Is it or are we headed to ever greater gladiatorial action in this sport and others to satisfy a growing populist blood lust? Something we can someday only see on cable perhaps? I read the newspapers, although admittedly not the sports pages, but even so I had no idea these questions could be asked.
Everybody knows that brain damage is a growing problem in the NFL but did you know this stuff?
Sunday, Aug. 05, 2012
Football’s Big Problem
By George F. Will - Washington Post
For all players who play five or more years, life expectancy is less than 60; for linemen it is much less.
· This is about high early mortality rates among linemen resulting from cardiovascular disease, not brain damage or suicide.
· In 1980, only three NFL players weighed 300 or more pounds. In 2011, there were 352 – all but one of the NFL’s 32 offensive lines averaged more than 300 pounds.
I also love Will’s understated disgust with our tort system. 3,000 plaintiffs – former players, spouses, relatives – filed a lawsuit charging that the NFL inadequately acted on knowledge it had, or should have had, about hazards such as CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy]. The NFL lied to these guys? Nobody but the NFL knew that weighing 300 pounds is a health risk?
“We are rapidly reaching the point where playing football is like smoking cigarettes: The risks are well-known. Not that this has prevented smokers from successfully suing tobacco companies.” How in the world can we let people bring these suits, let alone win them?
I have to mention the wonderful, gratuitous, Will swipe at “this age of bubble-wrapped children”. But bubble-wrap or not, we all know he’s right – mom’s have been steering their sons toward the other “football” for some time now. Our baseball talent already comes from abroad – perhaps football can last longer if we use players from places where the life expectancy matches pro ball.
This Will version of football’s problems was a revelation to me.
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