In today's (2/11) Express News. Simply, the writer is bringing up the scenario that the risk of law suits for long-term brain injury by young men years and years later is going to make the cost of playing football too high for pee-wee, school, and at some point college programs, which will dry up the pool of professional athletes. Not to mention the liability equipment (read helmet) makers aren't going to want to absorb, either.

Wasn't it Shakespeare who said, "Kill all the lawyers?"

http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/art ... 305781.php

Could head injuries threaten football's future?

By Douglas Pils
San Antonio Express News

Eight years from now, we should be witnesses to a grand celebration of the NFL's 100th anniversary, even though it was called the American Professional Football Association from 1920-21.

We'll update the 75th anniversary team, and honor dynasties whose coaches don't need first names — Lambeau, Lombardi, Halas, Noll, Landry, Walsh and Belichick.

Now, imagine at the same time we already notice America's grand billion dollar sport slipping away from us.

The reasons come down to simple economics and good health.

Our nation's top athletes are starting to play other sports because brain injury and the lifelong effects of bashing your head into another human being have made football too expensive, both in dollars and lives.

Two economists, Tyler Cowen and Kevin Grier, collaborated on an article that hit Grantland.com on Friday that asked a dramatic question — “What would the end of football look like?”

Their hypothesis is this: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the rise of liability lawsuits over head injuries eventually makes it impossible for insurance companies to insure colleges and high schools against similar lawsuits.

It's at those levels where kids with brains not yet fully developed are incurring the most damage with little or nothing to show for it but glory days to reminisce.

With fewer teams to play for, basketball and baseball see an influx of talent, and some turn to alternatives such as lacrosse or soccer.

Football talent dries up. Conferences where football doesn't define most of their universities' mission — Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC, Ivy and other East Coast schools — drop the sport.

Advertisers spend their dollars elsewhere. That shrinks cable TV deals, and fewer people, nationally at least, will watch a diminishing product.

For many, that's a scary theory, and it sounds like science fiction.

But think about who could be at the forefront of this revolution — parents. They are the ones to decide if sending their boys to the field because that's what we've always done is really worth it.

The article posits that football will be left to those in the southeast, Texas and Oklahoma, essentially becoming a game played by the poor, those from broken and uneducated homes and foreigners.

Aside from the sport becoming a regional affair, that sounds like characteristics of athletes in another sport where support has waned over the past century: boxing.

Back to the issue of parents: I have no doubt the sport helped me, giving me lifelong friends and extra parents in coaches who kept me out of trouble when trouble was there for the taking.

I took my share of blows to the head in nine years of playing; the worst when a junior varsity tight end ran a practice route over the middle that the varsity linebacker knew was coming. And not long after some smelling salts, we were usually right back out there.

We laugh about those moments now. But are some of those brain-rattling hits the reason for our memory lapses, or is it just us getting older?

I'm one who thought poorly of people who said they would never let their kids play football.

Now, as evidence mounts to the dangers of young minds in a helmet meant to protect the skull but little of the brain that slams around inside, that thought changes.

Like one of my former teammates wrote after reading the Grantland article, we're glad our boys are more interested in baseball and basketball.

Does that make us leaders in a growing revolution? Time will tell.

dpils@express-news.net

Sounds like the warning bell has been rung. The scumbag trial lawyers are going to make football their next conquest in their campaign to sissify America.

I'll back football. Wait - does that mean I'm a poor, uneducated, redneck?

If you didn't vote for Obama, you are. That's what the people who did the study and wrote the article will say.

Woooohoooooo! That's reason enough to admit being a redneck! Obama, and his liberal underlings will do all they can to take the things we love. Seriously, is football really that dangerous? I don't think so. Taking a car ride is more dangerous - IMO.

If you drive in Lubbock, it damn sure is.

You should try driving in Dallas...

im from dallas and have lived in lubbock, honestly nothing scares me more than lubbock drivers people are crazy there haha

You ain't drivin' in San Antonio, I presume ....

Anyway, here's a link to the original article:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/755 ... d-football

PS ... and back to the Shakespeare comment. My brother-in-law is a lawyer. So's my best friend back up in Wisconsin. I'd sure miss them both. And I'd have to find somebody to take over my Packers tickets.

This is no defense of trial lawyers by any stretch, but it's the ignorant juries that make the final decision.

How is it that Rugby has been around for at least 20 years longer than and no one has sued them out of existence? They don't even wear pads, and the contact is brutal.

The invention of the hard-shell helmet and the facemask was the beginning of the end for football. Well that, and scum bag lawyers.

Let me take my gimme cap off from a law firm in Tyler before I say this....... OK it's off now.
Isn't that redundant?

