Posted on 01/29/2013 8:59:48 AM PST by 1rudeboy
I think Megan McArdle is being naive about the tort system in this country when she writes
So Junior Seau's family is suing the NFL over head injuries, which lead to chronic brain damage, and possibly his suicide.
...
But this lawsuit strikes me as pretty out there. Junior Seau can't possibly have been unaware that football caused head injuries. Nor even that multiple concussions are probably bad for you. Note how many people are still playing, even though we now know this all too well.
Really? I know of cases where people have successfully sued for drownings that occurred within feet of a no swimming sign. I could easily ask if there are really people unaware that water can cause drownings. Any sense of individual responsibility has been stripped from the tort system, such that it has become a way for folks who had bad outcomes of some sort to cash in from deeper pockets, irrespective of any reasonable sense of justice.
The NFL knows this and is clearly running scared. How do we know? Just look at Saints coach Sean Payton, who just went back to work after a one year suspension, a historically really large penalty for a coach. He was accused of tangential association with a bounty system players and coaches had in place for great plays that may also have been a bounty system for injuring opposing players. The NFL knows this goes on all the time, but must now prepare for the day they are in court getting sued for having an unsafe work environment. They do not want a case based on negligence to be made far worse by accusations that the league was actively promoting behavior that created injuries. So they threw the book at him. The other folks who were suspended threatened the NFL with suits for all sorts of due process errors, but the NFL didn't care. They can survive a judgement on an unjustified suspension of one or two players. They cannot survive a judgement on causing hundreds to have brain damage.
Quoting from Walter Olson, who spends most of his time studying the tort system in this country:
if subjected to the same injury liability rules that American courts apply to other businesses, organized football is unlikely to survive.
for your list
we are all doomed
Considering that America and mankind are both doomed, why wouldn’t the NFL be doomed?
The Emperor knows that he needs both bread and circuses to keep the masses docile.
Gladiator fights were a staple for hundreds of years in the Roman Empire, yet there’s no “National Gladiator League” today. Also, no “Fellowship of Christian Gladiators” (”when I run a opponent through, and skewer him and gut out his guts, I do it for the Glory of the Lord”.)
Thanks to liberalism, the death of common sense, and smart phone mesmerized zombies, everything is doomed.
In the future: Rollerball
Why wouldn’t it be doomed? It is the express intent of liberals to destroy anything that is masculine because, we all know, testosterone and the behaviors it engenders is toxic to society. Areas such as:
Traditional Fatherhood: Check.
Appreciation of Femininity: Check.
The Military: Check.
Gun Ownership: Check.
The Boy Scouts: Check. (As of this morning)
NFL Football: Check. (Soon)
Don't scoff. If you have never gone to a bar, gotten drunk with your buddies, watched Sumo on the big screen (audio optional), and wagered on the matches . . . you have missed-out on a lot of fun.
If they had their way, real men would just off themselves to improve society.
Heck, if they had their way, everyone (except themselves) would off themselves to improve Gaia.
It may take the death of the NFL for America to wake up to it’s loss of freedom.
If that is what it takes..bring it on. Let’s close all those stadiums, leave the cities with the debt and just do re-runs on TV. Rush is absolutely right..this is a liberal effort and maybe, just maybe..it will get some dead heads off their sofa and into a voting booth to throw these people out.
...Getting Drunk with the guys: Check.
Bountygate has to do with a lot more than just the concussion problem. A bounty system is also a violation of the salary cap (players getting paid off the books), which puts the whole CBA in jeopardy. Also they lied to Goodell, the initial investigation (which took place a couple of years before we started getting wind) included team officials assuring Goodell that nothing like that was happening, then the investigation eventually learned it not only was in place but continued AFTER those assurances were made. Don’t lie to the commissioner’s face, it makes him angry.
First football, then MMA then boxing...
The Nation is doomed, so why wouldn’t the NATIONAL football League be going over the cliff too?
I am beyond tired of this. My alarm clock goes off this morning. Know what the FIRST thing my awaking ears have to hear?
“Well, the Boy Scouts have finally joined the 21st Century...”
I uttered an oath as I pounded it into sleep mode.
I cannot watch television. I cannot read papers. I cannot read magazines. I cannot listen to the radio. It feels like every single damned day brings us one more heavy footstep towards national dissolution.
I put my flag at half-staff when an American hero, General Norman Schwarzkopf passed away. (If they “suggested” to me that I had to put my flag at half mast for human scum like Ted Kennedy, I was CERTAINLY going to do it for the General...)
I had the strangest thing happen to me: I didn’t want to raise my flag back up. I can’t tell you how much this unexpected sentiment bothers me, but I feel incapable of overcoming it. My wife asks me when, I look at it every time I pull up in my car or walk outside, and ask myself the same question.
I am sick to death of these things.
I think it is the booze talking.
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