Posted on 02/15/2012 5:36:05 AM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
What is more socialist, the EPL, where the bottom three teams get relegated, or, the NFL, where revenues are shared equally no matter how bad a team is?
Could concussions actually kill football?
No, but Lawyers can
New Jersey put a stop to that practice back in the 80s by prohibiting any athlete from participating in high school sports during (or after, obviously) the school year when he/she turns 19. One problem with this rule (which is a good one, in my mind) is that it’s sometimes impossible to validate birth records for immigrants.
So, you’ve noticed some of those quite large fellows with beards ~
Quick, mandatory bubble wrap for all children!
Wasn’t there a study recently that showed that soccer players can develop minor (but significant) brain damage from repeated heading of the ball, like a much less severe version of boxers becoming punch-drunk?
In any case, there’s still too much leading with the head in football tackling. If you look at sports like Australian rules football and rugby league or union, sports where they wear basically no padding and still have some truly horrendous hits and collisions, they somehow have fewer injuries. They don’t lead with their heads, they lead with their shoulders; and also, the players aren’t roided-up 290-pound monstrosities. They’re often big, but not freakish to the levels of an NFL lineman.
}:-)4
Soccer is eat up with concussions that occur when players try to head the ball and end up heading a head.
My son plays HS football and they make us watch a scary video every year about concussions. The white single mom’s always get squirrely after it. The dad’s just ignore it. The black mom(yes 1) always says “They can’t bust his head harder than I can”.
One of the basic problems (which it shares with American football to a degree, BTW) is that it's one of the only "timed" sports where the clock runs even when play is stopped.
Kinda like a motorcyclist drives slower, and is less likely to take risks, without a helmet. It would seem as though it's a trade out. Fewer incidences, but more severe when they occur.
American football is practice tribal warfare. It's a war game that preps everyone including the spectators for war. Soccer was invented by the British as practice throwing down arms and running for their lives. They imposed it on the natives of their territories so they wouldn't hone war fighting skills. Religion, tribal sports, and success at war are closely connected going back many thousands of years. Leftists cannot defeat a religious, tribal sport playing culture not matter how much envy and hate drives them.
Ain't that the truth!
But even the lawyers can't hold a candle to mothers. The best point I've heard raised about football's precarious position is the fact that mothers will NOT let their sons play football if they believe the risk of harm is too great.
Sadly, yes. Americans will give up almost anything the mainstream media wants them too. It may take some years to wear the public down, but they will go along. As long as the people have some other suitable past time to replace it with, they would crumble under the weight of political correctness and media chastising to give up a beloved sport like football.
People have to face facts. Americans, like most other people around the world, are followers. The last of the rugged individuals are dying out - quickly replaced by the ranks of the dependent sheep. I don't think most Americans give a rip about the constitution either. Oh, they say they do, but they'd throw any part of it aside if the government offered them some freebie or another.
Yes, there will always be some dissenters, some backyard football, etc, but in the end, if the MSM/establishment decide football is bad (for whatever reason), the public will follow their lead.
Football vs Baseball - George Carlin
Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.
Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.
Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.
Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything’s dying.
In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.
Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups - who’s up?
In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.
In football the specialist comes in to kick.
In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.
Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.
Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...
In baseball, if it rains, we don’t go out to play.
Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning.
Baseball has no time limit: we don’t know when it’s gonna end - might have extra innings.
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we’ve got to go to sudden death.
In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there’s kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there’s not too much unpleasantness.
In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you’re capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.
And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:
In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy’s defensive line.
In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I’ll be safe at home!
Great routine by Carlin. However, in print form, it just doesn’t really work.
Are you really asking this? Seriously? Are you kidding?
A: I am talking about the essence of the sport, not how a particular league is financed. That's ridiculous point and off topic.
B: Are you saying you don't know the difference between the competition on the field and the competition in the bank accounts?
C: Do you want the big market teams to do what companies do in financial competition, which is to put their competitors out of business? Can you not see the incredible flaws in your analogy?
The main reason being that the only professional leagues you're going to have are basically the equivalent of a Single A minor league baseball team, when compared to the major European Leagues. Most hardcore soccer fans here in the US, don't even bother with the MLS, and follow the European Leagues, and Competitions. Perhaps one day, the US can have a league aligned with the European Leagues. The problem is, that would put them in direct competition with the NFL....But conceivably, if somehow you could open up UEFA to the US, you could have US professional teams competing potentially in the UEFA Champions League, then you could get the best players in the world, say like a Messi, to come and play here. But until then, all they'll get are players, like Beckham, who are just trying to add a few years to their playing careers.
What is socialist about soccer on the field?
If football is banned for this reason, why not baseball? Remember how a “bean” ball shortened Tony Conigliaro’s life? While they’re at it, they should ban basketball as well. After all, Bill Walton tore up his feet while playing the sport. And tennis. My mother went to the hospital after shattering her arm when she fell during a tennis match.
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