Not to sound insensitive but I’ve always assumed this danger was part of the reason that they get so much money to play this sport.
Part of it is to be an amazing athlete but also that you knmow that the next play could be your last in the NFL that is why they are compensated so well.
I’m too slow, fat and lazy to be an athlete that is why I’m an insurance agent and I am paid accordingly.
Four issues come to mind to manage this risk.
1. Education for and awareness on the part of ball carriers of how to protect themselves from taking a damaging hit to the head.
2. Education for and awareness on the part of defensive “hit men” of to avoid dangerous head hits.
3. A stringent “Zero Tolerance” policy by the NFL on dangerous hits. There must be a multi-game suspension and a significant fine. Second time offenders should be banned for a season.
4. Helmet technology should be re-visited and improved if possible.
While brain injuries are important, neck/spine injuries are equally important. A head to head hit can snap a vertebrae and result in paralysis.
Aside from the above, it will always be a violent sport with assumption of risk.
Don’t you find it rather telling that the Players Assoc instantly gets all hot & bothered when one of their prima donna, cry baby criminal players gets in trouble with the law, or gets suspended for an obvious infraction, yet they are suspiciously silent on this topic? This tells you everything you need to know.
Come on, this is FOOTBALL and let’s keep it that way. Or, hey, if you’d like, why don’t we just make all tackling illegal? Remember those fashionable and highly safe velcro streamers from 6th grade? Or maybe to save money we could just go to Two Hand Touch. Or, actually, even better yet, instead of using human players (who are prone to injuries) we could just set up a big Madden Football match through a Playstation and route it through the Jumbotron!
These athletes may be close to, but aren’t full fledged neanderthals. There is NO VALID REASON for a helmet to helmet hit. I agree hard hits are part of the game but the helmet to helmet hits are cheap shots by ignorant punks.
Maybe I came off a bit too abrasive, but I see all these additional rules as a slippery slope that leads to a further watering-down of the game. Look at the Steel Curtain of the 70s and remember what the game USED to be like!
There is NO VALID REASON for a helmet to helmet hit?
_________
Maybe, unless you like to hurt, intimidate people, and cause fumbles, which most good defences like to do.
Guys hit to the head for one reason, it works really well.
Butkiss – judging by your screename and ignorant comments you must also be a NASCAR fan and probably have a Dale Earnhardt shrine in your shed where you keep you chainsaw. Open field helmet to helmet hits were NEVER acceptable and are UNECESSARY. Put the helmet on the ball. If you knew anything about the sport you’d know open field tacklers are trained to strip the ball and tackle below the waist. Knocking somebody silly,(including yourself) is the mark of a punk. Professionals with class find that activity unacceptable and unecessary. Just look at who’d been guilty of the dirty hits. Nobody anybody respects.
Never heard of Dick Butkus? And tackeling below the waste is for wuses. Head on head causes fumbles. Many of the best players do it. Thats why so many many players have these issues.
You didn’t have to play a contact sport, drive in NASCAR, or take drugs to be at risk for this debilitating and gruesome injury. I as a nurse took care of many individuals who were exposed on skate boards, Ice Skates, Snow Boards, Motorcycles, and automobiles. I got mine from a football player in the 60’s who thought it would be funny to blindside a student that was observing a peaceful college sit-in. I woke up several hours later in the emergency room after suffer a coup-counter-coup closed head injury. The end result, my grades dropped from a 3.88GPA to failing out, several failed marriages, constant headaches, and since the injury was centralized at the atlas of the spine now have ostearthritis and constant pain. I do know his name, and where he lives and before I leave this orb he will remember that day.
I played rugby in my youth and my head got bopped a good many times. I have regular checkups and I have no signs of head injury. I wonder if rugby players have more injuries than armor plated American football players?
Generally speaking sports played without head gear are much safer, because people know they cant hit as hard.
If you took one of those NFL hits without a helmet, you would know it, you would wake up in an ambulance with a gaping head wound. And thats if you were lucky, you could be killed.
Also, the NFL athletes are often times twice the size of a rugby player, and even at that size, are often times faster than most athletes.
There are guys that go 280 that are running a 4.5 second 40 yard dash these days.
Theres probably one guy on your rugby team that fast, and he probably weighs less than 180.
I saw an episode of “Sports Science” on ESPN where they actually compared rugby and football tackles. The recipient of a football tackle takes an impact roughly equal to a head-on car crash at 30 mph — and that’s counting the padding. The linebacker who registered the hit was pretty proud of that figure.
The show concluded that while football players get hit harder, rugby players get hit more frequently, and both players receive about the same amount of “impact energy” over the course of a game.
However, injuries tend to come from one big hit, not repeated weaker ones, so football players are more prone to actually getting hurt, despite the pads.
Not to sound insensitive but I’ve always assumed this danger was part of the reason that they get so much money to play this sport.
