Posted on 08/28/2014 2:25:24 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Parents are worried about their children playing football, but most haven’t decided to keep their kids from putting on a helmet and stepping onto the field.
According to an Associated Press-GfK poll, nearly half of parents said they’re not comfortable letting their child play football amid growing uncertainty about the long-term impact of concussions.
In the poll, 44 percent of parents weren’t comfortable with their child playing football. The same percentage was uncomfortable with ice hockey, and 45 percent were uncomfortable with participation in wrestling. Only five percent, though, said they have discouraged their child from playing in the last two years as concern over head injuries has increased at all levels of the game.
The majority of parents said they are comfortable with participation in a host of other sports—including swimming, track and field, basketball, soccer, baseball and softball, among others. …
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
It's freaking amazing.
They hits are devastating and somehow the uniforms stay in place.
They can run and pass too.
Haven't seen a game on TV in a few years though, wonder if it's still around.
The Saturday lineup of college football will further enrage the feminists and by Sunday, they’ll be on the brink of going postal.
...as will, apparently, a number of FR posters...
Never really thought about it, have you? Instead of organizing a game and getting the exercise themselves, hundreds of thousands of otherwise normal men sit and watch other men getting the exercise. Worse, the commercialization of sports requires grotesquely oversized guys to the point that we seem to be combining sumo with football. These players are paid huge salaries and contribute absolutely nothing to the nation except a strange spectacle and taxes, I would assume. The only thing more worthless would be golf, maybe.
Compare that to something worthwhile, like serving your country in the combat arms: real achievement, real risk, real courage, small paycheck.. Good guys get protected, bad guys get defeated. Best of all anyone of reasonable physical condition can join and be part of the team. No comparison.
Like I said earlier, what’s the point of watching football unless you like watching other men exercise?
” Hockey due to the enormous cost “
—
We have had two hockey players here in MA that became quadriplegics playing hockey——one college,one high school.
Any physical activity can be dangerous.
.
Just because you weren't good at something or didn't like it doesn't mean it's stupid and in need of obsessively resentful criticisms.
Worse, the commercialization of sports requires grotesquely oversized guys to the point that we seem to be combining sumo with football.
Bingo! Another evil of capitalism. It's commercialization rather than U.S. RDA for vitamins and minerals in foods that has caused the surge in physical sizes over the past two generations.
These players are paid huge salaries and contribute absolutely nothing to the nation except a strange spectacle and taxes,
They are entertainers and are paid based on their entertainment value.
Compare that to something worthwhile, like serving your country in the combat arms: real achievement, real risk, real courage, small paycheck.. Good guys get protected, bad guys get defeated. Best of all anyone of reasonable physical condition can join and be part of the team. No comparison.
Are you suggesting that parents take their 16 year old sons to the local armed forces recruiting office and sign the paperwork to enlist them in the military?
Like I said earlier, what’s the point of watching football unless you like watching other men exercise?
What's the point in watching a movie unless you enjoy watching people play pretend?
The one that caught my attention: "Are you suggesting that parents take their 16 year old sons to the local armed forces recruiting office and sign the paperwork to enlist them in the military?
So you think that our children should avoid service? It should just be "somebody else's kids" to go through the rigors of training, the deprivation, the fear and the losses of combat? Interesting view from alleged "patriots". We don't take 16 year olds, by the way, though our young people could do far worse than spend a couple of years in service, learning about the rest of our country.
You make the mistake of thinking that I don't like football (or most any other professional sport) because I couldn't play - I did fine on our high school football and track teams. My change of attitude came during my war - Vietnam - when I saw perfectly able-bodied people playing a kid's game or just watching others play the kid's game for them while we took everything on ourselves.
I came to the realization that we American talk a good game about "sacrifice" and preserving freedom but fall a long ways short when it comes to actually risking anything themselves.
Professional football is an escapist freakshow. Fighting for your country is reality. Those young men and women who are recovering in our hospitals from combat are the real heroes where every second wasted on watching the NFL is time and money wasted.
Like I said earlier, what’s the point of watching football unless you like watching other men exercise?
