Almost nothing annoys me more than the Fox NFL robot. It dehumanizes the players.
But I think it's doing more than that. I'm concerned with the increasing number of injuries, from Pop Warner football all the way through the NFL.
But I think it's doing more than that. I'm concerned with the increasing number of injuries, from Pop Warner football all the way through the NFL.
The most serious of these injuries are clearly the result of collisions. The collisions are encouraged by the increased sophistication of the equipment worn by these athletes. The more protection they are wearing, the more they believe they can play with "reckless abandon."The recent controversy over Alzheimers and dementia resulting from concussions suffered up to forty years previous has brought a promise by organized football to improve the design of the helmets.
But let's consider another approach. Instead of improving the armor, let's take the armor away. Rugby and Australian football is every bit as exciting as American football, but the incidence of serious injury is far lower. If today's players were limited to high tech shoes and minimal protection (yes--leather helmets), I guarantee that there would be fewer concussions.
Nothing else would change (except the shapes of the players, which would appear more human and less Transformerish). The skills (blocking, tackling, running, throwing, catching) would still obtain. Oh, and their life expectancy might improve.What do you think?
1 comment:
The very issue you bring up, Paul, is one reason I have never been a huge football fan; I have seen (and read/heard about) far too many serious injuries! Add a percentage of players now dealing with life-long paralysis to the list of frequent head and other injuries suffered by so many players, and the high cost of playing goes up exponentially.
I'd like to see "touch football"(I know that would eliminate a huge percentage of spectators -- probably most), rather than "tackle" football. How can one human body hold up under the weight of five or six huge, muscular men crashing down on their head, organs, muscles, tendons and bones?
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