Part of it is to be an amazing athlete but also that you knmow that the next play could be your last in the NFL that is why they are compensated so well.
I’m too slow, fat and lazy to be an athlete that is why I’m an insurance agent and I am paid accordingly.
Four issues come to mind to manage this risk.
1. Education for and awareness on the part of ball carriers of how to protect themselves from taking a damaging hit to the head.
2. Education for and awareness on the part of defensive “hit men” of to avoid dangerous head hits.
3. A stringent “Zero Tolerance” policy by the NFL on dangerous hits. There must be a multi-game suspension and a significant fine. Second time offenders should be banned for a season.
4. Helmet technology should be re-visited and improved if possible.
While brain injuries are important, neck/spine injuries are equally important. A head to head hit can snap a vertebrae and result in paralysis.
Aside from the above, it will always be a violent sport with assumption of risk.
Don’t you find it rather telling that the Players Assoc instantly gets all hot & bothered when one of their prima donna, cry baby criminal players gets in trouble with the law, or gets suspended for an obvious infraction, yet they are suspiciously silent on this topic? This tells you everything you need to know.
Come on, this is FOOTBALL and let’s keep it that way. Or, hey, if you’d like, why don’t we just make all tackling illegal? Remember those fashionable and highly safe velcro streamers from 6th grade? Or maybe to save money we could just go to Two Hand Touch. Or, actually, even better yet, instead of using human players (who are prone to injuries) we could just set up a big Madden Football match through a Playstation and route it through the Jumbotron!
Anthrax,
These athletes may be close to, but aren’t full fledged neanderthals. There is NO VALID REASON for a helmet to helmet hit. I agree hard hits are part of the game but the helmet to helmet hits are cheap shots by ignorant punks.
Maybe I came off a bit too abrasive, but I see all these additional rules as a slippery slope that leads to a further watering-down of the game. Look at the Steel Curtain of the 70s and remember what the game USED to be like!
There is NO VALID REASON for a helmet to helmet hit?
_________
Maybe, unless you like to hurt, intimidate people, and cause fumbles, which most good defences like to do.
Guys hit to the head for one reason, it works really well.
I know a bunch of people with these same problems and none of them are football players.
Butkiss – judging by your screename and ignorant comments you must also be a NASCAR fan and probably have a Dale Earnhardt shrine in your shed where you keep you chainsaw. Open field helmet to helmet hits were NEVER acceptable and are UNECESSARY. Put the helmet on the ball. If you knew anything about the sport you’d know open field tacklers are trained to strip the ball and tackle below the waist. Knocking somebody silly,(including yourself) is the mark of a punk. Professionals with class find that activity unacceptable and unecessary. Just look at who’d been guilty of the dirty hits. Nobody anybody respects.
Never heard of Dick Butkus? And tackeling below the waste is for wuses. Head on head causes fumbles. Many of the best players do it. Thats why so many many players have these issues.
You didn’t have to play a contact sport, drive in NASCAR, or take drugs to be at risk for this debilitating and gruesome injury. I as a nurse took care of many individuals who were exposed on skate boards, Ice Skates, Snow Boards, Motorcycles, and automobiles. I got mine from a football player in the 60’s who thought it would be funny to blindside a student that was observing a peaceful college sit-in. I woke up several hours later in the emergency room after suffer a coup-counter-coup closed head injury. The end result, my grades dropped from a 3.88GPA to failing out, several failed marriages, constant headaches, and since the injury was centralized at the atlas of the spine now have ostearthritis and constant pain. I do know his name, and where he lives and before I leave this orb he will remember that day.
Was he prosecuted?
I played rugby in my youth and my head got bopped a good many times. I have regular checkups and I have no signs of head injury. I wonder if rugby players have more injuries than armor plated American football players?
Generally speaking sports played without head gear are much safer, because people know they cant hit as hard.
If you took one of those NFL hits without a helmet, you would know it, you would wake up in an ambulance with a gaping head wound. And thats if you were lucky, you could be killed.
Also, the NFL athletes are often times twice the size of a rugby player, and even at that size, are often times faster than most athletes.
There are guys that go 280 that are running a 4.5 second 40 yard dash these days.
Theres probably one guy on your rugby team that fast, and he probably weighs less than 180.
I just looked it up, theres a guy in the NFL that runs a 4.8, he weighs 310.
Reiterating Dain Bramage —
I saw an episode of “Sports Science” on ESPN where they actually compared rugby and football tackles. The recipient of a football tackle takes an impact roughly equal to a head-on car crash at 30 mph — and that’s counting the padding. The linebacker who registered the hit was pretty proud of that figure.
The show concluded that while football players get hit harder, rugby players get hit more frequently, and both players receive about the same amount of “impact energy” over the course of a game.
However, injuries tend to come from one big hit, not repeated weaker ones, so football players are more prone to actually getting hurt, despite the pads.