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Moral equivocation...head injuries...football vs. boxing


John Ranalletta

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John Ranalletta

Anyone else caught on to the disconnect between the phoney moralizing over helmet-to-helmet hits and the promotion of prize fighting? One sport is fining and suspending for head hits while the other sport is based upon causing the most severe brain damage, e.g. knock outs.

 

Likely, it's driven by economics and not concern over player welfare. The NFL fears workmens comp liability while most fighters are self-employed.

 

Not surprisingly, none of the major sports broadcast entities will respond to any question about this oxymoronic behavior.

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You may be right. I see it as a media effect: commentators get onto a topic, develop a strong opinion and force the teams/league to show public concern, which then feeds the commentators' appetite for discussing it. I'm sure real concern with human suffering exists but it gets lost below the bright lights.

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Dave McReynolds

There are similar disconnects in other sports. Motorcyclists are generally required to wear helmets, whereas rockclimbers and snow skiers, equally prone to head injuries, are not.

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russell_bynum

Football players aren't allowed to crash into each other anymore???

 

I thought that was pretty much the whole point of the game: If you've got the ball, run it to the end zone while you and your team crash into anyone on the other team who gets in the way. If you don't have the ball, you and your team go crash into the person who does have the ball (as well as anyone who is likely to have the ball thrown to them.)

 

How are they supposed to play now?

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John Ranalletta
Football players aren't allowed to crash into each other anymore???

 

I thought that was pretty much the whole point of the game: If you've got the ball, run it to the end zone while you and your team crash into anyone on the other team who gets in the way. If you don't have the ball, you and your team go crash into the person who does have the ball (as well as anyone who is likely to have the ball thrown to them.)

 

How are they supposed to play now?

Ditka says remove the face guards to solve the problem. I agree.
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Ditka says remove the face guards to solve the problem. I agree.

 

And if you take the gloves off the boxers, head injuries would be the least of their worries. Hitting with bare fist hurts.......especially after you break your hand on the other fella's skull.

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Far from an expert on American Football so please forgive an interloper, but it has always seemed to me that the players require so much armour so that they can be protected from the other guys armour.

 

There are many full contact sports that manage to proceed without the players wearing more protection than your average BMW rider and they seem to get on well enough. I know I have seen the sport being played here sans helmets, so it is possible.

 

One assumes that like other sports, if the protection were taken away that methodologies would change rapidly.

 

Yes, yes, I'll run away and get back in my box now. :)

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The NFL is the most lucrative, or maybe second to NASCAR, sport in America. They're at a point where they need to protect the participants, because the public and media may otherwise condemn them, which could effect the gate. I don't think boxing is in the same league and probably has little to lose.

 

It's why stock cars had to be slowed down from 200 mph to 185, they were endangering the drivers (too much) and threatening spectators by flying in the air tearing up the catch fencing. And the Dale Earndhart accident made the use of HANS devices mandatory I believe.

 

The NFL and NASCAR are well past worrying about profitability, they've moved on to another stage, perception and visibility. They're both fairly dangerous sports, but one was moreso, and sooner.

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John Ranalletta

Maybe, but programs showing ex-players who are suffering from concussion-induced ALS disease is very disconcerting. The NFL has admitted the link and there is a group working with U of PA (I think) that is collecting brains from deceased players and the damage is undeniable.

 

Some colleges are revising practice methodologies to eliminate head hits as the evidence points a finger at multiple, non-concussion causing hits.

 

An ex-pro on Mike & Mike said he was on a player head injury committee years ago. He said helmet technology has changed but the best technology is owned by companies who can't pay the NFL's licensing fees. He stated that the helmet he wore in the NFL was the same he wore years earlier in high school.

 

The NFL was caught in a dicey situation wherein it was selling images of a hit that resulted in a fine and suspension.

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CoarsegoldKid

I fail to see where morals come into this issue.

Boxers are supposed to knock out the opponent. The less head protection the better. They know that. Everyone knows that.

 

I'm not much of a football fan so my view is parochial. I kinda see it as Russell does, how are the football players going to play if they can't crash into the other player. Do unto others as they do unto you seems to be okay. The players know they risk a head injury when they play. Why change make it safer?

Why take the face guard off? Take the helmet off I say. Take the plastic/carbon off, leave the soft pads on.

 

I'm concerned more about noggins of youth and High School football players.

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John Ranalletta
Ditka says remove the face guards to solve the problem. I agree.

 

And if you take the gloves off the boxers, head injuries would be the least of their worries. Hitting with bare fist hurts.......especially after you break your hand on the other fella's skull. Why protect the hands at the expense of gray matter? That seems a bad trade off to me if bare-knuckle fighting reduced the kind of damage Mohamed Ali suffers.

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John Ranalletta
Why change make it safer?

Why take the face guard off? Take the helmet off I say. Take the plastic/carbon off, leave the soft pads on.

 

I'm concerned more about noggins of youth and High School football players.

 

Why change it? For the same reason lions don't eat gladiators for public pleasure.

 

I agree about kids. Luckily, my son and I agree - Joe will never play football. My youngest suffered two broken collar bones and a concussion in grade school football. When he said he didn't want to play HS ball, I was very happy.

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[quote=JohnRan

And if you take the gloves off the boxers, head injuries would be the least of their worries. Hitting with bare fist hurts.......especially after you break your hand on the other fella's skull.

Why protect the hands at the expense of gray matter? That seems a bad trade off to me if bare-knuckle fighting reduced the kind of damage Mohamed Ali suffers.

 

Oddly enough, this is not bourne out by history. In the days of bare-knuckle fighting, there were no deaths in the ring - not the case now. linky

 

Andy

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