The reality of CTE - chilling article

Stan R · October 7, 2015

This is the real threat to football's existence as a sport. My kids called me out on this the other day like this:

"Dad, if you know these people are getting traumatic brain injuries and it is now confirmed by many, many different scientific studies as well as real life evidence (multiple suicides, living retired NFL players like tony dorsett's deterioration at a relatively young age) - how can you continue to watch this and sanction it? Aren't we accessories to this problem?"

Ok not those exact words but that was the jist of the conversation. So my response was "Yeah well, umm.. but.. I really love to watch it and... Lot's of other people watch it... and... Maybe they'll just change some stupid parts of the game like spearing and leading with the head... Tackle heads up etc.."

The reality is I don't know, I do feel bad, really bad for these guys and I do feel a bit like a hypocrite. This article only makes things worse for me. Now it shows the CTE is not caused by massive concussions. It is (likely) caused by repetitive small jarring hits.

I suggest you read this:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2575282-mike-freemans-10-point-stance-are-nfl-players-wising-up-about-cte?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

foutsrouts · October 7, 2015

Scary stuff. Maybe this article is the reason behind our defense avoiding contact this season.

UNT90 · October 7, 2015

It is good that the literature is out there so parents can make informed decisions about the sports their children play.

Does it really surprise anyone that football is dangerous? Players at all levels have lost the ability to ever walk again and they have lost it on the football field. Do people really think multiple concussions will have no long term effects?

The danger, quite frankly, is part of the reason this sport appeals to our society.

We all make personal decisions for ourselves and our children. You have to decide what is right for your family and live with the consequences. If you want to steer your kids toward baseball or basketball, more power to you, and its probably the right decision. But what if your kid falls in love with and is REALLY good at football? What if he begs you to play? These are complicated decisions for a parent to make.

There are many things that are dangerous in life. I'm sure if we all think back to our youth, we can pick multiple instances where debilitating injury was a very real possibility of the decisions we made.

But we still made that decision.

Because that's living life. McDonalds is dangerous, alcohol is dangerous (and probably does much more damage as a whole just medically to society than long term concussion syndrome ever did), riding your road bike on the street is dangerous, riding your mountain bike on a trail is dangerous (know a guy whose wife was paralyzed doing this very thing).

Life is dangerous. And it should be.

It's nice to have this info to decide whether this is a danger in which you want your family to participate.

It should not be the end of football, unless everyone individually decides to stop playing. They won't.

Because chicks dig scars, pain is temporary, but glory last forever.

Edited October 7, 2015 by UNT90

ChristopherRyanWilkes · October 7, 2015

This is a tough one because I love football. Even my small football playing sample size I can remember the coaches lining us up in practice and having us tackle each other. Kids didn't know what they were doing and often times these hits were smaller kids and much larger kids going helmet to helmet.I can't imagine what it's like with grown men doing the same thing over and over again. I don't have kids, but more than likely I will steer my future kids towards baseball or basketball or my sport: tennis.

risinggreen · October 7, 2015

Being born is the ultimate danger, because it has a 100% kill rate. All sports involve danger. I know a guy who lost his front teeth shooting pool, and another who nearly lost an eye. I guess sports/games that commonly involve alcohol have an extra element of danger.

UNT90 · October 18, 2015

http://www.wfaa.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2015/10/17/superintendent-texas-football-player-dies-after-collapsing-during-game/74156214/

Thought this was pertinent to my previous point. It's a dangerous game. Decide for your family what is best for your particular situation.

drex · October 19, 2015

Demographics in the USA will ultimately unseat football as a popular sport...don't know how soon.

foutsrouts · October 19, 2015

Demographics in the USA will ultimately unseat football as a popular sport...don't know how soon.

If you're referring to Hispanics, I doubt that this will happen anytime soon. American Hispanics love the game. Of course the feminization of America threat to the game is an entirely different matter.

CMJ · October 19, 2015

I do think football will probably be replaced by basketball as the most popular sport in the USA because of studies like this. It won't be for several generations though, and unlike boxing, it will still remain popular.

HarringtonFishSmeller · October 19, 2015

Everyone asks my son if he plays football. He's nine years old and already weighs 120 pounds. We've held him out because of the concussion issue...and, the hyper-competitive dad coaches in this area.

We've stuck to baseball, where he catches, plays first, and pitches a little. My secret hope is that he keeps doing well in baseball and has enough success there that he forgets about football. But...being where we are, it is tough.

He asks us every fall to sign him up for tackle football. We tell him no. He cries. It's just a thing. We've offered to sign him up for flag, but he says it's for girls because they let girls play in the flag leagues with the boys at this age.

He doesn't understand the long term danger to his brain. I've promise him he can try it in the 7th or 8th grade, if he does well in school with his grades, stays out of trouble there and at home, and keeps up with his chores around the house...without having a bad attitude about all of it.

