RIP Junior Seau

[Bubbler]

What does "big bucks" mean to you?

I guarantee you that a metropolitan area could find 50 players -- good players too -- who would sign up for a price tag of $5,000 to $10,000 to join an AAU program that has top-flight coaching.

EDIT: They'd also be likely to get sponsorship money from the equipment companies as basketball teams do now. Under Armour and Nike aren't going to fret over the insurance costs.

Fifty players can form a team, but that's a drop in the bucket as far as forming a viable league/schedule, etc.

And just because you have fifty people who are willing to pay doesn't mean all fifty players are worth a ****.

 

[outofplace]

Studies are continuing to show that it's not necessarily the big hits in the games that are the main issue, but the cumulative effect of a lot of smaller hits in practice. Some cultural behavior modifications could probably clean up the sport rather quickly.

You start by eliminating full contact football below the high school level. They can play flag football or some other modification. There's no point exposing kids to repetitive blows to the head by overzealous coaches at that age.

For high school and above, no full contact practices if you have a game that week. And only one full contact practice a week if you don't have a game that week.

I'd also like to see more aggressive testing for HGH and steroids in college and the pros. Slowing these men down can't hurt.

That is a good point, one that Seau's death should help drive home. He was never diagnosed with a concussion, yet the evidence of brain damage related to blows to the head is there. Did he most likely suffer one or more concussions and it just wasn't diagnosed properly? Probably, but you have to think this was a case of all of the smaller blows adding up.

This isn't just a football issue. I recently read a story about a girls soccer coach who has battled issues from concussions he suffered as a kid playing the game. He said he has cut back drastically on the amount of time he lets his players spend on heading the ball in practice to try to protect his them.

I think the equivalent of such a practice for football is a pretty good idea. The problem is, you basically have to go with non-contact drills to do it, which coaches at the higher levels are going to resist.

Aside from the danger HGH and steroids present by making bigger and stronger bodies to run into one another, there is also some question of those drugs damaging the brain as well. Was it the combination of the drugs and the blows to the head that led to the deterioration and deaths of some of these guys?

 

[LongTimeListener]

What does "big bucks" mean to you?

I guarantee you that a metropolitan area could find 50 players -- good players too -- who would sign up for a price tag of $5,000 to $10,000 to join an AAU program that has top-flight coaching.

EDIT: They'd also be likely to get sponsorship money from the equipment companies as basketball teams do now. Under Armour and Nike aren't going to fret over the insurance costs.

Fifty players can form a team, but that's a drop in the bucket as far as forming a viable league/schedule, etc.

And just because you have fifty people who are willing to pay doesn't mean all fifty players are worth a ****.

You could have tryouts. And the bigger cities would have a couple of teams and the smaller cities would have one or two and you'd just travel to play each other. Oakland would play Los Angeles. Milwaukee would play Chicago.

Totally feasible. You would get 50 good players at least and you would probably be able to fill all the way to 60 or 70 with guys who weren't that bad.

It will also be marketed as THE way to get a scholarship. Look what soccer just did -- they ruled that nobody in their academy program could play for a high school team. And all the best players went academy and now the high school scene, what was left of it anyway, is turning to ****. Put some good football coaches in there, either former NFL players or guys with some DI coaching experience, and you will get tons and tons and tons of interest.

If the price point we're talking about is indeed between $5K and $10K, AAU football will work. They already have national championships in the lower age groups that draw dozens of teams to Disney World every year from around the country. Those parents won't stop paying.

 

[Double Down]

In a month (hell, a week) we'll have more or less forgotten about this. Seriously. When Seau died, I had several people on Twitter telling me this was "the tipping point" and they could no longer watch football. Two weeks later those same people were enthusiastically live tweeting game action.

We do not care how the sausage is made in this country, in part because we don't believe it's even sausage.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Studies are continuing to show that it's not necessarily the big hits in the games that are the main issue, but the cumulative effect of a lot of smaller hits in practice. Some cultural behavior modifications could probably clean up the sport rather quickly.

