Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The obsession with safety is not healthy.

Nor is the systematic exploitation of a minority group for financial gain.

Somewhere between these two extremes is where we should be but we've got a long way to go.

Just like the systematic exploitation of a minority group for financial gain in basketball? Half the coaches are Black and Black players are making $30 million a year?

Most of us work for the financial gain of someone else. And we don’t even make millions doing it.

Anonymous wrote:The obsession with safety is not healthy.

Nor is the systematic exploitation of a minority group for financial gain.

Somewhere between these two extremes is where we should be but we've got a long way to go.

The obsession with safety is not healthy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was thinking yesterday how Blacks are taking over football due to more opportunity for them to play and frequently more ability. For some Black kids (right or wrong) it's a way out of a life of poverty and they take it. Teams used to be majority white, now they are majority Black. Coaching is now on the same trajectory as more Black players with experience become qualified to coach.

This completely false and part of the problem.

You can start here:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/investigation-looks-into-lack-of-opportunities-for-black-nfl-coaches

The Rooney rule was always a pretend solutions and has failed. The NFL owners have no solution to proffer - pretend or otherwise.

Interesting. I see far more Black coaches now than before. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that just as with the rise of Black players, with time the coaches would catch up and probably dominate.

Fifty percent of NBA coaches are Black including the best team in America, the coach for the Celtics. Baseball is dominated by Latinos and the Red Sox now have a head manager who’s Latino, Alex Cora. Let’s not forget hockey. There are currently 4 NHL Black coaches.

Football needs to catch up with their coaches. They are starting to represent when the old guys finally retire. Bellichik left at like 75 years old and the new head coach is Jerod Mayo a Black former Patriots player who is in his 30’s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course there is a direct relation between CTE and football:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-football-raises-risk-chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy

You forgot the other sport that has a direction relation - soccer.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37403989/

They are not even close to being the same risk/exposure to adverse long term brain health/CTE.

How much risk is ok for you? Especially a no helmet sport.

Almost all sports will have some sort of risk associated. The unique and serious risk with football is related to long term brain health / CTE. It is the standout in team sports this regard. That is not to say it isn't other sports are completely absent of this, it's just that risk in football dwarfs all others.

American football is unique in that the contact and collisions are a core part of the game whereas a game like soccer the contact is secondary/incidental and infrequent.

Here is some interesting recent research:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37340004/

Quoted from Mass General Study …


“The new data could provide football with a playbook to prevent CTE in current and future players, according to researchers.

“This study suggests that we could reduce CTE risk through changes to how football players practice and play,” said study lead author Dan Daneshvar, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Physician at Mass General Brigham affiliate Spaulding Rehabilitation. “If we cut both the number of head impacts and the force of those hits in practice and games, we could lower the odds that athletes develop CTE.””

This does not mean a handful of concussions, in the absence of other hits to the head, puts you at risk for CTE; most people diagnosed with CTE suffered hundreds or thousands of head impacts over the course of many years playing contact sports or serving in the military.


The NFL could virtually end CTE by changing some tackle rules, improving helmets, not allow players to keep playing when they’ve suffered a severe head injury and mandatory retirement at 35 years old. They should also require the NFL to pay for ex-players health insurance until Medicare eligibility.

Football is not going away. Americans love it like Brazilians love their soccer.

I’m so happy the NFL games are back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was thinking yesterday how Blacks are taking over football due to more opportunity for them to play and frequently more ability. For some Black kids (right or wrong) it's a way out of a life of poverty and they take it. Teams used to be majority white, now they are majority Black. Coaching is now on the same trajectory as more Black players with experience become qualified to coach.

This completely false and part of the problem.

You can start here:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/investigation-looks-into-lack-of-opportunities-for-black-nfl-coaches

The Rooney rule was always a pretend solutions and has failed. The NFL owners have no solution to proffer - pretend or otherwise.

Interesting. I see far more Black coaches now than before. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that just as with the rise of Black players, with time the coaches would catch up and probably dominate.

Eventually I think there will be better representation but right now, they have a higher bar just to get a chance and then are fired much more quickly than than their white counterparts, circumstances being similar.

It's the same American story we see elsewhere, so no surprise here.

The "crime" is that the players, who are majority minority, suffer the consequence of impaired long term brain health/CTE while not being afforded the same opportunities in coaching and management, which, obviously, don't carry these extreme health risks.

It's a "stay in the field, boy" mentality / plantation mind-set that the league and owners just won't get away from.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was thinking yesterday how Blacks are taking over football due to more opportunity for them to play and frequently more ability. For some Black kids (right or wrong) it's a way out of a life of poverty and they take it. Teams used to be majority white, now they are majority Black. Coaching is now on the same trajectory as more Black players with experience become qualified to coach.

