Posted on 07/27/2017 8:37:25 PM PDT by Rockitz
Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel has quit the NFL just days after the world's biggest study into a degenerative brain disease showed that it affects 99 per cent of players.
The study, which was announced on Tuesday, found that out 111 NFL players' brains examined by Boston University, 110 showed signs of damage due to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
That news so shook Urschel - who is studying for a mathematics PhD at MIT in the off-season - that he quit on Thursday, a friend told ESPN.
Urschel, who is 26, is studying spectral graph theory, numerical linear algebra and machine learning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He has already published six peer-reviewed mathematics papers and has three more that have yet to be reviewed. He's also an avid - and talented - chess player.
The player has previously complained of having his mathematical skills impaired by concussion, but until now he has maintained that he loves the sport too much to quit.
But on Thursday, just before practice, he turned in his notice without making a statement. He had been expected to compete at training camp for the position of starting center.
A friend told ESPN his decision was linked to the report.
'This morning John Urschel informed me of his decision to retire from football,' coach John Harbaugh said in a statement.
'We respect John and respect his decision. We appreciate his efforts over the past three years and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
No kidding. A college teammate of mine was on the preseason roster of the Oilers one year and was on a plane ride out to CA to play the Rams. He was reading a book on the plane and was asked by multiple players why would he read a book. My friend spent a lot of time with the kickers that training camp. He made it until the final cut and now works in the medical field.
It certainly does NOT imply or even come close to suggesting that 99% of football players will suffer from the disease.
I think he understands it better than you do.
He never said there was a 99% chance of him developing CTE.
His actions say that the chances of him developing CTE if he keeps on playing football are higher than he wants to take. If we were talking about my brain, that would be somewhere around 0.001% as an acceptable risk.
"Right now, I spend most of my time thinking about graph theory, machine learning, and numerical analysis."
Hopefully, he will also find some time to think about investing his football money and about applying math to same.
Do you think Rush will be talking about this on today's Open Lines Friday?
Then you’d have to call it something other than FOOTball. And handball is taken.
“I abandoned the NFL completely last year, along with many friends. NFL leftists sure picked a bad year to give millions of angry white men more free time with Trump as apresidential hopeful.”
Same here. Once they started WEARING PINK, that was it for me. Football was a MAN’S sport, for REAL MEN. And REAL MEN simply don’t wear pink.
When he predicted this, I doubted him. Sorry Rush!
“Good for him. Better to have your brain and no money than not have it and lots of money.”
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/baltimore-ravens/john-urschel-14586/cash-earnings/
It is so encouraging to hear that a young man is so intelligent and grounded. There are so many degenerates and felons in the league, and hearing his story is uplifting.
He even has a great sense of humor. He made fun of the little car he drives.
> Time to short sell your NFL team? Yep!
They’ll NEVER run out of large guys willing to take a hit for a large paycheck.
If they went back to leather helmets,would the NFL have fewer concussions.. ?
The 111 brains studied also came from players who are dead (one figures ...) rather than those still alive. They are, therefore, not wholly representative of all football-players' brains.
Nonetheless, that's a startling result, and I can entirely understand a man's deciding to do something else with his life.
The math for anyone who has any other option in life is pretty simple: You have exactly one brain, but more than one way to make a living.
Kinda like ice time in the NHL.
Doctor/Mechanic, please help me!
What is wrong.
My car. It has dents all over it.
Doctor: must be your family history. Take these drugs.
Mechanic : put down your hammer.
I wonder what the concussion rates are in Rugby — the forerunner of football? My impression is that these guys don’t intentionally tackle with their heads. But then they generally don’t push runners out of bounds or chop their legs either — they wrap up the runner.
Taking the foot out of football would be like taking putting out of Golf. You’d still have a game, but you’d take a lot of the drama out of it.
Hardly, this guy is the exception not the rule. Your typical pro football player is not a phd candidate... There will always be those willing to take the risk for the big payday because they know it’s the only shot they have at that kind of money.
Football dies when moms and dads refuse to let their young kids start playing it... Not when a few stop playing it in their 20s.
The NFL admitted long ago they knew about 30% of their retired players would go on to have cognitive issues... Yes the sampling may be a bit biased by those brains left especially for the purpose to be examined, but if you think CTE is a rare condition for someone who spends years treating their heads like a crash test dummy’s you are in denial.
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