I do like football... but after seeing the movie "Concussion" I question if it is simply not the protective gear that football players wear that induce the violence of impact. Would the players be safer longer term if no protective gear was worn at all? While statistically rugby can be more violent than American football, most concussion type injuries aren't as mitigated as serious injuries in the rugby world... while I've found that English ruled rugby seems safer considering head injuries and the steps taken following those types of injuries. http://irbplayerwelfare.com/pdfs/CI_Risk_Assessment_EN.pdf Should American Football lose protective gear all together, still practicing and playing "heads up" football?
I have wondered this myself. I played high school and college ball in the 70's and our helmets were nothing like what they wear today. I honestly believe having these guys "armored" so well creates more violent impacts. Another thing to consider, the sheer size, strength, and speed of today's players is much greater as well.
I have played football and rugby. The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that the pads and helmets make the players feel invincible and in rugby you know it is going to hurt so you don't go 110% LOL. The other part of course is that in rugby, the contact is more limited than football in which most every player is smashing it on every play so the contact is much more frequent and would likely lead to more chances for injury.
I have been playing hockey, baseball and football all my life and the only concussions I've had were off the field/ice/diamond not on it... I know I have had at least 3 major ones.. For some reason I keep hitting my head on random (*)(*)(*)(*) lol.... It sounds funny, it is funny - it always happens when I crouch down then get up I crack my head on a pipe - one time even the door of an industrial oven - both knocked me out... I play(ed) all these contact sports for all these years and I get knocked out by oven doors and random pipes? geez....
New 1 minute concussion detecting device... Speedy Eye-tracking Device Seeks to Detect Concussions April 20, 2016 : Tool to analyze visual response is first of its kind to get green light from US Food and Drug Administration as concerns grow over brain injuries in contact sports
Tryin' to make football safer... Texas to launch massive youth-athlete concussion study December 11, 2016 This week, Texas will launch what state officials say is the nation's largest effort to track brain injuries among young athletes.
Remove the face mask, and the helmet will no longer be used as a weapon. Yeah, broken noses will occur but concussions would drop significantly!
The reason that football is going to be a memory is because they changed the game. It's too fast. It used to be about large men crashing NFL one another. Now it's about very fast men crashing into one another. It looks more like a track meet than a football game. It used to use a fatter ball too. It used to be played outside on grass . Now it's played mostly on Astro turf ,indoors. It's a beautiful game to watch but it's very violent and very soon HS football will be a thing of the past as insurance rates will kill it.
