Would Football be Banned in your Home?

[crashtestdummy]

Speaking of which, the NFL's Competition Committee is going to explore new ways to further protect the QB.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9977321/nfl-discuss-expanding-rules-protect-quarterbacks

...and the disturbing part about this is that I don't think they're looking to protect players as much as their investments because if players like Rodgers are hurt, that affects viewer ratings and pours owners' money down the drain.

Case in point, the GB v NYG game this Sunday Night has been flexed out for the Chiefs v Broncos. They [NFL] know that no one's going to watch a Packers games without Rodgers. 🙄

It blows my mind that cut blocking by offensive linemen has not been banned. When offenses claim there's no way to run without it, I'd reply that no one cared about people's inability to play defense when you could hit receivers in the head.

The worst part is, when you look at the players having the CTE issues, it's not so much the QBs and receivers as much as the linemen, linebackers, and QBs. Yet all the rules being added to make the game "safer" are about safety for QBs and receivers. It's incredibly dumb.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Their inability to manage their money is not my problem nor is it relevant to the argument I made. Let's face it. If you're joining the NFL, odds are that you don't have the mental fortitude to have done much of anything else in life.

They don't have the mental ability in many cases football has deprived them of it. I'm not talking about head injuries, rather the loss of normal human development that most of us get between the ages of 15-25.

Think of what you went through during that period. How you learned to deal with rejection, hardship, social challenges, etc. Now compare that to the life of a star football player, where you're told you're amazing at everything wherever you go, every woman you meet wants to sleep with you. Everyone wants to be your friend. To top it off, you get $20 million dumped on you. Do you really think you'd handle that well?

The worst part is, by the time you're 30, you're suddenly back to being a regular Joe who isn't special at anything. The only way you can relive who you thought you were is to spend those ridiculous amounts of money you had dumped on you, but now there isn't any more coming in.

If people didn't start playing sports until they were 25, and people had to work in the real world before they could play pro, I don't think we'd have this problem. But that's not how sports works, sadly, and so we create these athletic machines that are totally unfit for life in the outside world.

 

[ThinClient]

The difficulties you're describing to me are irrelevant.

 

[Retro Rob]

Their inability to manage their money is not my problem nor is it relevant to the argument I made. Let's face it. If you're joining the NFL, odds are that you don't have the mental fortitude to have done much of anything else in life.

No, it was a rebuttal to the point you made about them making enough money to live on "for the rest of their lives". It simply isn't true -- most players are not the multi-millionaires that you think they are, in fact, very few are.

Combine that with bad money management and you have "broke" players.

 

[Retro Rob]

It blows my mind that cut blocking by offensive linemen has not been banned. When offenses claim there's no way to run without it, I'd reply that no one cared about people's inability to play defense when you could hit receivers in the head.

Yep. How many knees are being shredded out there today? And now players are going low when making basic tackles. 🙄

The worst part is, when you look at the players having the CTE issues, it's not so much the QBs and receivers as much as the linemen, linebackers, and QBs. Yet all the rules being added to make the game "safer" are about safety for QBs and receivers. It's incredibly dumb.

Well, I think a rule has been added preventing running backs from lowering their heads to run through players after they've crossed the LOS, IIRC, or something like that.

 

[ThinClient]

No, it was a rebuttal to the point you made about them making enough money to live on "for the rest of their lives". It simply isn't true -- most players are not the multi-millionaires that you think they are, in fact, very few are.

Combine that with bad money management and you have "broke" players.

What's the average salary that an NFL player makes? How many hundreds of thousands more do they make per year than I do? I survive, why can't they? I learned how to budget, why can't they?

Your argument is entirely pointless.

 

[Retro Rob]

What's the average salary that an NFL player makes? How many hundreds of thousands more do they make per year than I do? I survive, why can't they? I learned how to budget, why can't they?

Your argument is entirely pointless.

Its just the way it is.

You play pro sports for two reasons: To make a lot of money and to SPEND a lot of money...if they wanted "simple lives", they wouldn't play football. If the wanted to budget, they wouldn't hold out for more money, etc.

And you have to keep in mind, they're in a different tax bracket, have to pay agents and so on, so they don't have the money to live off of as you so freely assert.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Well, I think a rule has been added preventing running backs from lowering their heads to run through players after they've crossed the LOS, IIRC, or something like that.

The rule's been added, but I've not seen it called, despite many instances of seeing the RB lower his head. But neither d-linemen or o-linemen get those hits. The ones they take are the repeated minor blows that happen every snap. You never saw o-linemen being knocked out cold, yet they've comprised a disproportionate fraction of those who've been posthumously diagnosed.

