Posted on 01/20/2016 3:08:52 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
Longtime NFL wide receiver Antwaan Randle El, whose trick-play touchdown pass famously helped the Pittsburgh Steelers to a victory in Super Bowl XL, said he regrets having ever played football.
Randle El, 36, told the Pittburgh Post-Gazette in story published Tuesday that he struggles to walk down the stairs and has contended with memory loss since announcing his retirement in 2012.
“If I could go back, I wouldn’t,†the former Indiana University quarterback said of the sport that brought him roughly $40m in career earnings. “I would play baseball. I got drafted by the Cubs in the 14th round, but I didn’t play baseball because of my parents. They made me go to school. Don’t get me wrong, I love the game of football. But right now, I could still be playing baseball.â€
An outspoken critic of the NFL and plaintiff in a 2013 lawsuit claiming the league “has done everything in its power to hide the issue and mislead players concerning the risks associated with concussionsâ€, Randle El believes the sport is inherently dangerous and beyond fixing.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The NFL is unlikely to go away anytime soon. Too popular and too profitable. lThe brain injury issue is going to have to be dealt with, however. Perhaps with better helmets, pads.
Don't listen to the he-men beating their chests.
Antwaan Randle El says NFL could be dead ‘in 20, 25 years’
I can believe that easily. Back in 63/64 when I got hooked, you couldn’t pry me away from Sunday football with a crowbar.
Nowadays I *might* watch the Superbowl. Maybe.
From free agency to astroturf; from cleaned-up cheerleaders to JJ’s titty-reveal; from rule-changes to bad calls the business (formerly known as “game”) went down the tubes. No mud, no blood — gone are the days of the fog bowl and the frozen tundra.
Heck, I’m surpriesd I worked up enough giveadamn to type all this...
Their fate was sealed when they denied Limbaugh ownership of the Rams.
At the behest of the players union Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4562338
Cry me a river - I’m a retired disabled veteran with a head trauma injury and at my current disability pay of 1600/month it would take me 2083 years to make $40 million.
The size disparity between the players on the field is too great. In order to take anybody down, smallish defensive backs convert their bodies into guided missiles rather than risk injury making the form tackle we were all taught in Pee Wees. And I don’t blame them. The liberalized passing rules mean that the only way to cover a receiver is to run with him. Acceleration & agility usually comes in a small package.
Wanna solve it? Make them play both ways. No more platoon football.
Too much padding and too many "safety things" like face masks.
When the players wore light pads and no face masks they got broken noses and bloody mouths and knocked out a few teeth but they had less concussions and fewer ripped up knees.
With huge padded helmets and massive face masks, they don't fear getting a broken nose so they lead with their head. If the face is exposed, the natural reaction is to protect your face and it will result in less, not more concussions.
It won't happen because the pretty boys will not give up face masks.
The NFL won’t go away...high school football will be the casuality. Once it’s established as a sport to cause brain injury....state boards will be under pressure to eliminate it. All you need is one single state....like California...to require some kind of bond by the school or the kid’s parents to play, and the sport dissolves. And if it dissolves at high school level...how do you think that state colleges can continue recruitment and superior play?
I will go ahead and make the prediction that by 2035....half the colleges will be out of the business and the NFL will be facing a very uncertain future with the quality diminishing year by year.
More and better pads and helmets can’t solve physics. When you move the head too quickly the brain collides with the inside of the skull. You can pad the head all you want it won’t stop this.
The distances involved in football collisions are too short for and chance of deceleration fast enough to prevent this. There is no solution other than keep breeding folks dumb enough to think it won’t happen to them.
Well, if football goes away the talent pool for baseball will be significantly enlarged.
I think the NFL will be reduced to something on the order of boxing; its still here but who cares?
The left wants it dead because: patriarchy. But more importantly.....
I read an article about the coming depression in sports owing to people un bundling from cable. ESPN has lost something like 7MM subscribers over the past year. When people realize that they are paying something like $40 per month for all the sports channels, many they never watch (Im looking at you, Tennis Channel), they figure they can rearrange with netlix, hulu, amazon, roku, etc.
As this continues ESPN will not be able to pay as much for TV rights. And there the dominoes begin to tumble.
I never did go for high schools providing a free taxpayer funded farm team system for colleges which, in turn, provide the same role for the NFL. Baseball, for the most part, provides their own farm team system with just a relative handful of players drafted out of college baseball.
the dementia and arthritic changes also might be due to the rampant use of anabolic steroids, HgH, Clomid, masking agents, amphetamines, Nitrous Oxide,alcohol, cocaine, chronic marijuana use(laced with who knows what),Nuvigil, adderal, hydrocodone, toradol, Viagra, poppers and the innumerable other chemicals stuffed into their bodies.
They do this so that these uneducated, genetically gifted gladiators can make money for themselves, their “posse”, the parasite hangers on, family, the NFL and provide entertainment for the peasants in order to pacify their aggressive nature and provide a release for violence.
Totally agree with your comment, the NFL will slowly fade from view because of the simple greed that they all have. Take the latest move that the rams made to LA. LA has lost more football teams than any other city yet they want to be there, and Stan bought them a new stadium complex. Too many regular people are starting to view the NFL as a elitist club.
That’s right to my understanding. And it’s not necessarily a massive blow that causes a single concussion (although it might make further lighter blows more damaging), but the repetitive lesser jarring to the brain sustained through the course of a football career to get into the NFL. Like you say, not sure there is a solution here.
Freegards
Not to mention guaranteed contracts go along with the generally longer career at pro level.
Freegards
Mr. Vomer, I take umbrage at your post.
There is no evidence that their marijuana is laced.
Other than that, spot on!
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