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Time Magazine Cover Story: Is Football Worth It?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Sep 18, 2014.

  1. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    You can't forget about the death of Italian midfielder Piermario Morosini who collapsed while playing for Livorno in their Serie B match in 2012.

    The purists complained about water timeouts during The World Cup but given
    the number of players who have died over the years due to cardiac arrest I think it
    was a wise step in the interest of player safety.
     
  2. In football, nobody is firing 90 mph projectiles at your face.
     
  3. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    Excellent points.

    I would bet more have died from hit baseballs off aluminum bats than have died playing football.
     
  4. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    They do wear helmets, you know.

    Anyway, if you're going to fight for that one, I'm perfectly willing to let you sink yourself on it. You won't need my help.
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Dan Wheldon is a prominent recent one, as well.
     
  6. Big Circus

    Big Circus Well-Known Member

    There was an Arena League player who died on the field a couple of years ago. I'll try to dig the story up.
     
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Because of the size, strength, and speed of the modern professional player, combined with the fact that there are several deaths a year at other levels, like clockwork. (From 1990 through 2010, there were 62 deaths resulting from brain injuries in high school football: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/average-12-school-football-players-die-year-study-article-1.1309671)

    It's going to happen, and my guess is that no one will realize it happened right away. Routine play. Someone gets hit in the head just right. Most everyone gets up to start the next play. Someone stays down.
     
  8. Yeah ...
    The helmets ... How's that working out?
    It's sure better than no helmet...
    Giancarlo Stanton
    Tony Conigliaro
    Roy Chapman
    And a few pitchers who got beaned when the ball was smacked at them by the batters.

    Would you rather stand in the batters box against Randy Johnson or get tackled by Ray Lewis?
    I'll take Ray Lewis any day.
     
  9. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    It isn't the rare and random chance of sudden death or permanently crippling injury while playing that poses the danger in and to this sport. It's the sum total of all the collisions causing later brain injuries and diseases. As the studies on that go past the NFL into college and high school football, if a correlation is demonstrated, I could see the talent pool drying up due to parental action.
     
  10. Big Circus

    Big Circus Well-Known Member

    Al Lucas.

    http://grantland.com/features/professional-football-worst-nightmare-revisiting-al-lucas-death-eight-years-later/
     
  11. dreunc1542

    dreunc1542 Active Member

    While football might not be as dangerous as some of those sports you mentioned, Evil, in terms of the possibility of a death on the field, it's probably second only to boxing in terms of what it does to people on a daily basis. As fans of football, we're basically watching people's brains get slowly destroyed play-by-play. That, above all the other issues with the NFL, is the main reason I'm considering dropping the sport. It doesn't feel all that great watching it when you know what those hits are doing to the players' brains, and now we're getting a much better picture of that.
     
  12. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    When I took my son in to get his physical before Pop Warner this year, his doctor told me she had seen more concussions related to soccer injuries than any other sport over the last five years. To put it mildly, that surprised me.
     
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