TheOak

Sorry for the rant but this pisses me off.... I can not agree.

There is a certain amount of assumed personal liability every time a player steps foot on the field.

Roughly 40-50 % of all NFL players hold a college degree, another 20-30 percent went to college, and I would say at least 95% of all NFL players have played football at some level in their life.

They all KNOW the inherent risks associated with the game, and they CHOOSE to play.

This whole ordeal reminds me of people who enlist in the military for college money but when it is time to lace up the boots and go to war...cry like babies that they shouldn't have to.

If I drive my car off of a bridge, and get long term disability because of it, should i be able to sue GM because no one sat me down when I signed the purchasing agreement and said "you should know that if you drive this vehicle off of a bridge you could have long term disability".


This is like playing in the stock market.... When the payoff is huge people celebrate, when they lose money they start blaming everyone and their brother for their piss poor decisions, and "someone" must protect people from themselves. You do not see the same players complaining when they sign that contract, or cash that monthly check that is more than some people make in 10 years.

How in the fk can one person not assume that repeatedly hitting your head for 4 hours on a Sunday will not be a problem later.

This is the start of the stupification of America.

saintfan

First things first. Having a college degree doesn't equate to being smart or intelligent. I know FAR MORE stupid people that managed to finish college than people whom college made 'smart'.

As for the GM reference. IF GM told you it was completely safe to drive your car off a bridge, THEN you'd have something - but that's not what GM would tell you, because if they did you've have their ass, legally and rightfully so. The NFL was telling these players, if not directly then through the actions of coaches, physicians paid for by teams and by the league, and its culture, that, you know, it's a concussion. You'll be fine. Now GET BACK OUT THERE AND PLAY! THAT'S a BIG problem.

I ride a motorcycle 102 miles plus, every day, in stop and go traffic and in 90+ MPH traffic. I know it's dangerous. Now, I just put a brand new pair of tires on my bike, for safety's sake. If I wipe out because I do something stupid, I can only blame myself, however, if the tire manufacturer told me the tires were perfectly safe and promised me that I'd NEVER lose traction...I mean I know it's not a one-to-one, but you get what I mean...

The players absolutely have a case, and I think it's short-sighted to assume they're just trying to sue the NFL to get money because they're broke. I'm sure there's some of that going on. I'm sure too that some of those players are fine but pissed at the NFLs blatant disregard for what every doctor in the free world was saying about concussions while the NFL continued to push players onto the field in spite of them. I'd be pissed too.

You can believe Roger knows they have a good case. Again, that's why he's clearly going WAY overboard on all this safety crap. That's why Vilma and Sean and Loomie and Williams got raped. And Roger isn't done. He's just getting started, because he knows full well what the NFL is up against. And he is willing to scapegoat anybody as a means to a financial end.

And that's what hacks me off so much. While he talks about honesty and integrity and that he was (wah wah) lied to and about how people in the game have a responsibility to it, he refuses to just say, hey, you're right. The NFL marketed violence and has made a gazillion dollars and counting on it. Rather than rape people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, man up and settle with the players and with the Union. Take the cash hit for the sake of honesty and integrity - those things he professes to hold in such high regard, because up and until this very minute, the thing Roger and the NFL HASN'T been is honest.

C'mon Man...

Tobias-Reiper

... and how many of those have degrees in medicine or health research?

Let me give you an extreme example to get the point across:

As a reasonable person, you know that constant headaches are not normal. So, if you keep experiencing constant headaches, what do you do? A reasonable person goes to see a doctor. Say the doctor takes a scan of your brain and in it, sees a small mass, then he turns around and tells you "it's nothing... just take a couple aspirins".
Then, a year later, another doctor does a second scan after your headaches don't go away and tells you "I am sorry to say, but you are terminal because of this mass in your head. Had it been discovered a year year ago, you'd have a chance, but now..."

In the example above, you have a doctor who had proof that showed there was something really wrong with you, but decided not to tell you. And this is the allegation of the ex-players who are suing the league, that the NFL and its doctors had scientific knowledge of both short term and long term effect of concussions, and not only chose to ignore them, but went as far as deny them/instruct the players otherwise, and on-field medical staff allowed for players with clear signs of concussions back into games.

'Cause the simple man pays the thrills, the bills and the pills that kill