Posted on 05/05/2012 1:03:49 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
With the apparent suicide of NFL great Junior Seau, who played 20 years in the world's most violently glamorous sport, American football is dying.
It's about time. The nationally televised gambling and meat-rendering factory cannot survive without new players.
And the parents of future players are asking themselves this:
Is football worth it for my child?
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.chicagotribune.com ...
BTW, what ever happened to that call? I haven't seen a referee call that in years. I've seen the high/low called, but I think it's unnecessary roughness.
I’m sorry given what they wear, it’s for liability and legal issues. It’s foreplay, male (and lesbian) fantasy.
Babes, butts, and football.
To somehow look at lingerie football and conclude “Women play football too” just like the NFL, college, high school and younger leagues, well, you could just not be more wrong.
Seriously. Not the same beast, not the same planet.
They want to get rid of football because it’s the one American sport nobody else plays like we do, and the only people who play it here, are men. That’s the point. A few teams of model-thin women in lingerie and purple pads is not a whole country-wide system of boys to men growing up playing hard contact football.
The nationally televised gambling and meat-rendering factory cannot survive without new players.Headline may as well be, ex-NFL players INVENT SUICIDE!!!
You can't be a lumbering East German oaf and play NFL football.
It surprised me a little bit, but besides QBs, the "smartest" players are offensive linemen. They have to be, so that they can change plays on a dime when the QB calls for it. A good defense has to be smart, too to pick up on it. Nothing like a fantastic, intelligent, instinctive MLB like Brian Urlacher. The defensive line needs to be fast meaty hulks.
It’s the biggest reason players that look like studs in college don’t make it in the NFL, they don’t have the brains for it.
BTW, I HATE the Bears, but I respect their defense. Same as I respect the Steeler defense. But I also hate them.
Dick Butkus came out of Chicago. A manlier football player never lived.
There has been one death on the playing field in the history of the NFL, in 1970, Chuck Hughes, a receiver for the Detroit Lions collapsed on the field after a heart attack in a game against the Bears.....Butkus was the first to notice there was a problem and immediately signaled for help.
Lord what a cry baby
Junior had an erratic history
Well, there have been women's football games, but they have never been able to make a financial go of it.
How much do head injuries account for suicides among this group? I don't know if anyone has ever done a scientific study on it.
The intuitive feeling here is that the more important factor in these suicides is depression brought on by inadequate adjustments of former professional athletes to their post-athletic "real world" life, which frequently involves dealing with the sobering fact that they are no longer treated as "celebrities" by the world at large but rather looked at as ordinary guys with no special talents or skills to sell, and surely aren't enjoying anywhere near the same income they once did.
It's of utmost importance for parents, coaches, and advisors of high school and college athletes with professional potential to emphasize the importance of education and training for future careers outside of the sports world. The guess here is that most of these ex-athletes who committed suicide unfortunately did not take full advantage of their student experiences.
But this guy is a Major League Asshat.
Apparently there have been studied done and that is why they are doing an autopsy on his brain.
I don’t know about the direct correlation between concussions and depression. One possibility is that having your brains scrambled might cause or contribute to some form of early onset dementia and one aspect of dementia is depression. But I’m no medical expert and I wouldn’t know if this is what happened to Mr. Seau.
Many athletes are not prepared for life after their playing days are over. A number of years ago, there was a scandal wherein a football player sued his alma mater because, even though he had a degree, he was for all practical purposes illiterate. Talented athletes were wooed by universities desperate for a winning team (and the money which would come in as a result). The athlete was recruited, then passed through all four years regardless of whether he could actually do the course work. I don’t know how extensive this practice is today, but I suspect a number of athletes have degrees, but no education.
Additionally, these athletes make huge amounts of money nowadays, but instead of investing and saving wisely, they squander their fortune. So at 30 something when their careers are over and the money is gone, they are SOL. Perhaps money management should be a required course for athletes, but I wonder how many athletes would ignore the given advice and just blow their salaries on cars, houses, women and assorted hangers-on. P
I’m sorry for what happened to Mr. Seau. I hope athletes will wise up and be prepared for the day when their playing careers are finished.
Clipping is actually a block in the back below the waist, but you’re right, you don’t see it called that much anymore, it’s usually a block in the back.
If you watch some of the clip shows on NFL Network, you’ll notice 40 or so years ago, defenders would wrap around the waist where as today, you see alot more of defenders hitting in the upper chest/head.
He wants to play this sport and I support him 100% because if nothing else, he will have to deal with victory and defeat with his team. He will have to play as part of a team working with others. He will be hit, knocked over, and stand back up playing on, pretending as if the air hadn't just been knocked out of him. Life is full of failures and times we get knocked on our ass. Those that really make it are simply tenacious and can deal with defeat, work as part of a team, and can deal with true adversity that is pain staking, may it be in their education, career, business... The pain and combative component of football, lacrosse, wrestling, boxing, ice hockey is good for a young man.
Boys raised by over protective mothers and absent fathers, typically is the suburban yuppie areas end up being... well lets just say they play other sports like soccer or tennis where there is less concern of getting hurt and “violence.”
Show me where there are girls/women’s football leagues operating from pee-wee levels through college into the pros of hundreds of thousands of women playing football and getting scholarships and such to play football like boys and men do.
You can for soccer, golf, tennis, swimming, basketball, volleyball. NOT FOOTBALL.
Geez, just admit I have the damn point here. No other sport is like football here in that it’s really the last bastion of an all-male, all-American sport. There’s absolutely no lifelong mechanism for girls to play it from girls to women, through either schools or private leagues, and have a career in it.
Or just remain stubborn for the sake of being stubborn and refuse to see the obvious point I am making.
I'm not sure that basketball isn't a better vehicle for raisng a tough young man. I went to a small school where just about everybody played multiple sports. There's no pain to compare with the first day of basketball practice for a bunch of fellows just coming off the comparatively light conditioning demands of football.
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