What made the NFL great is now killing the NFL

[PACardsFan]

PACardsFan: I don't know how old you are, but football is so huge in this country because of its team features and adapability to television. The huge hits have been around for a very, very long time. Just ask Deacon Jones. Or ask Fred Williamson. And those guys are relatively recent as well.

As to expecting personal attacks, that comes from making politically charged statements. When we see:

You open yourself up to criticism of your agenda.

And as a final point, people playing to the point of permanent impairment is not something I want in a sport. If my team has to play hampered for a week, that's a small price to pay for a man's well being. Besides, we're going to be the third seed in the NFC either way.

In following the news this week, the Global Warming argument was clearly discredited and certain individuals are facing possible jail time for tinkering with data. I don't have an agenda, I simply debunk those that do. As far as football is concerned, I partially agree that certain hits have been around for a long time, but not with the regularity as we see today. Nor were those players as big, fast or strong as they are today. I've been following the NFL since 1964, so I've seen my fair share of football over the years.

 

[SuperSpck]

Victimization and femininity shouldn't be equated. Plenty of tough guys and girls. Plenty of weak ones too. Depends more on the person then the gender.

Correlation is not causation.

For the record, I'd rather have busted knees than busted brains.
Of course, if you can avoid both then you're the real winner.

 

[lauraw]

The Kevlar idea has merit.. It would spread the shock of impact over a greater area, wouldn't it?

 

[conraddobler]

The Kevlar idea has merit.. It would spread the shock of impact over a greater area, wouldn't it?

Yes to a small degree but it's not going to add to the impact.

Padded vs brick hard.

That's why they put sand barrells in the median to slow a car that gets out of control not brick walls.

The thing is they'd look funny and it'd be hard to put a face mask on them although I'm sure one could be designed but it would at first at least look goofy as heck.

I am pretty sure it'd drastically reduce some injuries but the turf is also a big factor.

That turf in St louis is very unforgiving, I've walked around on it when my daughter had a band concert there, it's basically concrete with a little padding.

Some of the newer artificial stuff is more acceptable but I still haven't seen anything that beats just regular grass.

 

[conraddobler]

Improving equipment will solve nothing. As equipment improves, players will just hit harder and more violently because they feel protected and safe underneath the latest padding and gear. The same goes for cars with seat belts airbags and other safety devices; People drive faster and more carelessly. The solution to the problem would be to take off the padding and helmets and go at it rugby style. I guarantee you won't see players launching themselves at the opposition like missiles anymore.

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=117102

When you take an athlete of that caliber the pinacle of physical specimens and add in the factor of hitting to win a game the only thing you can do is pad them IMO.

You wouldn't encase a boxers fist in hard plastic then give them hard plastic helmets would you?

I mean that would be silly and that's essentially what we've done to football players only it's even worse since they use their whole body to attack each other at speed.

Leather helmets and such prevent the massive forces from building up but don't solve other problems.

Essentially these guys are recreating a car accident every play, just depends on how it plays out to avoid serious injury.

The toll that takes over time is proven out by my namesake who's so crippled it's heartbreaking.

We've developed so far in technology I can't for the life of me believe if we really wanted to make a huge difference we couldn't.

I totally don't accept that.

Two sets of deadening padding colliding would IMO drastically reduce the forces involved, it would't be perfect, it's not completely ever going to be safe to have a 300 lb guy who runs about a 5 o forty trucking you.

Padding and real grass IMO would cut it way down.

Even kids can put on vicious hits, I've done it and have had it done to me, it's like the perfect golf swing, you know it when you do it and it'll flatten someone.

The sound and crunch it makes is just a function of physics and if you do it just right you will injure someone, it's like getting hit by a truck and the so called equipment only magnifies it.