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PDF versionTime to look at football injuries
by Dennis Coday on Feb. 04, 2012
A favorite photo from my childhood shows me kneeling in our front yard, suited up in football pads and a red jersey, my hands resting on a helmet on my knee. I was 11 years old and a defensive tackle for the Redskins, champions of the fifth-sixth-grade bracket of the Mighty Might Football League. The trophy from that year still sits on a shelf in my mom’s sewing room.
I really wasn’t much of an athlete, but I did play football. All my brothers did. Most of friends did. It’s ingrained in our culture. Deeply ingrained.
Much good comes from football and sports in general. A good sports program can teach discipline and teamwork. A good sports program can build a young person’s sense of worth and sometimes save a troubled life. And playing and watching games are simply a lot of fun.
All of these are reasons to make us hesitant to examine the research linking football to severe brain damage. But we must look at these dire reports.
Purdue University research, for example, underscores the dangers of constant head collisions that don’t produce concussions. Some players endure as many as 950 hits a year, according to the researchers.
Though the percentage of players who sooner or later suffer mind disabilities ranging from chronic headaches to Alzheimer’s disease isn’t yet documented, evidence suggests it’s significant. Examination of large numbers of former National Football League players, for example, indicates that those between the ages 30 and 49 were 19 times more likely to show signs of Alzheimer’s than men of comparable age who hadn’t played.
The origins of the damage begin much earlier, of course, in high school and college, where the conventions of the game call for hitting hard and often. Eventually, the effects of competing over a stretch of years will be charted in stages, but at this point there is reason to believe that every stage exposes players to significant brain injury.
Catholic high schools and colleges have been most attentive to the frightening specter of collision and are taking steps to prevent the trauma and, in a major change from the tradition of sending players who have had their “bells rung” back into the game, to insist that victims remain out and get treated.
But as worthwhile as these measures are proving, the larger ethical question, whether risks to young men are so great they justify ending football programs, has been sidestepped by Catholic parents, educators and ethicists, which is where the real responsibility rests and not with coaches, athletic directors and trainers.
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The concern, of course, is universal, but it would seem the Catholic arena would be an especially apt place to consider the question, given the community’s high regard for protecting life in all its phases.
At stake is no less than the long-term physical and mental health of young Catholic men who naturally love the sport.
WWJD?
WWJD?
Take up Australian Football,
Take up Australian Football, fast, spectacular, no armour, head injuries and head contact rare by comparison with Rugby or American football. Leg and lower limb injuries common but not long term or life threatening. And the long and accurate kicking is a feature of the game.
All this current talk about
All this current talk about football injuries calls to mind my own participation for one year in organized football, for our Catholic grade school team. In those days, we used helmets which, for the most part, did not have face masks of any kind. It is a wonder we all were not walking around with our noses pushed to one side, or some teeth knocked out. I am fortunate I had no such injuries. And certainly I saw nothing like concussions. But there could have been. And I don't know what our good coach would have done about a serious injury. He was just a good guy who coached our football and basketball teams. In the desire to "just play a little football," maybe many of us were very lucky, or blessed.
The sport of football has
The sport of football has been overshadowed by the profit of football. It is epitomized by the Super Bowl, which has become the ultimate goal for professional teams. This has turned our school fields into ideal recruiting grounds, starting in high school and targeting college players. More funds are spent on coaches' salaries, equipment and grounds than is spent for teachers and actual education.
There are no results from football, only consequences. And the damage is not only physical, as medical studies are revealing. It is also moral as the scandal at Penn State exposed. Football is no longer a "sport." It has become a sanctioned match of gladiators that cons spectators and supporters into thinking they are promoting team spirit and loyalty. In reality, football has given us an event that can sell tickets for an average of $3,000, charge millions for TV commercial time sold by the second, encourage senseless and fanatical actions by fans, and give blatantly unconscionable profits to anonymous individuals.
I don't mean to demonize football. But the football of today is not the football of yesterday. It is not a sport anymore. It is for profit only. Perhaps we should take a time out and reassess not only the game plan, but the method and goal as well.
Paz y Bien, Rolando, SFO.
Remember the phase "foot, 200
Remember the phase "foot, 200 pounds"?
At one time, such a height / weight combination was rare and the individual was considered to be a large, powerful man. Today, potential football players start comprehensive diets, weight lifting and training at a very young age. By high school, students over more than 6 foot, 200 pounds are probably pretty common.
There are more people injured
There are more people injured in bathtub accidents than football games. Should we stop bathing? Let's face it: NCR readers are not athletes, so you can sell them this baloney, but no one else is going to take you seriously.
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