Deadspin 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 5:55 PM
Fri Dec 11
21 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
Editor:
AJ Daulerio |
Senior Editor:
Dashiell Bennett |
Senior Writer:
Tommy Craggs |
Columnist/Deadcast:
Drew Magary |
Emeritus:
Will Leitch |
Live Blogger:
Matt Sussman |
Comments:
Comment Ninja Squadron |
Weekend writer:
Jack KOGOD |
Intern:
Ben Cohen |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
12/09/09
According to your article, avoiding hitting during practices may be a solution to getting concussions. The trainer reports only 2 all year, both coming in games. Also in your article, you make reference to how much tougher practices used to be, when young athletes were run ragged and not even given water breaks. Wouldn't it then make sense that, since most practices are more carefully handled nowadays, less concussions would be occurring?
This means that either the rate of concussions is not rising, or the reason for the rise in concussions is completely unrelated to what manner players practice in. As another commenter pointed out, a more important reason may be steroids, or even less insidiously, the fact that because of better nutrition and exercise habits, today's football players are just better, and consequently harder hitters; or, there are more athletes playing today, which means more injuries are going to occur.
12/08/09
But seriously. Great piece, great points.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
I wonder if concussions were more rare back in the days of leather helmets and no face masks.
Why don't we consider banning hard plastic football helmets. (I'm serious.) Isn't it possible that simply having such a hard helmet with a huge facemask encourages players to play like they can't injure their heads?
Not that I recommend doing this, but have you ever ridden a motorcycle without a helmet? Or played hockey without a face shield? You become much more risk-averse.
Does rugby have a similar amount of concussion injuries? Rugby fans always rag on football players for wearing all that gear, but I've always said that's a total misunderstanding. Those huge helmets actually make football more dangerous.
Great article, though, Will. Been following you on FO for a while now.
12/08/09
12/08/09
Werd.
12/08/09
But that's not completely fair either. In rugby, possession is so much more important than territory (except near a goal line), tackling a guy another yard or two down the field doesn't matter (tacklers are taught to put their heads behind runners). Also, in rugby, you rarely get hit when you aren't looking; no blocking means you are either the tackler, runner, or voluntarily entering a ruck or maul, and only a ruck is really high impact with real territory implications.
Football, with blocking on every play and such a premium on territory, would be much more dangerous with out helmets than rugby. Even in rugby with no protection, competitive instinct takes over and you do risky things when situation calls for it, so football players would likely keep doing risky things without the helmets. There were two broken faces on my team last year, for example, and guys do get bells rung, just not as often or as violently.
12/08/09
12/08/09
Eliminate the helmets and pads.
It's called moral hazard, people.
12/08/09
The worst part, though, is the fact that many high schools hire doctors to preside over the game in case of a serious injury ( like a concussion), but those doctors are fired if they try to tell the coach that a player cannot play because he is concussed. If people were educated about the seriousness of concussions, then head injuries at lower levels would be treated more delicately than "Oh, it's just a concussion."
Personally, I blame the professional football players like Steve Young who practically bragged about playing through concussions. Using the transitive property, we could probably place the burden of this catastrophe on the shoulders of Lawrence Phillips.
12/08/09
11/25/09
"First order of business is the resignation of our co-chairmen, Mr. Casson and Mr. Viano"
"Sacco and Vanzetti? They were fucking innocent!"
"No, no. Our co-chairmen, Casson and Viano"
"Cassanova? Fuckin' fraud, man. Back in the '70s, man, I had me a whole harem of mutton-chop lovin' bitches, would make Wilt proud."
"C'mon guys, we need to vote to accept the resignation of our co-chairman, Ira Casson and David Viano. Then open the floor to nominate a new chairman."
"Open the floor? Oh shit, I picked the wrong day to stop takin' my lithium..."
"Man, no better Chairman than Sinatra baby. Chairman. Of. The. Board. Man, I remember that like it was yesterday...um,...yesterday was Saturday, right?"
"Tuesday"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Order! Order! Do I have a motion to accept the resignation of Mr. Casson and Mr. Viano?"
"Order? Hmmm, it'd be nice to have some buffalo chicken...what do you call them pieces? Like three sticks stuck together, you know what I mean..."
11/25/09
(Dr. Nick shows four fingers)
Player 1: "Two"
Player 2: "Three"
Dr. Nick: "Get on the field, you pussies!"
11/25/09
11/25/09
"Dr. Foreman, what is your medical opinion about the state of concussions in the NFL?"
"Big Ben plays on Sunday."
11/25/09
[deadspin.com]
11/25/09
Now, what are we going to do about these out of control end zone celebrations???