This completely false and part of the problem.

You can start here:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/investigation-looks-into-lack-of-opportunities-for-black-nfl-coaches

The Rooney rule was always a pretend solutions and has failed. The NFL owners have no solution to proffer - pretend or otherwise.

Interesting. I see far more Black coaches now than before. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that just as with the rise of Black players, with time the coaches would catch up and probably dominate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was thinking yesterday how Blacks are taking over football due to more opportunity for them to play and frequently more ability. For some Black kids (right or wrong) it's a way out of a life of poverty and they take it. Teams used to be majority white, now they are majority Black. Coaching is now on the same trajectory as more Black players with experience become qualified to coach.

Why wouldn’t a kid who loves the game go for playing a game that pays millions of dollars a year? They are taking more precautions to avoid concussions and they have a ways to go but to claim it’s the only way to crawl out of poverty for Black people is ridiculous.

I certainly didn't mean that it is the ONLY way. But it is ONE way "to crawl out of poverty." As a result, no one (not many??) is talking to them about potential brain issues for the longterm. First and foremost, I agree any kid going for football sees it as a way to achieve fame and fortune.

My only point was that anecdotally there are far more Black players than White players today, where it used to be far more White players than Black players in the past.

I was primarily thinking in general how many things shift over time. Football players being one example.

Anonymous wrote:I was thinking yesterday how Blacks are taking over football due to more opportunity for them to play and frequently more ability. For some Black kids (right or wrong) it's a way out of a life of poverty and they take it. Teams used to be majority white, now they are majority Black. Coaching is now on the same trajectory as more Black players with experience become qualified to coach.

This completely false and part of the problem.

You can start here:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/investigation-looks-into-lack-of-opportunities-for-black-nfl-coaches

The Rooney rule was always a pretend solutions and has failed. The NFL owners have no solution to proffer - pretend or otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course there is a direct relation between CTE and football:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-football-raises-risk-chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy

You forgot the other sport that has a direction relation - soccer.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37403989/

They are not even close to being the same risk/exposure to adverse long term brain health/CTE.

How much risk is ok for you? Especially a no helmet sport.

Almost all sports will have some sort of risk associated. The unique and serious risk with football is related to long term brain health / CTE. It is the standout in team sports this regard. That is not to say it isn't other sports are completely absent of this, it's just that risk in football dwarfs all others.

American football is unique in that the contact and collisions are a core part of the game whereas a game like soccer the contact is secondary/incidental and infrequent.

Here is some interesting recent research:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37340004/

Anonymous wrote:I was thinking yesterday how Blacks are taking over football due to more opportunity for them to play and frequently more ability. For some Black kids (right or wrong) it's a way out of a life of poverty and they take it. Teams used to be majority white, now they are majority Black. Coaching is now on the same trajectory as more Black players with experience become qualified to coach.

Why wouldn’t a kid who loves the game go for playing a game that pays millions of dollars a year? They are taking more precautions to avoid concussions and they have a ways to go but to claim it’s the only way to crawl out of poverty for Black people is ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the NFL is gross for all kinds of reasons including that it promotes a culture of hard hitting tackle football that trickles down to middle school boys and is damaging brains with every hit, not just concussions. It's a gross sport that normalizes male violence (Travis Kelce attacking his 65 year old coach?!?!?) and is full of criminals to boot - domestic abusers and the whole gamut of disgusting entitled male behavior.

But dying? I don't think so. It's an insanely lucrative industry and seems to be getting more and more popular despite all the revelations about CTE.

Nothing in our national culture disheartens me more than the popularity of NFL. I feel so alienated from it, and sickened by it. I wish it would go away but I don't have any expectation that it ever will.

Seriously? You really need to pay closer attention to current events.

I was thinking yesterday how Blacks are taking over football due to more opportunity for them to play and frequently more ability. For some Black kids (right or wrong) it's a way out of a life of poverty and they take it. Teams used to be majority white, now they are majority Black. Coaching is now on the same trajectory as more Black players with experience become qualified to coach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the NFL is gross for all kinds of reasons including that it promotes a culture of hard hitting tackle football that trickles down to middle school boys and is damaging brains with every hit, not just concussions. It's a gross sport that normalizes male violence (Travis Kelce attacking his 65 year old coach?!?!?) and is full of criminals to boot - domestic abusers and the whole gamut of disgusting entitled male behavior.

But dying? I don't think so. It's an insanely lucrative industry and seems to be getting more and more popular despite all the revelations about CTE.

Nothing in our national culture disheartens me more than the popularity of NFL. I feel so alienated from it, and sickened by it. I wish it would go away but I don't have any expectation that it ever will.

I feel the same.

Awesome. Then don't watch. Millions of people feel differently.