No football , but YEAH skiing. A hypocrite father

[LightRanger]

I really love college football, but I'm convinced when my children are my age, either it'll be flag or it won't exist. It'll be talked about like "can you beleive how ignorant we used to be etc."

See also:
Boxing.

[old goat]

I have a feeling we'll find out CTE is a problem in many sports other than just football. I've already seen a few stories about NHL players being affected. That said, it's hard to imagine there will be any other sports with the sheer prevalence of brain injuries as football.

My totally unscientific impression, having played hockey but not tackle football and watching both on TV, is that the frequency of concussions and subconcussion brain trauma is less in hockey, although not negligible. (I had one concussion playing hockey.) Of the hockey players with CTE I wonder how many were fighters. Maybe the risk of CTE will finally get rid of fighting in the NHL.

[skaredshtles]

See also:
Boxing.

And, yet, UFC has become a thing. How is that even possible?

[LightRanger]

And, yet, UFC has become a thing. How is that even possible?

True. And no doubt siphoned fans from boxing.

But it's still not even close to as big as boxing was, nor will it ever be. At its peak, boxing was, what, most popular sport in America? Second to baseball maybe? I'm thinking from the 30s to the late 60s and the beginning of the Super Bowl era.

[TahoeJ]

True. And no doubt siphoned fans from boxing.

But it's still not even close to as big as boxing was, nor will it ever be. At its peak, boxing was, what, most popular sport in America? Second to baseball maybe? I'm thinking from the 30s to the late 60s and the beginning of the Super Bowl era.

There definitely aren't modern conversations like this anyway...

[LightRanger]

Timely.

https://calmatters.org/articles/california-high-school-football-participation-drops/

[Sirshredalot]

True. And no doubt siphoned fans from boxing.

But it's still not even close to as big as boxing was, nor will it ever be. At its peak, boxing was, what, most popular sport in America? Second to baseball maybe? I'm thinking from the 30s to the late 60s and the beginning of the Super Bowl era.

At it's peak (pre WW2), boxing was far and away the most popular sport in the US. Baseball was an extremely distant second. Boxing in the 1920s was at least as dominant in American spectator sports as football is now.

[LightRanger]

At it's peak (pre WW2), boxing was far and away the most popular sport in the US. Baseball was an extremely distant second. Boxing in the 1920s was at least as dominant in American spectator sports as football is now.

Yeah. I basically knew that. But didn't have any readily-accessible stats to back it up, so I hedged a bit.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[klauss]

High school football was definitely the favorite of the three sports I played in high school. Too bad it’s bad on the ol melon.

My 8 y.o. plays flag and wants to play tackle football as soon as possible. I told him flag was the future

[TahoeJ]

cheerleading is very dangerous

Broken necks to pregnancy - there's a huge range of possible hazards.

[MontuckyFried]

I think the biggest difference is how people tend to participate in either sport. If approached competitively, either certainly has it's risks (although football is obviously much higher risk for TBI). However, I don't think there's anything wrong than encouraging him to play football recreationally, even full-contact/tackle. He'd still get a ton of fun out of it and won't be getting his noggin pummeled on a daily basis. I am biased since I didn't participate much in organized sports with the exception of a year of middle school basketball (which I sucked terribly), BUT in my opinion, playing youth organized sports kind of sucks all the fun out of it. At least for me. As a kid, I always had BY FAR the most fun playing sports when it was pick-up games at the park or getting together with friends for football/soccer/baseball/hockey/etc. As a kid, when things were played for fun, I noticed I got to do all the "fun" parts waaaaaay more than when organized. No bench-warming position!

Most of us approach skiing recreationally with our families, so I don't see much reason that sports has to be so different.

[Woodsy]

At it's peak (pre WW2), boxing was far and away the most popular sport in the US. Baseball was an extremely distant second. Boxing in the 1920s was at least as dominant in American spectator sports as football is now.

Think Horse racing was second or close to first in a similar period...

[Woodsy]

Well, there's always pro wrestling school...

that is the one sport I will BAN my son from...

If after taking state in real wrestling and a successful College career he chooses that path fine, but not while he is under my roof. ( we went and watched the local HS meet last night, wrestling was the only sport I was ever really good at)

[Dantheman]

I played 4 years in HS and while it was absolutely fun as fuck, I kind of regret it now. I never had a true concussion playing while I've had several skiing, but as has been mentioned it's the sub-concussive blows that happen every single play (I played guard).