What's the average salary that an NFL player makes? How many hundreds of thousands more do they make per year than I do? I survive, why can't they? I learned how to budget, why can't they?

Your argument is entirely pointless.

I'm guessing psychology and human development aren't your forte. Let me try to explain it on slightly different terms (perhaps as an atheist this will appeal to you):

There's nothing mystical about your brain. It's not some magical well where decisions get made in abstract from physical conditions. There is no soul that controls your body that exists outside of your physical self. You brain is a very complicated, very adaptable computer. You feed it inputs, an output pops out. Those inputs include the problem you're trying to solve as well as other environmental variables around you. Your brain adapts its pathways based on the inputs and the outcome of previous outputs.

The decisions you make, then, don't consist of free will in the way we would like them to. Those that make good decisions do so because the wiring they have has led them to that output. Those that don't, have wiring that led them to that place as well. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't incentivize better behavior. Quite the contrary, it means that it's the only way to produce good behavior.

The problem is that high-level sports, as it exists in this country, creates a set of influences that alters the decision-making abilities of those who participate in it such that many are incapable of making smart money decisions. As a society, to create this kind of construct for our entertainment and then wash our hands of the broken results is disingenuous at best.

 

[ThinClient]

Its just the way it is.

You play pro sports for two reasons: To make a lot of money and to SPEND a lot of money...

That's a judgment call, a blanket statement that you cannot possibly have the authority to make. I reject your claim that you know why everyone plays football. Sure, some of them do, but not all of them do for the only two reasons (one of which is complete horse shit) that you claim they do.

if they wanted "simple lives", they wouldn't play football. If the wanted to budget, they wouldn't hold out for more money, etc.

And you have to keep in mind, they're in a different tax bracket, have to pay agents and so on, so they don't have the money to live off of as you so freely assert.

So, people who make lots of money don't make budgets? More ignorant blanket statements on your part.

They make tens or hundreds or thousands of times more money than I do and I survive just fine. Your argument is debunked.

 

[piasabird]

Sports is not normally a lifetime career choice. One bad hit and you can be sidelined for a year recuperating from knee surgery.

 

[piasabird]

Look what happened to Bo Jackson??? He played baseball and football. Got injured in football and that ended his career.

 

[Retro Rob]

]That's a judgment call,[/B] a blanket statement that you cannot possibly have the authority to make. I reject your claim that you know why everyone plays football. Sure, some of them do, but not all of them do for the only two reasons (one of which is complete horse shit) that you claim they do.

Fair enough.

So, people who make lots of money don't make budgets? More ignorant blanket statements on your part.

If 78 percent of you end up broke within five years of leaving a sport after making millions in some cases, they either cannot budget well, or did not budget well or at all.

All you have to do is look at the numbers, and look at how many players waste money on jewelry, cars, expensive homes, etc, and we can draw logical (not always realistic, granted) conclusion about one's budgeting or lack thereof.

They make tens or hundreds or thousands of times more money than I do and I survive just fine. Your argument is debunked.

Good for you! :thumbsup:

 

[ThinClient]

If 78 percent of you end up broke within five years of leaving a sport after making millions in some cases, they either cannot budget well, or did not budget well or at all.

All you have to do is look at the numbers, and look at how many players waste money on jewelry, cars, expensive homes, etc, and we can draw logical (not always realistic, granted) conclusion about one's budgeting or lack thereof.

Nobody said that NFL players were geniuses. In fact, their mental capacity is most likely what landed them in such a position to begin with.

 

[Retro Rob]

Nobody said that NFL players were geniuses. In fact, their mental capacity is most likely what landed them in such a position to begin with.

Can you link to anything to back this up?

 

[alzan]

Can you link to anything to back this up?

"Nobody said that NFL players were geniuses. In fact, their mental capacity is most likely what landed them in such a position to begin with."

It's a fact that "academic athletes" are pushed through college because the administration and contributors to various colleges are more concerned with the money to be made from their football teams performance than they are with a players knowledge of accounting, science, English lit., etc.

A sad commentary on our higher education and society at large.

 

[Retro Rob]

"Nobody said that NFL players were geniuses. In fact, their mental capacity is most likely what landed them in such a position to begin with."

It's a fact that "academic athletes" are pushed through college because the administration and contributors to various colleges are more concerned with the money to be made from their football teams performance than they are with a players knowledge of accounting, science, English lit., etc.

A sad commentary on our higher education and society at large.

That doesn't mean, in any way, shape or form, that the player isn't able to learn any of those things (which is the dictionary meaning of "mental capacity").

It simply means they're choosing to, or are being encouraged to, forgo formal education for a quick buck.

I don't think any of us, especially seeing that we don't know any of these players personally, are in a position to say what a player isn't able to learn.

