That photo of No. 17 sure as heck embodies the intent of the originators of the game. Leave broken heads and bodies on the field.
What a model pose for a Frank Frazetta painting of a Valkryie wielding a war hammer or axe.
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 ...
So how do you explain why kids no longer play baseball in nearly the numbers they used to?
I blame ESPN. They all want to be on "SportsCenter." You even hear the SportsCenter theme song over the PA when someone makes such a hit.
Don't blame them at all. And you are seeing a lot more Americans playing soccer overseas now. Ironically though, the NFL is expanding their games in London.
“....when a child is injured, daddy isn’t hurt at all physically. He can still “live vicariously” sitting in front of his TV farting and drinking beer watching a bunch of overpaid minorities kick the $hit out of each other. Rah, rah!”
“I reply that I have no opinion since I don’t watch sports.”
Same here. Whether the Broncos or the Steelers win, how does that affect the price of gasoline?
Dad never pressured me about football but he wanted me in a team sport. So I joined the rifle team & being an infantry soldier he kind of liked that and said, “Son,
“Never in modern warfare has an enemy soldier been killed by a football, basketball, baseball, soccer ball, volleyball, or tennis ball. This has always been the work of a trained rifleman.”
So when my draft number came up (8) for Vietnam, I volunteered & became a helicopter pilot & carried many infantry soldiers in & out of combat. But that’s another story.
There is no helmet that protects your brain against a concussion. As simple as that.
That photo of No. 17 sure as heck embodies the intent of the originators of the game. Leave broken heads and bodies on the field.
What a model pose for a Frank Frazetta painting of a Valkryie wielding a war hammer or axe.
You don't live in the country, do you? Rest assured, from Idaho to Indiana, 14-year olds do operate expensive farm machinery.
But that's not the point...Generation X parents are getting scared because of a few widely publicized stories of some kid getting hurt playing Little League, Pop Warner, or high school football. Serious injuries at that level are few and far between -- just recently, a kid playing for Kuna High here in the Boise area broke his neck on the field. It was the first serious injury in high school football since I got here 10 years ago! Yet the local media, of which I used to be a part, are (purposefully?) hammering the story hard, so as to give the impression that kids are dropping like flies on the field, when they're not! There's an agenda to be pushed, you see, and Generation X (my generation) parents are falling for it like the chumps they are.
I have no use for professional sports, and aside from NCAA basketball, which I love, no use for college sports as well. But I firmly believe Little League, Pop Warner, church league and high school sports teach valuable lessons that kids can draw upon throughout their lives. Among them are how to handle defeat, and that life ain't fair! I was in scouting, high school band, speech and drama club, Student Council, and so on, but the lessons I learned on the field or on the court were among the most poignant ever. Yeah, sports are important for kids.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
And those of us who played baseball all summer in the school yard ended up better players than those who just played in Little League.
That’s an interesting theory — I hadn’t heard that before!
You already said that, and I already answered.
Did you play football? I played for 6 years. 4 HS, 2 college and finally quit after my second knee surgery. I’m 43 years old and feel the effects every day. I don’t know how many concussions I suffered, but at least 5. One was bad enough that I saw “double” for a few days. I kept playing after that hit, sitting out a few plays. I was an inside linebacker, not a position you show weakness while playing. Now I have 3 sons. I will not let any of them play before HS. And even when they reach HS I won’t push it. I also wrestled for 6 years. That’s the sport I will encourage. Kids aren’t wimps if they don’t play football.
There wasn’t very many kids staying up to watch the Tonight show. ESPN is the damn devil, They have given us the greatest farce in the history of sport; the BCS. ESPN in my opinion has done more to hurt Football at the college and NFL levels than anyone.
“... Oh my gosh, we won’t even get into how dangerous a military career would be...
This is absolutely ridiculous. Dammit, life is dangerous! How the hell is this generation of teacup kids supposed to ever function as adults, in a world that’s out to kill them?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!”
Life is irreducibly dangerous.
But no one knows how low the dangers can be reduced, nor what unforeseen consequences might attend to reductions: we’re still arguing over the impact of past decreases. Is all of it ridiculous? Should we do more, or should we reverse the trends? The only thing we really know is that life isn’t as dangerous as it used to be.
Sports infuse an otherwise-dull, risk-poor existence with some real risk (for some participants), and provide entertainment (with the illusion of danger) for onlookers.
After putting in 29 years in uniform, I must note (only parenthetically) that the negative aspects of organized competitive team sports balance or outweigh the positive aspects, for the professional military.
Our popular culture has not yet figured out that we no longer live in the 19th century (we cannot live in the 20th century either): the concepts of teamwork and (honorable) competition have great merit, but in the electronic media era we inhabit now, stardom and celebrity culture have done in most of those ideals (thanks to other cultural trends, “honor” has departed too). That’s without the adverse effects of spectatorism ... TV has become so convenient and all-pervading that most watchers just assume they’re participants. Other posters have noticed the trend.
Military leaders rarely resist sports metaphors when exhorting, haranguing, or merely mixing with the troops. It’s (mostly) OK to go with what the masses know, but the truly dangerous trend here is an unspoken assumption that opponents grasp “the rules” and agree to them. This has not been true in warfare since 1800 at least; some participants noted it during the American Civil War, but most history buffs date the worst declines to World War I.
To judge by the last line posted, wku man has not learned that the horse cavalry was formally inactivated in 1943. Events moved rather more slowly in those days; horse soldiering was on life support since the 1870s, but the warning signs were available a generation earlier.
I used to sneer at soccer, especially when they would have a 0-0 draw. But as I’ve learned more about it by watching with my kid, I’ve come to appreciate it a lot more. Just like a 1-0 pitcher’s duel in baseball can be thrilling if you’re a student of the game and not just a slack-jawed spectator. I like that there is a place for relatively small guys to make a big contribution. Some of them are amazingly skilled athletes.
It’s much better when you get vested in a team and follow, I’ve done that with Everton, and now with nbcsports showing every Premier League game live, I can watch all their games.
Thug culture and moms
And less masculine white boys
That is why its waning
That's the entire point of this push for anti-violence and anti-bullying.
The goal:
To produce generations of swishy boy/men who are utterly incapable of defending themselves, their families ( if they can figure out how to form one), and their nation.
By the way....Have you noticed the nearly universal hairless chests on male actors in the last few years? ( They are males. Not men.)
At this rate, brain rocket surgeons will be out of business in no time at all!
that's the way it should be... raised four kids that way and life was much easier
He told his coach that he was going to miss a practice to go hunting with a man from church, a rare treat. He was chewed out viciously. The level of chewing out on the team was grim in general.
Finally in his last season he said, I don't want to do this anymore, I have a lot of things I like to do, dirt bike, hunt, fish and see friends. I lose it all to football. I don't want this sort of life. It is not that important to me. Made sense to me.
These are kids and it is a game. Many kids left that year, most recruited by the soccer team where they were not verbally abused and had a life schedule that was not pretending that any of the kids had an actually career in soccer.
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