This article - and this topic - brings up a serious question that is open for debate, one my attitude about has changed dramatically.

In the interest of full disclosure, it is no secret I am a basketball junkie. Love the sport and love coaching it. But I love six-man football too. I don't think anyone who knows me would doubt my football credentials - thanks to some amazing kids and two wonderful communities (whitharral and Garden city) i am the proud owner of three state championship rings. I've spoken at multiple clinics, on offense and defense, feel like I know a thing or two about the game and love what it teaches kids, just like all competitive sports. I love the feel of a brisk fall friday night and I will never forget the memories, wonderful experiences, highs an lows I've been able to go through because of this sport.

I have always looked forward to coaching my sons, in every sport, and my oldest entered 7th grade this year. I voluntarily moved from a varsity coordinator to JH coach in part to be involved with my oldest sons first school football season. His year lasted one half. In our first game he caught a dump off pass out of a tight spread set right before the half and was tackled. Nothing spectacular about the hit, wasn't "de-cleated" didn't get a "slobber-knocker" or whatever you might want to call it. But his head hit the ground fairly hard - we were out of timeouts and we got back to the line quickly and ran one more play on which we scored. I sent in the extra point and my son, as the quarterback, ran the play and we got the extra point. All seemed well until we got into the locker room - he said he was having trouble focusing his vision. We thought he might be dehydrated so we got him some water, but by the time we headed back out, it was obvious he had a concussion. No big deal, I thought - its happened to plenty of kids before and it couldn't be that bad - no one could even remember a hit that "looked" like it could have been that bad. I started coaching as another coach looked at him on the sideline. Within a few minutes, they were getting the ambulance and before the 3rd quarter was over he was on his way to the hospital. I left the game before it was over when my wife called from the ambulance and told me he didn't know who she was.

I'd gone through all the training - I am on our schools concussion protocol team - i thought I knew all the stuff. But he didn't recognize myself or my wife for over 4 hours. The ER doctor and 3 seasoned paramedics all called it the worst concussion they'd ever seen. What i thought would be week or two off actually turned into a week of debilitating, uncontrollable pain at the slightest light or sound. A week later came a trip to the leading nuerologist in Lubbock and admittance to the hospital. Almost two weeks passed before the pain stopped. The headaches lasted the better part of six more. The exceptionally bright young man who was reading Harry Potter books in second grade couldn't comprehend simple paragraphs. The young man who was the district number sense champion in 6th grade struggled for weeks with mathematical computations. As the football season came to a close and he was getting ready for basketball he couldn't run without triggering headaches again. It took till Christmas for him to be back to the kid he was before that hit. God's grace, a fabulous neurologist and the prayers of many faithful people guided his recovery.

I've become a very well read man on the topic of concussions and head trauma - learned more than I ever imagined. Check out the studies, paritcularly the ESPN OUTSIDE THE LINES investigations and the Virginia Tech studies on different helmets and realize the conclusion they come to - the best helmets can almost eliminate skull fractures, but there is no way to keep concussions from happening. You can cradle the skull, but you can't keep the brain from sloshing around inside that cradled skull.

Its changed how I coach - I never want any other parent to experience what we experienced. I will never, ever do anything but err on the side of caution. We get one brain - they can't make a replacement and we can't live without it. If you don't look seriously at that and consciously weigh the very real risks, you don't need to decide to play or let your kid play. I will never allow a kid who MIGHT have a head injury back in a game - and I will openly tell you I don't care if we win or lose because of that decision.

I grew up with Zach Thomas, of Texas Tech and Miami Dolphin fame, and I know he estimated he had 12 - 15 serious concussions just in the NFL. He's already agreed that upon his death his brain will be given to a university in Boston doing the groundbreaking research on head injuries. What happens if those studies reveal things that we, as football fans, coaches, players, etc... don't want to hear?

When my son told me he wasn't sure if he ever wanted to play football again, i didn't question his manhood, didn't tell him he "couldn't let down the team", didn't try to talk him into it. I understood how it could be scary and I surely don't want him to play if he can't play free of fear. I understand why he is hesitant to take that risk - I will never forget the 4 hours he looked at me as a stranger, the intense pain that I couldn't help relieve, the frustration that his brain wouldn't work right. Even though he is at no greater risk now than anyone else, he understands the risks better than anyone else as well. So do I.

I promise you there are no easy answers and I totally understand - better than i hope any readers ever have to - the feelings of the author of the story shared by Lifegate sports

Well said, coacher!!

I don't remember anyone ever getting bad concussions back in the day, but then again, almost everyone "got their bell rung" occasionally with no bad consequences afterward. I do think the game has gotten much more violent these days.