Head Trauma
 

Wasn't sure the best place to put this.

Just wondering if anyone has had second thoughts of letting their children/grandchildren play football.

I was listening to a multipart podcast on the Aaron Hernandez case. And while they did not make excuses for him being a murderer or try to blame it just on the injuries they did cover that his brain was scanned after he died and they found that he was level 3 of 4 on the scale they use. And this was a kid that had officially on had 2 concussions and was out of the game at 23.


Im not saying the game should be banned or anything as its personal choice at the end of the day. Just wondering how things are in the states with people pushing their kids into other sports?, stopping them playing tackle football etc.

Obviously there are lots of good things from playing sports and football.

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I grew up with rugby, among other "European" sports, in France. I still remember some tough tackling. But the lack of body protection forces them to teach you how to properly tackle. I think the body armor of today gives players a false sense of invincibility.

Re: Head Trauma
 

The NFL does a lot of R&D on equipment. That's a big part of it but they never address excessive BMI. There are some linemen that could pass a military BMI test but many could not. Addressing that would bring the injuries down more IMO.

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You nailed it Smash! Rugby is a contact sport just like football. We teach proper tackling techniques and don't use our body as a weapon. Those football pads make you feel invincible but you're not.

Personally, I think todays tackling techniques in football is pure crap. You should tackle a man with your shoulders not your head. Seriously, who came up with the terrible idea of leading with your helmet to make a tackle? Sure. You pull your head down to you shoulder pads but you are still leading with your head, which by the way, holds your brain!

I had multiple concussions when I first started playing rugby. But when I learned how to tackle I haven't had one since.

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I suffered 2 concussions between 2013-2015. Both were complete accidents, but the second one left me with a bit of brain damage that I still deal with frequently to this day. My wife could explain it better since she has had to bear witness to me over the years and deal with me.

From my personal experience, I cannot imagine what former and current players go through from CTE.

We've all seen games with obvious concussed players and how they just look completely out of it. Brett Favre had a playoff game some time in the mid 2000's where I believe he was concussed very early and had a horrible game. It was the wildcard game vs Minnesota from 2004 or 2005. He took some big hits early and was just not the same after that, leading to throwing 4 or 5 interceptions.

One former player's problems with head trauma that really disturbed me on a personal level was Junior Seau. Anyone who watched him through his career knows he was one of the best inside LBs of his era and of all time. His suicide is still haunting to this day.

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100% agree with this.

In the old eras there were players like Czonka and Earl Campbell that would just plow through players like they were a battering ram.

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Good points on correct tackling but from what the science reports its not really the tackling that causing CTE issues. Obviously you get some when a receiver is hit and flipped but most CTE seems to happen on the line. The reports I saw are saying that the order of most damage is

Linemen, both sides of the ball
Linebackers/fullbacks
Running backs
Receivers

Are we at a point when the linemen are just to big and to fast to play in the way they did 20/30 years ago.


Long term I think it really needs looking at.
College level especially where players are not paid and then thrown aside after they no longer play. That's why I brought the Hernandez case up, because he was obviously brain damage before he went pro.

Im a fan of football and combat sports but increasingly finding that effects of the sports for my pleasure are not sitting correctly with me. Once someone is a adult it's there choice and all good, I just wonder more and more how much damage is being done to children

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Kids have been playing football for generations and the risk isn’t any higher now than it has been in the past. If anything there is less of a risk these days.
Yes, there is definitely a chance a kid could get hurt playing football but you take the same risk when you throw them down 100 foot water slides, let them skate board, bike ride, etc. etc. Not to mention the crap kids do that you DONT know about.
How me and my friends survived is beyond me. Anything From sawing open shot gun shells to play with gun powder, back yard boxing matches without gloves, body slamming each other, building rope swings, tackle sandlot football to skateboarding off roofs onto trampolines.
Kids these days are pussified enough.

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Im just got off the medical reports that have the linemen the worst off in terms of trauma. Granted the hits I've seen on so e receivers look far worse. Often by a QB walking them I to a window that will get them lit up.


Im not even sure what I'm getting at starting the debate to be honest. Just some parts of that in depth podcast left me a bit uneasy with some things in various sports I've loved

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I remember reading once that playing O-Line is akin to being in a car accident 65-80 times per game.

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Its very seldom the singular big hits that causes the problem but the repetitive hits over a career where linemen are a lot more exposed than other positions.


I played as a lineman for 16 seasons and I have to admit I'm a little worried about my long term health. I had my last concussion in 2017 and I still feel some effects of it today.

I'm not sure I would want my sons to play if I had any.

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I was reloading my own shotgun shells when I was 12, so I had much easier access to the gunpowder. ;) Then again, I experienced a very fluke hunting accident at age 16 when I took both barrels from a 20 gauge over and under from three inches away in the lower leg. And, yes, I was out in the open field after three months of physical therapy (with still open wounds) playing tackle football with friends. Of course the docs and parents didn't know. Left a pretty damned impressive conversation piece of a scar. I still get asked about it to this day. Usually from young kids that have not yet been "pussified" by their parents.

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Damn dude. Glad you made it through that. Would have been a different story if you were using buckshot.

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#8 birdshot. Still have an ounce or so still floating around between my mid-calf and ankle region of my left leg 46 years later. Took the full load of both barrels includng the wadding. Miraculously missed the bone and arteries and took out a good section of the muscle. Just so happened the six top USAF surgeons were at the local base for a conference. They all had extensive battleground experience and several of them handled the surgery. No way they could clear out all that shot. Makes for an interesting xray. LOL!

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I was born in 70' and safety was never a consideration lol. At 8 I received my first chemistry set along with my father telling me the ingredients for gunpowder so I made my own, it came with potassium nitrate (salt peter) and sulfur... mom beat my arse for destroying a cheese grader on a charcoal briquet. I also dabbled with black powder firearms as a teen and a few ounces if black powder in an empty whippet (CO2 cartridge) with a firecracker wick and a dab of wax and you can take a mailbox off its post.

I had my arm broken by someone that fell out of a tree, stepped on 1/2 a broken coke bottle with no shoes playing hide and seek, had my nose broken by a Frisbee, used to have 1 pump pellet gun wars, jumped everything I could find with my bicycle, tore my hamstring, couldnt tell you which fingers haven't been broken or jammed, ...

After that childhood, 6 years of football, 9 years of baseball, 4 years in the ARMY, 6 months of combat , 5 years in Nigeria, more mosh pits than I can count, and 12 years on drilling rigs throughout the world one would think I set out to die or become dismembered at some point... I didn't, it didn't happen.

I have daughters but if I had sons I would'nt stop them from playing any sports.

Boys don't come with vaginas, don't treat them like they do; emergency rooms and health insurance are for the accidents. Size is irrelevant, every team needs Safety's and punt returners.

During my time in Nigeria I watched infants ride on moms back or belly wrapped in a sarong as she worked in the field or the streets, children are resilient and a hell of a lot more durable that modern society recognizes. We would have never survived evolution if they weren't.