You start by eliminating full contact football below the high school level. They can play flag football or some other modification. There's no point exposing kids to repetitive blows to the head by overzealous coaches at that age.

For high school and above, no full contact practices if you have a game that week. And only one full contact practice a week if you don't have a game that week.

I'd also like to see more aggressive testing for HGH and steroids in college and the pros. Slowing these men down can't hurt.

It would be a false deterrent. The athlete will always be two steps ahead of the testing.

In a month (hell, a week) we'll have more or less forgotten about this. Seriously. When Seau died, I had several people on Twitter telling me this was "the tipping point" and they could no longer watch football. Two weeks later those same people were enthusiastically live tweeting game action.

We do not care how the sausage is made in this country, in part because we don't believe it's even sausage.

People may forget about Seau's situation in particular, but the concussion discussion is here to stay. It's the most convenient way for people to act like they care about how the entertainment providers suffer. A few years ago, it was "OMG! Jim Otto can barely walk! Come on, Upshaw!!! take care of those guys!!!"

Nothing will change. The sport is too ingrained. Football may suffer a few defections at the youth level. But there will continue to be plenty of talk.

This seems like it's as far as medical concerns can possibly go. Unless dismemberings find themselves into the sport.

 

[joe]

Am I just dreaming, or were there a couple players in the '80s (?) who had something like a stiff/slightly pliable foam shield that fit on the outside of their helmet that was supposed to protect their heads better than just a standard helmet?

 

[outofplace]

Am I just dreaming, or were there a couple players in the '80s (?) who had something like a stiff/slightly pliable foam shield that fit on the outside of their helmet that was supposed to protect their heads better than just a standard helmet?

MC's got it there. Mark Kelso. I'm pretty sure Steve Wallace wore one when he played for the 49ers, too.

But on the other side, there are plenty of people who don't think those helmets, or any special helmet, will do that much. I heard Harry Carson on the radio yesterday talking about it. At least in his mind, those special helmets protect the skull, but really don't prevent concussions. It's the whiplash effect of a hit as much as a direct blow to the head that causes the brain to bounce against the skull and get bruised.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Serious question: Have there been similar studies on the effects of rugby on players? It's a damn rough game with no helmet, and all the rugby players I see on British TV have enormous cauliflower ears.

 

[Bob Cook]

Serious question: Have there been similar studies on the effects of rugby on players? It's a damn rough game with no helmet, and all the rugby players I see on British TV have enormous cauliflower ears.

There is one under way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/sports/rugby/24iht-rugby24.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[Armchair_QB]

Serious question: Have there been similar studies on the effects of rugby on players? It's a damn rough game with no helmet, and all the rugby players I see on British TV have enormous cauliflower ears.

Rugby tends to have more bone and joint injuries than concussions, or at least it seems that way.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Am I just dreaming, or were there a couple players in the '80s (?) who had something like a stiff/slightly pliable foam shield that fit on the outside of their helmet that was supposed to protect their heads better than just a standard helmet?

MC's got it there. Mark Kelso. I'm pretty sure Steve Wallace wore one when he played for the 49ers, too.

Yep:

I covered a guy who wore one in college. They called them "Dum Dum" helmets, in reference to the Great Gazoo on The Flintstones.

 

[bigpern23]

Serious question: Have there been similar studies on the effects of rugby on players? It's a damn rough game with no helmet, and all the rugby players I see on British TV have enormous cauliflower ears.

There is one under way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/sports/rugby/24iht-rugby24.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I read somewhere that less equipment would actually be beneficial because it would prevent players from hurtling their bodies with reckless abandon as much. That safety coming to blast a receiver over the middle will think twice about launching his head into the chin of the receiver if he doesn't have a face mask and helmet to protect him. It forces players to protect themselves and not rely on the equipment as much.

