"N.F.L. Shifts on Concussions, and Game May Never Be the Same"

[Sam3]

Unfortunately football will never disappear. There is too much money on the line, whether it is pro or college. Better to have those pawns... err... players permanently injured or destroyed than to give up the gold-pressed latinum.

[michaelb]

davester wrote:
As far as all athletic endeavors not being completely safe, that is absurd...american football is vastly more dangerous (to the brain especially) than almost every other sport. That is a false equivalency if I've ever heard one.

just wondering what is the basis for that statement? For youth sports, at least related to concussions from what I have seen, football is on the list with hockey, of course, but so is cheerleading and equestrian. And soccer. There really isn't a significant gap between the sports at the top, they all have a risk of concussions. For younger kids, bikes and scooters are above sports.

The NFL and even college football are potentially completely different, with small sample sizes for study, length of time playing to get there, huge bodies moving fast, and a potentially pervasive history of steroid and drug abuse.

[RgrF]

pRICE cUBE wrote:

It is scientifically proven that brains grow into fuller development by age 14.

I call bullsh it!
That may be the most uninformed statement ever made on this forum, Most brain capacity does not mature until age 19-21. If you think youth brains are fully mature at age 14 show the source for such an outrageous statement.

[numbered]

M A V I C wrote:
But boxing has a much higher rate of head injury. But everyone is upset at the NFL?

You are absolutely right about the boxing issue. The thing is that boxing went from a major sport where most schools had a program to something unsanctioned in schools.

I doubt football will disappear. The question is whether it will become like boxing. There will still be professional football, but will there be PeeWee/Pop Warner, high school, or college ball?

I know many parents who have decided to prevent their kids from playing the game.

[OWC Jamie]

RgrF wrote:
[quote=pRICE cUBE]

It is scientifically proven that brains grow into fuller development by age 14.

I call bullsh it!
That may be the most uninformed statement ever made on this forum, Most brain capacity does not mature until age 19-21. If you think youth brains are fully mature at age 14 show the source for such an outrageous statement.
He didn't claim matured, he wrote "fuller".
Maybe you should go back and read what he wrote before you start making the most absurd statements this forum has ever seen.

[Acer]

I recommend folks watch PBS Frontline: League of Denial
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/l...of-denial/

[pRICE cUBE]

RgrF wrote:
[quote=pRICE cUBE]

It is scientifically proven that brains grow into fuller development by age 14.

I call bullsh it!
That may be the most uninformed statement ever made on this forum, Most brain capacity does not mature until age 19-21. If you think youth brains are fully mature at age 14 show the source for such an outrageous statement.

Please read my statement again, brain development is fuller, not complete. This is based on recommendations by neurological experts. Experts such as such as Dr. Robert Cantu, a clinical professor of neurosurgery at the Boston University School of Medicine, are making this recommendation. I never said age 14 is ideal, but delaying tackling so that bodies are more developed, especially the neck and proportions, may help as indicated by these experts. Ultimately what needs to happen is adding improved safety measure and making people fully aware of the risks they take on when playing an injury riddled sport.

Time Magazine's story about Neuro Doctors delaying the age of tackling until age 14. http://ideas.time.com/2012/11/06/why-kid...-football/

Many Neuro Doctors saying age 14 might help: https://www.bing.com/search?q=14+footbal...ussion+age&pc=MOZI&form=MOZSBR

ESPN Story http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/85848...blows-head

At a FIFA-hosted international conference on concussions in sports, Robert Cantu urged the outlawing of tackling in football, heading in soccer and body-checking in ice hockey in youth matches.

"It's best not to have blows on the head under the age of 14," Cantu, from Boston University's medical school, told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the seminar. "The bottom line is that we need to make sports safer for our children."

"I am concerned about what we know about repetitive head trauma," Cantu told delegates, describing children under 14 as vulnerable to a "bobble-head doll effect" at an age when the head is disproportionately large for the relative strength of the neck.

"I am not anti-football -- I just want them to play flag football until the age of 14. I think, over time, it will happen," he told the AP.

Still, Cantu praised the Pop Warner League -- which organizes football up to age 16 -- for "marvelous" progress in acting this year to restrict full contact playing time in practices.

"It's American tackle football -- you can't take the tackling out," said Stanley Herring, a medical adviser to the youth league and the NFL. He helped promote legislation now adopted in 40 states requiring young athletes concussed in action to be cleared by a health care professional before returning to play.

[wurm]

It's not so much the occasional big hit that's the problem as the repetitive smaller ones. That's why some teams are eliminating tackling during practices. We may not see it in our lifetimes, but our kids' kids may be watching professional flag football (or not).
http://www.hngn.com/articles/184365/2016...lusive.htm