into a room and can't remember why they walked in there 30 years after they are done playing.  

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
I'm going to guess there are some kick a$$ members of the armed services and police departments who didn't play football. And there are plenty of sports that enhance physical endurance, agility and discipline without the more grueling demands and risks of football.

I don't know what happens next. But when you're at the point where Brett Favre and Mike Ditka come out publicly to say they wouldn't let their own kids play football, knowing what they know, then it's not simply overprotective mothers and a wussified America driving the issue.

My 14 year old son is too small to play football. So he skateboards. He takes his helmet with him so we feel better about it, but at the skatepark no self-respecting skateboarder over 6 years old wears a helmet.

It's tough being a parent.
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Agreed, you don't need football to do those things and being a parent is tough.   

Football provides lifelong benefits to participants.  That is my point.  Do they out weigh the CTE risk?  I think so, up to high school level.  College level, maybe not but those are adults.  

Someone already said that some players are more prone to concussion. Either be cause they are blowing people up or are getting blown up.  But I think 85 % (normal curve) of high school players never will have any lifelong noticeable negative effects.

However the lifelong lessons including mental, physical perseverance, teamwork, apply to 100%

Also, head injuries would be reduced if they would make more players play both ways and limit platooning.  When you know you are going both ways for four quarters, you conserve a little and when you are tiredin the fourth, velocities, and hence collisions are reduced.

 
Crusader Husker said:
Cars, guns, and many other things cause more issues than FB. They aren't being eliminated anytime soon.   I don't think it will be eliminated, but maybe changed.  Participation will be reduced.
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.

I think it's already happening.  The local high school has roughly 200-220 kids.  Assuming a normal 50/50 split, there should be roughly 100 boys+.  Last year, they had something like 28 out for football.  This year, they have around 32.  The freshman class only has six boys out.  This is from a team that only lost two games last year.  I'm noticing it more and more with other schools around.  One local team had their first game cancelled because they're opponent didn't have enough bodies to field a team. 

As tough as it is to get people to go out for football right now, I really do question what the next ten years will look like locally.  It wouldn't surprise me at all to see some schools dismiss the program due to low to no involvement. 

 
I would say that is a lot out from what I have seen.  Inner City Cleveland schools have thousands of kids and have about 30 kids out.

 
There are rapid changes going on in urban America and they are hard to understand for a rural kid.  If you think football is too dangerous for you or your kid, consider this.  

Me and my family are from the Sandhills where we do not farm: we ranch out there.  A young boy is usually first put on a horse at 5 years old to ride.  No helmet.  No pads.   A 6ft. tall 1000 lb animal.  They do this because when you start early you grow to be a better cowboy.  Every boy who rides gets bucked off.  Sometimes your horse is spooked or has a sandbur under the saddle blanket. Sometimes it steps in a hole or gets a hoof caught on an unseen wire. A good rider as a young man can get extra money breaking horses.  That is where you start with a wild horse and ride it until it is broke.  It is you against the horse.  And your will has to dominate. You will get bucked off, smashed into panels, kicked and bitten.  Yes horses can bite.  

But we dont cry CTE and run to mama.  Instead we celebrate and make a sport out of it.  And if you think football is hard on a body try bareback riding.  My great uncle, and grandpa were NSRA state champions.  They did that after serving in the Armed forces, growing up in the depression, AND while raising families. 

I remember a story my dad got caught in a blizzard on his horse and he was getting attacked by a stallion that only cared about his mare he was only 11 years old.  I remember the time he got knocked off his horse directly under two fighting bulls.

My friends grandpa when he was teaching them to bulldog ( steer wrestle) if they wouldnt jump off their running horse, he would reach over and jerk them off.  By God, you are getting down on that steer whether you want to or not son!  You don't get to be that tough by playing lacrosse and eating yogurt at the mall 

Quite honestly, I have many more stories, but the harsh reality of that way of life would just sound like hyperbole to eastern ears.

As kids we would wrestle about 800 kicking calves a year spread out across about 12 brandings.  And when we could we played tackle football, no pads.  Somebody got hurt almost every time.  But we sucked it up.  We raced each other on horses, motorcycles, three wheelers and four wheelers.  On one of my friends ranch if you get caught walking through the yard, you get run over by an ATV by an ornery brother so you better be fast or tough.

All I can say is if you can't handle football you had better keep your pansy a$$ away from Mullen, or Gordon NE.

 
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The sport with the biggest and most obious head trauma issues is of course boxing/fighting.  Those are far more dangerous than football, etc.  Now, for me, I always felt playing the games that baseball was the most dangerous to me.  I would venture that soccer would be next and maybe track after that.  Those sports have little or no padding or protection from head hits etc.  But there are far more dangerous and wide spread concerns with injuries and health problems in our society that are preventable and prevalent than sports.  

Lifting, driving, construction, hauling, washing, cooking, etc etc etc.   The world of work is far more dangerous and costly to society than sports in this regard.   Slips and falls injure tens of thousands or more per year as opposed to a few dozen or less in football.   It's a handful of folks who get the microphone and speak loudly about the rare but tragic'so victims of a few.  I suspect also that all the padding, helmets etc would tend to give a bit of a false sense of security and invincibility to people who think that the players should not get hurt being all safe and secure in those uniforms.  

I am old school of course but I think the absence of knee pads and hip pads, etc are more troublesome.   The helmets by design lend themselves to be more like battering rams and it would seem they should have some kind of soft padding on the oustide as well as the inside  In this way both helmets hitting together would tend to cushion the blow for both players better.  I am not an engineer but it would seem the bubble wrap approach or foam or other material would be better all over the body, not just the head.  Armor was used by knights to protect from blows by the eneny swords, arrows etc.  And finding other suitable materials was not quite so easy 600 years ago.  

The most common football injuries it seems are knees and those happen in nearly all sports.  Swimming, diving and gymnastics are all very risky endeavors as well   Let's hope that the PC crowd does not eventually ban all sports except chess and ping pong and even those will have to be virtual.  LOL       

 
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