...inasmuch as you seem to have some inexplicable hatred for the game bordering on hysteria, what’s the point of attempting to rationally explain my enjoyment in observing the competition...
Those young men and women who are recovering in our hospitals from combat are the real heroes where every second wasted on watching the NFL is time and money wasted.
...you could say the same thing about every single endeavor that doesn’t involve military service...and while I admire the hell out of your service, doubly so since I am not a veteran, you are talking through your highly opinionated hat...you are hardly in a position to lecture anyone about whether his or her time or money is being wasted...
You are correct: I do have a chip on my shoulder against professional football and most other sports too. I saw them as a leisure activity with zero usefulness that our country occupied itself with while we were risking everything. It was a strong sign that we weren’t important enough to suspend the games - or use those same guys to support us.
I admit that it isn’t rational. People do what people do. Actually the kind of guy who is the best for football is more than likely a liability in combat. The big guys are too visible, make too much noise moving at night, and they are much harder to carry when they’re hit. Nonetheless, it bothered us a lot that life just went on without us.
My wife was watching me post my screeds with disapproval and quietly put a Christmas card up on my fridge with a photo of a best buddy I rescued back then. She reminded me that the reason I was there was in that photo: he has five daughters and a dozen grandchildren now. I have to stop resenting that the world values different things than I do.
Enjoy your football, buddy.
We’re now finding out former soccer players are having problems when their careers are over as well.
Gabriel Batistuta asked doctor for legs to be CUT OFF to end agonizing pain following retirement
Interesting comment:” life just went on without us.”
I have been in the service for over 20 years, though not a combat vet. I have contemplated the same thing as I spent another holiday in the sandbox and saw the country so focused on sports or some inane reality show when we were shipping out another load of flag draped caskets that barely got a paragraph in the local press.
Then again, those worthless pursuits are often what bring us together as a country. I don’t begrudge anyone their entertainment as long as I am not forced to pay for it.
Enjoy your football, buddy.
...whatever...
You’re a better man than I am - I have spent almost 50 years resenting the day lights out of the trivial, meaningless pastimes that our people filled their time with while we, the young guys who answered the call, were killed and wounded by the thousands.
Our country went on blissfully enjoying the fun and freedoms while pivoting neatly from enthusiastic support of us and our fight to vilification and spit in an eye blink. Can’t exaggerate the kind if nasty stuff we faced when we got home.
I went on to heal up and then went back into the service for another 24 years. I protected my troops zealously and I did my best make sure they were trained to the limit of my experience and ability and above all, appreciated.
It is interesting that among all of the friends who made it back with me, none of us watch football. Guess nothing was ever the same.
I can scarce imagine your experiences, but I respect your feelings. Our experience coming home is 180 degrees from your homecoming. What happened to you was despicable and inexcusable. I am constantly humbled when strangers come up to thank me for serving.
I was virulently opposed to sport and other pastimes until my son approached me to tell me how I had hurt him by not attending his games. That made me rethink my position. I still don’t watch sports, but I refrain from voicing opposition most of the time.
My oldest boy is a Navy medic and my football player is now trying to get in the service, though his size is an issue. Lol.
God bless you, and thank you for your service to an ungrateful country.
Oh I definitely watch games family or friends are playing - I’m not a total stick in the mud.
Thank you for the kind thoughts and your long and faithful service. I have a warm place in my heart for navy corpsmen - best of the best! Wish you and your family all success.
Semper Fi
Thank you for your service. You have a wonderful wife.
And your head is screwed on just fine.
As the daughter of a career Navy vet, who wouldn’t have traded my childhood for anything - I want to thank you for your service sir, and please thank your lovely wife and kids as well.
May God bless and keep you all.
Tatt
Thank you very much Tatt. God bless and keep you and your family too.
Thanks buddy!
No I will tell you what my beef is with Football. In our community we had a youth football team that fed the high school. The coaches that were hired each year were demeaning, vulgar and rigid.
During year three my son asked to be let out. He didnt mind six days of suiting up and practice. He did mind being treated like dirt. So did I.
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