In fact, there are players both active and retired who have finished their college education during the off-season or retirement, respectively.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Why are we so worried about football? It does not even hit the top 20 dangerous jobs, and it pays way better then those 20 more dangerous jobs. As far as I can tell the pay to danger ratio is pretty good.

 

[nanette1985]

Yes, football is banned in my home. Football is for outdoors, much less destructive. None of my 4 kids played organized football in school. My 2 daughters were both cheerleaders, which can have serious injuries too.

my oldest brother played college football (Navy), after graduation went to Vietnam. When he returned he turned into a wacko survivalist. Difficult to tell whether his mental problems came from college football or the war.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Worring about kids playing football because professional football players get life changing injuries is a lot like telling your kids not to go fishing because professional fishing is a dangerous job.

 

[Retro Rob]

Worring about kids playing football because professional football players get life changing injuries is a lot like telling your kids not to go fishing because professional fishing is a dangerous job.

What's inherently dangerous about fishing? How many "fisherman" are suffering brain damage, need knee replacements, have filed lawsuits against the....umm...NFL (National Fishing League 😛)?

 

[SMOGZINN]

What's inherently dangerous about fishing? How many "fisherman" are suffering brain damage, need knee replacements, have filed lawsuits against the....umm...NFL (National Fishing League 😛)?

There is water, knifes, hooks, motors...Fishing is inherently dangerous.
Professional fisherman is the most dangerous job in the US, with the most deaths per fisherman of any job, and is not all that well paid.

 

[Retro Rob]

There is water, knifes, hooks, motors...Fishing is inherently dangerous.
Professional fisherman is the most dangerous job in the US, with the most deaths per fisherman of any job, and is not all that well paid.

I get your point, but the comparison is idiotic. I can compare being a cop with sitting at a desk all day. There is the possibility you can fall from your chair and hurt yourself, what about that point on that pen you're using, and stay away from staplers...you might nip your finger..., or put an eye out..😛

 

[SMOGZINN]

I get your point, but the comparison is idiotic. I can compare being a cop with sitting at a desk all day. There is the possibility you can fall from your chair and hurt yourself, what about that point on that pen you're using, and stay away from staplers...you might nip your finger..., or put an eye out..😛

Except more people die fishing a year then have ever died playing football, yet it is football we think we need to ban while fishing is fine.
I don't think the comparison is idiotic. When it comes to things like this it is all about the risk to reward ratio. Football's risk is not really all that high compared to other similar pastimes but the reward can be potentially much higher, so why are we singling it out?

 

[Retro Rob]

Except more people die fishing a year then have ever died playing football, yet it is football we think we need to ban while fishing is fine.
I don't think the comparison is idiotic. When it comes to things like this it is all about the risk to reward ratio. Football's risk is not really all that high compared to other similar pastimes but the reward can be potentially much higher, so why are we singling it out?

People die driving to the store. What makes fishing desirable isn't the deaths of fisherman, or the prospect of getting stabbed by a knife, nor do fisherman have problems "forgetting" their daughter's soccer game, as noted by Favre, as a direct result of fishing.

Football is desired because of its violent and high-collision nature -- that "makes" the sport, in contrast with fishing, which dangers are sheer accidental.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Except more people die fishing a year then have ever died playing football, yet it is football we think we need to ban while fishing is fine.
I don't think the comparison is idiotic. When it comes to things like this it is all about the risk to reward ratio. Football's risk is not really all that high compared to other similar pastimes but the reward can be potentially much higher, so why are we singling it out?

First off, the risk from football isn't just death, it's injuries that can dramatically impact one's quality of life and length of life. Just because someone doesn't immediately die from a concussion doesn't mean that it can't have long-term repercussions, especially if it occurs frequently (as it can in football).

Second, most children who get into fishing don't get into it with the notion that they'll turn it into a professional career. Professional fishing is very different from sport fishing, so it seems a bit disingenuous to compare the two.

Third, while professional fishing is indeed among the most dangerous professions (the source I viewed had it listed second behind logging), it's also not a massive industry, so while the fatality rate is high, it's only around 30 deaths per year. There's 20 times as many fatalities for truck drivers simply because there are so many more of them. But, again, that's only looking at fatalities and not the potential for life-altering injuries. And it's all a moot point given that children who enjoy going fishing with their dad aren't clamoring to work the professional fleets in Alaska because the two really aren't comparable in the same way as Peewee football and the NFL.

The NFL just funded a study which confirmed that football carries the highest risk of concussion of all scholastic sports and is probably the most hazardous because concussions in youth happen while the brain is still developing. It's a real problem with potential long-term side effects even for people who have no hope of ever turning it into a career. Comparing it to professional fishing doesn't make any sense.