no more nfl within 30 years?

The hit on Vernon Davis shows perfectly what the NFL is facing.

It was a clean play -- Chancellor came in low enough, hit him shoulder-to-chest and popped the ball loose. No defensive coach in the world would tell him to play it any different. Yet there was a reaction -- learned, but almost instinctive by now -- that it was just "too hard." So it drew a flag. It also resulted in a concussion for Davis.

I just don't see how those kinds of plays can be acconted for, and there are a lot of them. You're either going to de-emphasize contact or keep the risks there.

 

I probably should have just said this: You can't constantly worry about your kids getting hurt, whether they play "organized" sports or not.

As I mentioned ... if my son continues with football, the risks get larger as the players do. That's why I'm interested in any advances in diagnosing and treating concussions, from the NFL down to high school and youth leagues.

You have to balance the worry you have as a parent with the fun, friendships and other benefits your child gets from sports.

 

Yeah, I think there are a lot of us who don't let our kids do things that we did without even thinking about as kids...

Some of that is good, some of it is bad...

I never wore a bike helmet as a kid. My kids have never not worn them.

 

I don't think that it would be an unreasonable rule to eliminate "headers" in soccer. They are unnecessary and dangerous.

It seems like it would also be easily enforceable.

 

Good luck getting this done in Texas high school football. Teams in the last couple of years have used hometown paramedics, and this has cost more than a few visting teams victories.

 

I certainly think it's possible that all pro leagues may be gone within 30 years, but for very different reasons. I believe society as we know it today will undergo some radical changes in that period. In short, I don't believe the revenue will exist to sustain pro sports as we know them today. It might revert to something on a smaller scale like we saw decades ago.

As for concussions, I don't see that killing the sport. Players are expendable and always have been. They know --- or should know --- the risks involved in playing, just like any sport. I'm glad they are coming up with better equipment and taking safety seriously. But unless there are radical rule changes, there are always going to be a certain amount of injuries.

 

Not a bad idea. Having the band on field might just slow the game down a bit and limit contact.

 

Wouldn't mind seeing baseball come back as the national pastime.

Seriously, come on, man! <stolenespnreference> The NFL isn't going anywhere, at least not as a business model. I agree it might look different in several years in terms of style of play...

 

Coming to turf near you: The NFFL. National Flag Football League.

 

Tackling done by 2020.

 

It will be interesting to see if this actually happens. I'm guessing the NFLPA would fight pretty hard against it since it would cost a lot of people jobs. I'm guessing the networks who are paying billions to air games would be against it as well.

The two worst injuries I saw while covering the NFL both came on kickoffs. One was a very promising young player who had his career ended because of a neck injury. Another was one of the most brutal helmet-to-helmet hits I've ever seen, but miraculously the guy came back a few weeks later. I've never seen a press box that silent after an injury.

 

The first thing the NFL should do is get serious about its steroid and HGH problem. Addressing that would make the players smaller and slower again and would make the collisions less forceful.