It's certainly a worry, these brain injuries. Hard to fight a kid's desire to play, though. Especially here in North Texas. Everyone seems to be playing at his school. One of those things where you just have to step in, be a parent, and deal with the melt down for the sake of your kid's long term health.

I do think football will probably be replaced by basketball as the most popular sport in the USA because of studies like this. It won't be for several generations though, and unlike boxing, it will still remain popular.

Baseball could rise from the ashes as well. Especially since kids can get paid for their talent right out of high school, if they are good enough. The top football preps can't do that. They have to risk injury - and, getting beat out by other players to start - for three years before they can declare for the pro draft.

With the changing demographics, keep your eye on soccer as well. Kids, like in baseball, routinely get signed before they turn 18 all over the world. Clubs sign them and assign them to other lower division clubs to get them experience. Kind of a faux minor-league thing. But, they get paid while developing...again, something football kids can't do.

Withers940 · October 19, 2015

Keep in Mind, Soccer has a high concussion rate as well. Not to the magnitude of football but those players get them all the time. If you look at the protocol that they had back when Tony Dorsett was playing, its night and day different than todays protocol. Hell even the mid 90's is different. Its how you handle the injury i think. Just like a hamstring injury but to a higher magnitude because your hamstring cant do Math equations but if you pull your hamstring, you dont keep running on it, you rest it. A brain injury needs to be treated a lot more delicately. Like Sean Lee for instance, two weeks ago, he got a concussion but was cleared to play last week against the Pats. I think he should of sat out one more week to be safe. Im not a doctor nor have I ever studied the brain but if your "Smart" about it, we can make football a safer sport

HarringtonFishSmeller · October 19, 2015

True. But, also consider that the players are bigger than when Dorsett played as well. The 300 pound defensive linemen were a rarity, now everybody has at least one...even us!

And, DEs now weigh what DTs used to weigh back in Dorsett's day.

Soccer, for sure, probably gets more concussions than any sport not named football or hockey. Having played all the way through high school, I know that people who have never played don't understand how many times soccer players get hit in the head during a game. The only two concussions I ever suffered were during soccer games - one during a play, and one off the ball.

When you go up for a header, you often knock heads. Elbows fly in and around the ball at all times; into your back, chest, arms, shoulder, throat, head. Your only padding, really, are the shin guards...and, your cup. You get your toes and ankles stomped on, your quads and calves routinely kicked. You are bruised from the shoulders down from the elbows.

I played middle defender, and you have to play that way to get into the opposing strikers' mind. If you don't "punish" the attacking players for coming into your area, they will attack you with vigor all day long. And, they will try to punish back. You cannot turn your back in soccer if an opposing player is behind you, even if - and, especially if - the ball has been played up field.

The average speed of a soccer shot is 60 mph, and they have been recorded as high as 131 mph. Think about free kicks and corner kicks. When you see a defender head away one of those, he's stuck his head into path of a leather object flying 60-100 mph in most cases.

With the knees, there is the constant cutting this way and that, year after year after year, season after season, game in and game out. Plus, many of the collisions where two opposing players are going for a free ball, they'll slam into each others knees going at full speed trying to win it. Yes, some players "take a dive" to try to draw a card. But, in reality, soccer players hit each other hard going for the ball. And, the knees tend to take the brunt of it. I've got a bum left knee, for sure, that I've held off on getting fixed.

Take a slide tackle from behind or the side, and there go your ankles. It's a dangerous game. Many of the same things happen in basketball. But, in basketball, the courts are smaller, there are only five players, and you have three officials pretty much on top of the action at all times.

Soccer fields are huge and sometimes the referee is far enough away to where he doesn't see an elbow to the throat and such. If they action goes the other way quickly, he doesn't sees the toe and ankle stomping. When you have played long enough a kick to the quad or calf can look very much like a legitimate play for the ball if the referee and linesmen are at an angle where they don't see in totality what is happening.

It doesn't look that rough on TV. But, you are correct, soccer is a tough sport.

HoustonEagle · October 19, 2015

I ask myself. If my kid came to me and wanted to play some unknown and unheralded sport that held the same risk as football would I say yes? The answer to that is no. So why should the answer be yes for football? I think more and more parents are coming to this line of thinking which will change the demographics of who plays and who does not. With that said I love watching the sport and I do feel that makes me, to some degree, a hypocrite.

Withers940 · October 19, 2015

What are the studies of people that just play High School? Just the College level?

If you think of NFL players that play as long as Tony Dorsett played a total of 19 years of football and the protocol was awful back in the day. He played 11 of those 19 years in the NFL and for an NFL running back, thats a long time. I think it all depends on the amount of time that one plays football. If your kid plays just 4 years of High school football, I dont think that does any harm. If my kid comes up to me and asks me if he can play football I will tell him yes. I played a total of 6 years of football and as of right now, I am doing just fine.

HarringtonFishSmeller · October 19, 2015

I ask myself. If my kid came to me and wanted to play some unknown and unheralded sport that held the same risk as football would I say yes? The answer to that is no. So why should the answer be yes for football? I think more and more parents are coming to this line of thinking which will change the demographics of who plays and who does not. With that said I love watching the sport and I do feel that makes me, to some degree, a hypocrite.

