Posted on 12/01/2013 8:03:42 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
For Eddie Mason, the decision wasn’t difficult. The NFL veteran’s 10-year-old son, Tyler, won’t play tackle football until high school.
Mr. Mason’s decision wasn’t a result of the burgeoning national discussion about football’s role in brain injuries. Instead, he believes children should learn the game’s fundamentals without tackling. Mr. Mason, who played three seasons at linebacker for the Redskins before retiring in 2003, sees a problematic culture infecting football’s lowest levels that’s inextricably connected to the safety concerns.
“This brash kind of mindset, the underdog mindset,” Mr. Mason said, “this hard-core attitude kind of deal about who hits the hardest [is part of the issue]. If you look back over the last eight to 10 years, players showing up in the NFL are technically unsound. We’re eight to 10 years behind developing fundamentals for how to play the sport.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Yeah! If some 8 year old boy can’t handle a full-borne tackle from a 300lb full-back, he should go home.
Yes, but players who know they would be at more risk of being injured will not try for a hit that is more than what is needed to knock somebody off their feet.
I don’t know if a better helmet would help, because the sudden movement from a tackle would still cause the brain to bounce around in the skull.
I think rugby is a far better game anyway. Just as rough as football, and no protection whatsoever. And more fun to watch.
No way close to the NFL.
The collapse of the Black family. White kids still play baseball though. And you're forgetting the Hispanics.
No way close to the financial reward of playing in the NFL either. I always advise boys and young men to play until their second major injury and to then hang up the cleats.
I've played organized sports and learned some lessons well, but it was obvious to me even at a young age that I had to set my own expectations instead of meeting someone else's. I like to think that I hold myself to a higher standard than anyone else holds me to -- and a lot of that relates to one basic tenet of playing "pickup sports" even though no adults are involved: I need to play well not just for me, but for my teammates.
Finally, saying you gave it your best is a convenient excuse to not give it your best. Give it your all, each and every day, on the field or wherever, and if you lose, don't make excuses. Instead of saying, "I did my best", say "I'll have to do better next time".
The problem with organized sports for young kids (I'd say this includes kids up until around high school age) is that they don't have an effective mechanism for "natural selection" that is necessary for kids in that age group. I played organized sports and hated it because leagues were organized only by age. As a result, you invariably faced situations where kids played as teammates and opponents even though they had no business playing on the same field. Outside of the organized sports, we would naturally gravitate to groups that included a wider age range but a much narrower band of skills. You can tell me that this doesn't prepare kids for adulthood, but I strongly disagree with you. Putting a sub-average kid on the same team as a prodigy doesn't do either one of them any good, any more than sending out your best truck driver on a long-haul trip with a fellow driver who is mentally retarded.
Something that really hit home with me some years ago was a TV interview with Wayne Gretzky in which he described his background as a young hockey player. He was very diplomatic about it and made a point of being gracious about the adults who volunteered their time as coaches when he was a kid, but he also made it clear that what really made him an exceptional player wasn't the time he played in organized leagues ... it was the endless hours he spent after school and on weekends playing on the hockey rink his father had built in his back yard.
He said the exact same thing that Ken Dryden pointed out in his book a couple of decades earlier: "Coaching" has a way of taking the enjoyment out of sports for young kids.
Make them play without helmets. That’s original football. The current helmet ruined the game.
Yeah...not worth it. Not to mention all the anger motivation that exists in the NFL. It looks pretty ugly from a Christian viewers perspective at times, how players gloat over a downed competitor.
Yup. I still suffer from three blown out discs from one play in a high school practice. I toughed it out and played though college. Not sure if I would do it again.
“... Uh...BZZZZZZZZZZZT! Wrong...I served in the Cav, ...
BTW, don’t tell members of the 1st Cavalry Division Horse Detachment that the horse cav was deactivated in 1943. They’ll wonder what they’ve been doing, riding horses all these years. ...”
Sundry USA units might pride themselves on inserting the word “cavalry” into regimental designations, but (as wku man conceded) those outfits have been equipped with mechanized vehicles for more than a couple generations. Not the same thing.
Anyone who fancies that First Cav’s Horse Det contributes something beyond morale/heritage augmentation or ceremonial frippery ought to recheck their calendar.
In early 1981 - some years before motivational posters grew trendy - I chanced across a poster adorning the desk of a colleague. On it was printed a memorable aphorism: “Every country should have two armies: one for the parade ground, and one for the battlefield. That second army is the one in which I’d like to fight.”
“...I have my spurs, too.... It’s a Cav thing...if you were never in the Cav, you wouldn’t understand. ...”
wku man is not exactly the first poster I’ve encountered, who insists I cannot possibly “understand” because I didn’t share much of his duty history. I concede the point. None of which answers the key question, about who’s doing the better job of grasping the overall military situation, or the details.
I could write more than an encyclopedia, on what some folks think they understand but don’t, concerning the military. Some of it would be very funny, but a depressingly large fraction would be less than pleasant. I’ll refrain; I’ve no wish to bore the forum into a coma. Besides, obtaining publication approval from the special security offices (yes, I’d have to seek permission from more than one) would be the dreariest hassle.
In defense, I will rely on Winston Spencer Churchill. Summing up the impotence of horse cavalry during the Great War, he observed that on its battlefields, the only thing horse soldiers could actually see through to completion was to cook rice for the infantry.
You can spout off all the stuff from encyclopedias you want, but the basic fact remains: I did it, and you read about it. See you in Fiddler's Green. Oh wait, you were never Cav, so you won't be allowed in.
Fiddler's Green
[Verse 1]
Halfway down the trail to Hell
In a shady meadow green
Are the Souls of all dead Troopers camped
Near a good old-time canteen,
And this eternal resting place is
know as Fiddlers' Green
[Verse 2]
Marching past straight through to Hell
The Infantry are seen
Accompanied by the Engineers,
Artillery and Marines,
For none but the shades of Cavalrymen
Dismount at Fiddlers' Green
[Verse 3]
Though some go curving down the trail
To seek a warmer scene,
No Trooper ever gets to Hell
Ere he's emptied his canteen.
And so rides back to drink again
With friends at Fiddlers' Green
[Verse 4]
And so when man and horse go down
Beneath a sabre keen,
Or on roaring charge of fierce melee
You stop a bullet clean.
And the hostiles come to get your scalp
Just empty your canteen,
And put your pistol to your head
And go to Fiddlers' Green.
SCOUTS OUT! CAVALRY HO!
Football is dead, it has maybe one generation left.
Fixed.
Thought I was the only one that experienced that ...
If you’re on the line, flag football is real football without helmets or pads. At least it was the way we played it.
I loved the games HATED practice. Football practice is like boot camp, but you never graduate.
That’s what I meant!
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