Obama’s CTE Concussion Summit and the Future of Football
By Peter Olney
Yesterday’s concussion summit at the White House shows how far the discourse has shifted from 20 years ago when a “bell ringer”, a concussion causing dizziness and disorientation was deemed just a part of the male rite of passage for young players and a job hazard for professionals.
Yesterday’s NYT carries an interesting quote from Steve Tisch, the chairman of the NY football Giants who says, “What I’d like to see in 20 years from now, no NFL players, no rookies playing in 2014, experiencing any head injuries” He added, “We’re taking some of the first steps in that direction.”
The problem that the NFL and all of organized football faces at all levels is that there are no steps except the complete elimination of the helmet that will lead to a drastic reduction on head injuries and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Yes, ironically the protective equipment is the problem. It allows players to put their head in situations where brain matter is traumatized like an egg yolk floating in egg white. It is not so much the dramatic hits that ESPN shows on its highlight reels but the constant concussive activity on every play suffered particularly by interior lineman whose hands, heads and legs are constantly banging hard object on hard object on every play from scrimmage.
A celebratory head butt by a quarterback with one of his own teammates after a dramatic touchdown pass is traumatic! A hand slap to the helmet by a coach to a helmeted player returning to the sideline after an excellent play on the field is concussive activity. In 2000 I predicted that in 10 years football would become a marginal blood sport. Many looked askance at that prediction for America’s most popular and lucrative sport, but as the data accumulates and the parents get preoccupied my prediction increasingly seems less farfetched. Recently the town of Marshall in football mad East Texas outlawed contact football for students through the seventh grade.
Here for a reprise is the Stansbury Forum piece I wrote in the fall of 2012 entitled “For safety sake let’s play rugby”
Your prediction could be very well accurate, I suspect that 20% of the people watching football and attending games never played the game in their life(like me), we just participate because it is popular and are ignorant about the consequence from being viciously hit.There is a segment of the population that for some reason we like this type of contact sport(exhibition wrestling,professional boxing,etc,etc)..Why?? There are many reasons.
My older son is a successful football coach (5 rings) and my grand son just started playing the game, he is the one that taught me the X and O, then I discovered that the game is an assignment game and has very little room for creativity(other that the coaches work), since then I lost interest in the game, it was more appealing when I was a fan(just ignorant about the game).
Perhaps we should replace the game with Soccer, less money, less injuries,inclusive(any one can participate regardless of their size). But it will never happen in the USA because football is treated like any other commodity and big money is in marketing and distribution.All over the world every little town has a team which plays every weekend another little town and the entire town gets to participates, and right there is where the future star player(Pele,Mesi,etc) is discovered.
College football is really a professional business that the only ones that benefit are very few players and the coaches with huge contracts($$$) at the expense of the players.Over 50% of the players do not graduate, simply wasted 4+ years of their life(perhaps is great for memories).
ENOUGH BITCHING, now it is time to get ready for the WORLD CUP-June 12. LA COPA
I am as guilty as the next football fan, albeit infrequent one, who gets a thrill when an amazingly long pass is caught and run with lightening speed fending off three-hundred pound blockers in the process then cheering him on as he crosses the Goal line along with the thunderous roar of the hometown crowd!
And equally amazed and questioning why I continue to be pulled into this madness when a player gets hit hard in the head, so hard, that his helmut literally comes off his head, or his body lays lifeless on the field while the team doctors do their magic.
When our son decided he was going to play hockey in eighth grade an icy chill ran down my spine. All my illusions of protecting him from the fiercest of gladiator sports had been suddenly shattered. I was always so happy that he didn’t want to play football, now this, hockey! Of course, all precautions were taken to protect the young team but broken bones, dislocations, and concussions did occur, thankfully not to our son.
Say what you will. It is not enough to convene concussion conferences or related summits or deeper discussions. We know what we have to do.
It is time to turn off the channel, ALL football channels!
Who among us will join THAT protest?
Christina Perez
Here’s another angle: All sports are ritualized warfare. Football and rugby are just the most nakedly so, military-themed battles where our local heroes scrap for territory against invaders. Or invade and claim territory of others. I used to find football thrilling, and even tried out once for a semipro team. Years of anger about the Vietnam War cooled my worship of sports and heightened my sense that they were the militaristic, warlike pursuits of an overly warlike nation. Gradually, my ability to enjoy sports returned. Long enough, in fact, for me to more-or-less cash in my knee cartilage for the fun of playing pickup basketball far too long. But my admiration for football never came back. It’s still too militaristic to me. The wanton damage it does to brains and bodies, in exchange for a cannon fodder-like shot at glory, is a huge buzz-kill. In college I got to watch the great Mel Renfro play. His gifts and his drive were absolutely astounding. Now he’s a beat-up guy with recurrent depression, undoubtedly the result of taking too many brutal hits. As an acquaintance who played many years in the pros, and who will always remain on a cocktail of painkillers, commented, “NFL means No Fun Later.”
Up till this year, I was an avid football fan. I loved the game. Not anymore!
A buddy of mine at the gym specializes in the infant brain. He is thoughtful and usually right on in his outlook on life and his politics.
The other doctors talk highly of him and he has earned a lot of support from the staff at UCSF.
During the playoffs we were talking in the locker room. I asked him if he thought the 49ers had a chance. He mumbled that he wasn’t into football.
I found this odd, since he was on top of all the major sports and even some minor ones.
When pressed, he explained his fundamental problems with the sport that begins in childhood.
Since then I have done some independent research and I am totally appalled at what I uncovered. I am also ashamed at myself for supporting this sport for all these years.
I am certain that there will be those that will wave the flag and talk about that inalienable right to kill themselves, but we are talking about children’s lives. Children who look to us for guidance!