I probably won't have to cross this bridge with my son. I grew up in a little hick town where if you showed up to practice every day you were on the team. He'll be lucky to break 5-6 fully grown, so living in the "big city" now odds are low he could even make the team in HS.

But, he's already a sponsored mountain biker at 9 and I'm convinced that action sports will be the next wave of CTE. Dave Mirra is already a confirmed case, I'll be shocked if Travis Pastrana doesn't have it, and there are probably tons of unknown skaters, BMXers, motocrossers, etc. that have had it but never had their brains biopsied.

We know several kids just a few years older who are full-blown bike phenoms (check out @fred_romeo and @thosemallentwins on IG) and they've all had a couple concussions before the age of twelve. That scares the hell out of me.

[TahoeJ]

^^ Especially since your kid is really getting after it on his bike. But, based on the photos and videos, seems like he's been progressing gradually along the way... which lessens the odds of a bad crash and then of course there's a lot to be said for learning how to crash safely and minimizing impact.

[Woodsy]

But, he's already a sponsored mountain biker at 9 .

BTW your son inspires the hell out of Colin

[Dantheman]

^^ Especially since your kid is really getting after it on his bike. But, based on the photos and videos, seems like he's been progressing gradually along the way... which lessens the odds of a bad crash and then of course there's a lot to be said for learning how to crash safely and minimizing impact.

Agreed with all of this, but shit happens.

[Mofro261]

My boy is 20 now. He never played the footballs until HS, but stuck with it all 4 yrs.
He's racked up 3 concussions, one ski racing, one on a cheap shot in football, and one Mtn biking. He sent me some footy from last week of him and his buddies landing their double backs. At some point he'll figure out risk tolerance, fingers crossed.

[Sirshredalot]

Agreed with all of this, but shit happens.

Yeah. My wife and I had this discussion when she was pregnant.

Her: "no football if it's a boy, right?"
Me: "I wouldn't push for football, but if our kid wants to get into pipe skiing, freeride MTB, or Nordic jumping, we're letting that happen, right? I don't know that any of that's better than football."
Her: "Hmmm ..."

We are now at the point where the 3 year old wants to ski park, go for tram laps at the Bird, and jump off shit. If she wants to do any of that competitively, we will encourage it, up to a point.

As successful as Seau and Mirra were, you wonder if things would've turned out better for them if they'd hung up the Spurs at age 30. I guess your insurance policy against that, as a parent, is to make sure your kid has other interests, passions and skills to lean on when it is time to throttle back a little.

[Benny Profane]

Football will soon be an all black (non Texans) and white and black Texan sport. Skiing won't.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...divide/581623/

[RShea]

Ha, I also played football for 7 years and then rugby college. Definitely got my bell rung in football but less so in rugby. There's no game on the planet besides football where constant direct collisions are such a part of the game. Rugby isn't even close in that regard.

If we stopped playing football we might find out that southerners and texans are actually smart.

I have a simple rule change that would make football both safe and a lot funnier and I can explain it in 3 words: Giant Nerf Helmets. Let's do this, people.

That was designed and offered. Basically at least 20 years ago, a guy designed a foam cap that went over top the standard football helmet (and could be made with the logos and colors. One guy even had them tested and presented the design and got shot down for some reason for wide use. If I remember correctly the NFL even wanted nothing to do with the idea at that time.

http://media.bizj.us/view/img/815131...2-147-0-51.png or similar type of styling...

Here is the article about the cap I remembered: https://www.crainscleveland.com/arti...n-the-1990s-is

[plugboots]

Football will soon be an all black (non Texans) and white and black Texan sport. Skiing won't.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...divide/581623/

Woah, CTE or gangs.

Jackson relies on the sport to shield the boys from gang activity in her rural Georgia county.

[frorider]

In 2017, JAMA published a major and disturbing finding. Researchers had collected the autopsied brains of 202 former football players who had donated their brains to science, or had them donated via their next of kin. The players included those who had played in the NFL, but also those who only played through college, and a few who had only played in high school.

Of the 202 brains, 177, or nearly 90 percent, were diagnosed with CTE. And there was a pattern: Those who had played football longer were more likely to have worse brain damage. Among the former NFL players in the sample, 99 percent had CTE. This suggests the effects of brain trauma on CTE are cumulative. The more trauma over a longer period, the worse the symptoms

90%. Dayum.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-heal...n-damage-youth

[LightRanger]

One of the few well-considered things to come out of this guy's mouth ever?
https://deadspin.com/soft-baby-presi...ild-1832302443