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The Remarkably Quiet Death of Tackle Football
Chronicles Magazine ^ | January 31, 2025 | John Ziegler

Posted on 02/02/2025 9:14:21 PM PST by Red Badger

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To: Red Badger

Flag football in the 2028 olympics will be a joke. Bring back break dancing, at least I got a good laugh.....


41 posted on 02/03/2025 2:59:23 AM PST by Hot Tabasco
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To: Red Badger

Writer seems to advocate deadly and debilitating repeat concussions for professional football players because only that brand of football can make men of boys at the school level?


42 posted on 02/03/2025 2:59:55 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Robert357

Via NIL, college athletes are getting paid so handsomely that some are delaying their progression to the “professional” ranks.


43 posted on 02/03/2025 3:01:03 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Red Badger

ROAD HOUSE!


44 posted on 02/03/2025 3:05:23 AM PST by Rastus
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To: Red Badger

I read this article a week or two ago. What has been happening to football the last 15 or so years is disgusting. A bunch of us have called the targeting, launching and horse collar tackling rule changes the Pussification rules. Basically they will punish a Defensive player for simply hitting too hard. Many of the greatest plays in your school’s history would be penalties today. That’s just sad.

As an old Strong Safety I can tell you they’ve particularly made it impossible to play Safety in the modern game. A big part of your job as a Safety was to put the fear of god into any receiver who even considered crossing the middle. That’s no longer allowed. They also changed the definition of the “crown” of the helmet to be anything other than the facemask. It used to mean the top of the helmet.

All of this was done because a small self selected group (about 100) of longtime NFL players thought they had a problem with CTE. Turns out they did surprise surprise. The media then went hog wild and said this “proves” not only that every NFL player has this terrible risk of developing CTE but even college and high school players have this risk too. Evidence for such claims? Zero. How long have we had plastic helmets? Since about 1950. How many American boys have played high school football since then? Tens of millions. If players at that level had such a high risk of CTE that we needed to drastically change the rules of the game.....don’t you think we’d have seen it by now? Don’t you think we’d have seen millions of old men with CTE? After all, its been 75 years. Yet we’ve seen no such thing.


45 posted on 02/03/2025 3:12:42 AM PST by FLT-bird
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To: FamiliarFace
What we really need is to bring this back. This is football.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pep7oi-L_uA&t=15s

Though I won't hear it here, what the Leftist bedwetters respond with (because I've had these conversations multiple times) "boo hoo hoo you meanie! You just want to be entertained as a fan and you don't care if players are injured for your entertainment." To which I respond "BULLSHIT! I played for 8 years. I broke 3 fingers and 2 ribs. I had 3 concussions. I partially tore my hamstring. I had numerous other injuries the absolute worst of which was a sprained lower back (Jeezus that was awful). That's football. You know that if you play it is a metaphysical certainty you WILL get injured eventually. If you can't handle that.....DON'T PLAY. Nobody is forcing you. Just leave the game to the rest of us who actually have a working pair of balls OK nancy boy?"

46 posted on 02/03/2025 3:19:20 AM PST by FLT-bird
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To: Red Badger

I grew up on street where tackle football, without helmets or pads was the Game. our driveway was one endzone and our neighbors was the other end zone. In the 6 years i remember playing age 8 to 14 no one went to the hospital or had a broken bone. It wasn’t fun being the guy with the ball at the bottom of the pile, or getting tackled just as you were catching the ball, but it was part of the game. worst was getting tackled near the end zone, because the driveways were concrete and that meant you lost skin. if you were an older player, you only used enough force to stop the younger players. No cheap hits, and the rules were enforced. we had no refs, just honest players. there was an occasional fight, but the other kids would break it up quickly. Because playing the game and having fun was what it was about. Usually the game ended because someone’s mom called from the porch to git home for dinner, now. We learned that friendship was built on fairness, toughness, and fun. 60 years later, I’m still good friends with my old next door neighbor. We differ on politics, but that’s not important. We agree that fairness, honesty, and a level playing field with defined rules is what’s important. We learned that playing tackle football.


47 posted on 02/03/2025 3:22:56 AM PST by Waverunner
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To: Hot Tabasco
Bring back the Raygun!
48 posted on 02/03/2025 3:26:45 AM PST by Adder (End fascism...defeat all Democrats.)
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To: Adder

Article is right on but there’s more. Those ‘messages’ have a lot to do with the wussification. Think ‘End Racism/Choose Love.