With absolutely no science to back this up, I feel like making players to use their arms to wrap and tackle would take a lot of damage out of the hits (15-yard penalty for not wrapping up). It seems like concussions always happen when a guy tucks his arms to his sides and launches his shoulder and/or helmet to the upper regions of his opponent. It's a lot harder to do that kind of damage when you wrap up because your arms will disperse some of that energy away from the point of contact.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I read somewhere that less equipment would actually be beneficial because it would prevent players from hurtling their bodies with reckless abandon as much. That safety coming to blast a receiver over the middle will think twice about launching his head into the chin of the receiver if he doesn't have a face mask and helmet to protect him. It forces players to protect themselves and not rely on the equipment as much.

One of the only intelligent things Roger Goodell has said in the past five years is when he noted that there were 18 deaths due to skull fractures in one year in the early 1900s. That's what got Teddy Roosevelt interested and I think that's what led to leather helmets.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Serious question: Have there been similar studies on the effects of rugby on players? It's a damn rough game with no helmet, and all the rugby players I see on British TV have enormous cauliflower ears.

There is one under way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/sports/rugby/24iht-rugby24.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I read somewhere that less equipment would actually be beneficial because it would prevent players from hurtling their bodies with reckless abandon as much. That safety coming to blast a receiver over the middle will think twice about launching his head into the chin of the receiver if he doesn't have a face mask and helmet to protect him. It forces players to protect themselves and not rely on the equipment as much.

With absolutely no science to back this up, I feel like making players to use their arms to wrap and tackle would take a lot of damage out of the hits (15-yard penalty for not wrapping up). It seems like concussions always happen when a guy tucks his arms to his sides and launches his shoulder and/or helmet to the upper regions of his opponent. It's a lot harder to do that kind of damage when you wrap up because your arms will disperse some of that energy away from the point of contact.

Rugby actually penalizes players for not wrapping up, "shoulder" tackles and dangerous tackles. The latter can lead to a red card and potentially a multi-week suspension. A high tackle (any contact above the shoulders) can also result in a card.

 

[Steak Snabler]

I tend to agree that removing facemasks would probably help. There would be a lot more broken noses and busted teeth, but fewer concussions and stingers probably.

 

[HanSenSE]

Making it more than 3,800 players who have sued the NFL regarding concussions. And on the day the suit was announced, the NFL said it was fining Frank Goire $10.5 K because his socks were too low in the NFC title game.

I know I've mentioned it before, but I'll mention it again ... it's obvious Goodell is more concerned with bread and circuses (socks, Thursday night games on short rest, wanting the Pro Bowl to be like a real game) instead of dealing with the concussion issures. A few PSA's won't cut it.

 

[outofplace]

Making it more than 3,800 players who have sued the NFL regarding concussions. And on the day the suit was announced, the NFL said it was fining Frank Goire $10.5 K because his socks were too low in the NFC title game.

I know I've mentioned it before, but I'll mention it again ... it's obvious Goodell is more concerned with bread and circuses (socks, Thursday night games on short rest, wanting the Pro Bowl to be like a real game) instead of dealing with the concussion issures. A few PSA's won't cut it.

Goodell is concerned with making it look like the league cares, but every time they talk about an 18-game season or let another team slide for letting a player go right back into a game after suffering a concussion, he proves that it's all bull****.

 

[outofplace]

Goodell works for the owners.
Ridiculous blaming him when he is but the marionette.

The owners certainly deserve their share of the blame, too, for the league's failure to properly address the issue of concussions.

 

[HanSenSE]

Goodell works for the owners.
Ridiculous blaming him when he is but the marionette.

So you're trying to tell me the owners give a damn about socks?

 

[WriteThinking]

I don't know about the other 3,799 lawsuits against the NFL with regard to concussions/brain injuries, but didn't Seau's autopsy results indicate that such issues were not a factor in his death?

This smacks of a greedy, scared, albeit grieving family having lost their cash cow and pretending money is going to make any damn difference in bringing their loved one back. Should they win a suit, however, it would take good care of them.