If you mean soccer, it's only unheralded in the U.S. Take Jozy Altidore. He signed made his pro debut as the age of 16. Two years later, his rights were sold for $10 million to Villarreal in La Liga, one of the top leagues in the world.

Altidore is only 25 years old, but is in his 10th year of playing professionally. No American football prep signs a pro contract at 16. The NFL Players' Union won't allow any kid to apply for the draft until they are out of high school for three years.

So, if the injuries are said to be equal, and I've got a kid who could be a superstar at both, it'd be a no brainer for me: I'd tell him soccer.

I feel the same about basketball and baseball. A superstar kid can sign overseas in basketball and sign right out of high school in baseball. Whether they ever make it big, sure, is a question. But, they are being paid for their skills; and, possibly building a financial cushion if they have a career-ending injury or don't pan out.

American football doesn't afford that opportunity. You sacrifice your body for the small chance of one day playing in the NFL. Your reward may be a degree. Any kid paid to play soccer or basketball overseas, or to play minor league baseball right out of high school, likely had a chuck of cash in a signing bonus to go back to school on.

Edited October 19, 2015 by HarringtonFishSmeller

NT93 · October 19, 2015

PSA-HUF-Clinic Present.pptx

Slide 10 might surprise you. I'm not sure what age group this encompasses, but interesting nonetheless.

Withers940 · October 19, 2015

PSA-HUF-Clinic Present.pptx
Slide 10 might surprise you. I'm not sure what age group this encompasses, but interesting nonetheless.

Boom!

Cougar King · October 19, 2015

Annnnnd the wussification of America continues. You risk injury and death just going outside. I loved playing football for many years and if my sons want to play, then they will play. Not going to keep them in an overprotective bubble.

UNTflyer · October 19, 2015

Annnnnd the wussification of America continues. You risk injury and death just going outside. I loved playing football for many years and if my sons want to play, then they will play. Not going to keep them in an overprotective bubble.

Wussification? Seriously?

CTE has been found in 87 out of 91 deceased NFL players. That is 96%. And 131 out of 165 of former players from high school and college - almost 80%. This isn't wussification, it is a very serious medical problem with a sport that is very violent. And it is a problem that the NFL KNEW about. This isn't about a "risk" of brain damage, it's becoming clear that CTE is almost certain to occur in football players of all levels.

Quote:

"Forty percent of those who tested positive were the offensive and defensive linemen who come into contact with one another on every play of a game, according to numbers shared by the brain bank with FRONTLINE. That finding supports past research suggesting that it’s the repeat, more minor head trauma that occurs regularly in football that may pose the greatest risk to players, as opposed to just the sometimes violent collisions that cause concussions."

CTE is degenerative, meaning symptoms get worse even after you stop playing. The damage causes unexplained moods, loss of cognitive functions, aggressive behavior, and degradation of motor functions.

Wussification? Well when your boys are drooling idiots in a wheelchair who can't remember their football glory days, you can pride yourself in saying "Hey, I didn't let them be wussies!"

Edited October 19, 2015 by UNTflyer

UNT90 · October 19, 2015

Wussification? Seriously?
CTE has been found in 87 out of 91 deceased NFL players. That is 96%. And 131 out of 165 of former players from high school and college - almost 80%. This isn't wussification, it is a very serious medical problem with a sport that is very violent. And it is a problem that the NFL KNEW about. This isn't about a "risk" of brain damage, it's becoming clear that CTE is almost certain to occur in football players of all levels.

Quote:
"Forty percent of those who tested positive were the offensive and defensive linemen who come into contact with one another on every play of a game, according to numbers shared by the brain bank with FRONTLINE. That finding supports past research suggesting that it’s the repeat, more minor head trauma that occurs regularly in football that may pose the greatest risk to players, as opposed to just the sometimes violent collisions that cause concussions."
CTE is degenerative, meaning symptoms get worse even after you stop playing. The damage causes unexplained moods, loss of cognitive functions, aggressive behavior, and degradation of motor functions.
Wussification? Well when your boys are drooling idiots in a wheelchair who can't remember their football glory days, you can pride yourself in saying "Hey, I didn't let them be wussies!"

I think the point is there is risk in almost everything we do in life. we are all going to die. That's a fact. Do you want to take the risk to be great on the football field? Do you want to allow your child to take that risk? That is the question.

Here is another one for you, would you trade quality of life later in life to have a chance of NFL success and all the perks that go with it (financial security for you and at least the next generation of your family), fame, glory, and the ability to help people that you otherwise couldn't? Would you be willing to trade 10 years of quality life at the end of life for this?

Yes, I know, not every high school player gets that reward. But they get others that may be very important to them and may help them achieve a lot of the above outside of football.

Like I said, it's a personal choice for every family. And it's not an easy one.