49 posted on 02/03/2025 3:48:21 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET
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To: DIRTYSECRET

I definitely agree...


50 posted on 02/03/2025 3:51:48 AM PST by Adder (End fascism...defeat all Democrats.)
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To: Red Badger

Replace tackle football with Roman-style gladiatorial games ... use criminal illegals as a warmup for the main events.


51 posted on 02/03/2025 3:56:07 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Adder

Look at the ads during the Saturday games (college). Gone are the days of commercials marketing their products in a way that presents buying the product makes you more masculine. Now the men in the commercials are effeminate and stupid. The sideline reporterettes add a pantsuit mentality to the game.


52 posted on 02/03/2025 4:01:52 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: 9YearLurker
Re: "Via NIL (Name, Image, Likeness), college athletes are getting paid so handsomely that some are delaying their progression to the professional ranks."

That would be very rare.

The lowest one year NFL contract will pay more than $800,000 in 2025.

First Round Draft choices get four years guaranteed.

Draft pick #1 in 2024 will get almost $40 million guaranteed.

Draft pick #32 in 2024 will get $12.4 million guaranteed.

53 posted on 02/03/2025 4:18:15 AM PST by zeestephen (Trump Landslide? Kamala lost the election by 230,000 votes, in WI, MI, and PA.)
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To: zeestephen

Things have progressed further still in the last year, but:

https://wgntv.com/news/is-nil-money-keeping-student-athletes-in-school-longer/


54 posted on 02/03/2025 4:29:16 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: toast

I played high school ball. Deviated nasal septum, sprained medial lateral knee ligament. Tried some more at junior college level. Didn’t get far and I quit. Felt bad about quitting but the writing was on the wall. Too small. Strong, quick and somewhat fast but when up against stronger, faster, taller guys who didn’t care about other things or have any other future, well I couldn’t fill that order. I decided that organized sports was not going to work for me. Decided to use the brain I had been given, and not wasted with the head on collisions and legal head slaps. Did well in school.
Football was good for discipline, teamwork, physical stamina, dealing with adversity, learning how to perform while in pain, etc. But bad for physical integrity, and a guard against choosing ridiculous goals like advancing a ball against a determined enemy. A rather unimportant matter.
The game is now a far cry from the game I played. Lineman are unbelievably fat. Young and strong enough to overcome obesity now...but those guys are gonna’ get DM2 and lots of skeletal probs and cardiovascular probs. if they stay overweight... Too commercial...really, the goals of the game are trivial and no one should really care if you’re “no.1” People forget real quick.
Sorry about the verbosity...and I am glad for you and your son’s. Freegards.


55 posted on 02/03/2025 4:46:57 AM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder tro find. )
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To: Red Badger

I’m good with flag football. When they actually played with equipment it was the same thing. No one tackled, scores were high, and everyone had fun.

In saying that, if you want to get rid of football, let’s start with getting rid of rugby, soccer, and basketball.


56 posted on 02/03/2025 5:08:59 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Privatize the administrative state!)
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To: Red Badger
Meanwhile …

NHL player James Van Riemsdyk took a cross-check to the face the other night, lost four teeth in the process, went to the locker room for 30 stitches, and came out to finish the game. But that was just the start, as reported the next morning:

Van Riemsdyk received a post-game X-ray that revealed a piece of his tooth was stuck in his stitched-up lip. As a result, a stitch was taken out so the tooth could be removed, and then the lip was stitched back up. He had root canal and bone graft surgery after the game.

Oh — and he was back on the ice for the next game, two days later.

57 posted on 02/03/2025 5:15:10 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Well, maybe I'm a little rough around the edges; inside a little hollow.” -- Tom Petty, “Rebels”)
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To: The Duke

LOL!!


58 posted on 02/03/2025 5:23:09 AM PST by OKSooner ("I'd be safe and warm, if I was in LA... " Mama Cass Elliott, 1966)
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To: Alberta's Child

59 posted on 02/03/2025 5:24:36 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger
Maybe they should go back to leather helmets. Seems like there wer fewer concussions back then...........

Literal death on the field during football games was quite a scandal in the nineteen-teens and twenties. The "movement" to ban football failed ... barely.

60 posted on 02/03/2025 5:33:13 AM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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