In some respects, it is kind of shocking this happened yet.  Especially in the old good roid era.  The rules seem to constantly evolve to try to make football safer and the padding and technology in helmets only seem to make things safer but it still seems inevitable.  But will the NFL and the whole of football do?  Already I have heard rumblings about less participation in football and more people in soccer due to concussions.  I would imagine a death would have more of a dramatic ripple effect than some rules changes and kids going to soccer.  I feel the impact would mean even more than say Dale Earnhart's death as NFL and football are more ingrained in the US culture.


How do you feel the first on field NFL death will impact the sport?

In the long run, a single death won't affect it.

Maybe if like a whole team's worth of people died in the span of a season there might be some cause for pause.

But the NFL seems as good as if not better than WWE at marching onward in the face of any kind of controversy.

Jan 4, 2018 22:05:00 GMT 🤯 said:

In the long run, a single death won't affect it.

Maybe if like a whole team's worth of people died in the span of a season there might be some cause for pause.

But the NFL seems as good as if not better than WWE at marching onward in the face of any kind of controversy.

Maybe not short-term, but the long term health of the sport is determined by the youth who are playing it. If significantly fewer kids are allowed to play football then there won’t be the talent base to supply the players and a death on field is just the thing that might get people thinking.

I don’t think one would do it on its own, but get enough Ryan Shazier’s in a season to go along with a death and the league will tank slowly but surely.

Jan 5, 2018 18:16:57 GMT mikec said:

Jan 4, 2018 22:05:00 GMT 🤯 said:

In the long run, a single death won't affect it.

Maybe if like a whole team's worth of people died in the span of a season there might be some cause for pause.

But the NFL seems as good as if not better than WWE at marching onward in the face of any kind of controversy.

Maybe not short-term, but the long term health of the sport is determined by the youth who are playing it. If significantly fewer kids are allowed to play football then there won’t be the talent base to supply the players and a death on field is just the thing that might get people thinking.

I don’t think one would do it on its own, but get enough Ryan Shazier’s in a season to go along with a death and the league will tank slowly but surely.

Eh, I doubt the talent pool would shrink that much. I'm not even convinced the quality of player would drop off that much.

As long as the NFL is overall offering a decent paycheck, plus the life of endorsement deals, plenty of kids and certain parents will continue to turn up to play. Physical consequences be damned.

And as long as people can still do their fantasy leagues and gamble, consumers will still consume.

Related data

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-football-youth-decline-met-20170904-story.html

www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/health/CTE-Reports-Impact-Future-of-Youth-Football-436639243.html?akmobile=o

Jan 5, 2018 19:45:14 GMT theend said:

Related data

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-football-youth-decline-met-20170904-story.html

www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/health/CTE-Reports-Impact-Future-of-Youth-Football-436639243.html?akmobile=o

Hard to Wade deep into those articles before popups fuck up my phone. Are they focused more regionally on youth football in the Chicago area and Connecticut? If so, declines there don't surprise me as much and also seem like they'd mean less.

A marked decline in football participation in Texas and Bible Belt states might give me cause for pause though.

🤯,
Over 1 million high school students played football in the 2015-16 season, according to an annual participation survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). But participation has steadily decreased since the 2008-09 season. The most recent report shows a 2.5 percent drop, or about 28,000 fewer players than nine years ago.

The report published July 25 by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that 177 of the 202 deceased football players had CTE. The disease was found in 110 of 111 brains from former NFL players; 48 of 53 college players; nine of 14 semi-professional players; seven of eight Canadian Football league players; and three of 14 high school players.

USA Football, the national governing body for amateur football, uses numbers provided in the Sports and Fitness Industry Association's Topline Participation Report for tackle and flag football, for players ages 6-17. The report’s trend since 2012 has shown a drop in enrollment by 1.7 percent, a smaller percentage decline than shown by the NFHS survey.

Jan 5, 2018 22:18:17 GMT theend said:

🤯,
Over 1 million high school students played football in the 2015-16 season, according to an annual participation survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). But participation has steadily decreased since the 2008-09 season. The most recent report shows a 2.5 percent drop, or about 28,000 fewer players than nine years ago.

The report published July 25 by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that 177 of the 202 deceased football players had CTE. The disease was found in 110 of 111 brains from former NFL players; 48 of 53 college players; nine of 14 semi-professional players; seven of eight Canadian Football league players; and three of 14 high school players.

USA Football, the national governing body for amateur football, uses numbers provided in the Sports and Fitness Industry Association's Topline Participation Report for tackle and flag football, for players ages 6-17. The report’s trend since 2012 has shown a drop in enrollment by 1.7 percent, a smaller percentage decline than shown by the NFHS survey.

EDIT: So I started this post on my phone last night, got interrupted, and never posted before going out. Now I keep getting distracted this morning. So apologies in advance if this ends up being a totally disjointed response. Anyway, without further ado...

Don't get me wrong... I don't doubt the incredible physical toll that football takes on the body, especially over the long term. And CTE and all the head-related stuff is a legit deal too.

I think between some of the recent football stuff but also the traumatic brain injuries coming out of the War on Terror has finally woken everyone up to the fact that our brains are important and pretty delicate organs.

That all said, I still don't think I see the NFL of football dying anytime soon... Even if there's an in-game death.

Those statistics you shared are interesting, and I'm wondering/guessing they're a national aggregate of some sort? If so, that makes sense to me. I can see big population centers like New York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, New England, California, Oregon, Seattle, and maybe even a Florida gradually starting to veer away from youth participation in football for noble reasons. But unless there's data showing a significant downward trend specifically in the states like Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, the Carolinas, Oklahoma, and really the rest of the Midwest... I'm still not presently convinced that the NCAA and NFL won't have plenty deep pool of potential players to keep feeding into the system.

Like I think you mentioned theend, football and the NFL is too ingrained. Way more than NASCAR, which wasn't killed when #3 died. In fact, I feel like football and the NFL are closer to being a true national pasttime at this point than baseball. The Super Bowl, for a variety of reasons, is a bigger/more important event to a wide swath of Americans... Seemingly even more so than the Olympics or presidential elections.

Now, being a believer that we're ultimately headed to a future that's a blend of the Matrix and Terminator, I wouldn't be surprised if "real" football dies at some point and is replaced -perhaps on all levels- by some elaborate Madden-like simulation.

I think an on-field football death is bound to happen (at pro or college levels) during a televised game. I remember Carson Palmer predicting that for most of his career.

On an unrelated note: I’m waiting for a pitcher to get killed from a line drive. I’m still amazed some of these guys have survived.

How nobodies died of boredom during Golf amazes me.