For those that think banning football is the solution: Just how many people do you think would’ve heard of Junior Seau without football, what do you think he would’ve done instead, and do you have proof he wouldn’t have killed himself if he had been a bricklayer?
It’s not necessarily about banning it. But the league has screwed up. Right around Seau’s rookie season the NFL released a report that concussions cause no permanent damage, a report that was pretty silly given the medical knowledge we had at the time and has now been completely refuted. But during all the time players have been taking a beating, the league has only recently decided to take player health seriously, but of course they have decades of a violent culture they built to overcome. Then you get scary things like Chris Henry’s autopsy showing massive brain trauma and he was a wide receiver (probably the least impacted position on the team besides kicker) who had never missed a game due to head injury as a pro or college player. If Seau’s autopsy is similar something dramatic is going to have to change in the game, because if his brain looks like Henry’s then we’ve got good evidence that the game is beating players to death, probably starting with their first tackle in peewee.
Who’s talking about banning football?