Malcolm Gladwell: Football will wither away

[GuyFawkes38]

wow....Malcolm Gladwell just claimed on Pardon the Interruption that new research suggests football causes more brain damage than previously thought. He believes football will follow a similar path to boxing. Parents won't allow their kids to play and the sport will fade.

here's his article:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell


I wouldn't allow my kids to play the sport. I'm surprised more parents don't.

[xavierj]

If football goes away it will not be anytime soon. Football is the most popular sport in America right now. My son is in 3rd grade and they have 45 kids on the team. I played for 14 years and don't know one person with effects from it. Yes it is a tough game but those with brain damage are few and far between compared to the number of people who play the game. The game will be here for a longtime to come.

[D-West & PO-Z]

wow....Malcolm Gladwell just claimed on Pardon the Interruption that new research suggests football causes more brain damage than previously thought. He believes football will follow a similar path to boxing. Parents won't allow their kids to play and the sport will fade.

here's his article:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell


I wouldn't allow my kids to play the sport. I'm surprised more parents don't.

Sorry but that isnt going to happen. Also the concussions and horror stories are a lot morwe common in the NFL. It is a violent game especially when you have guys as big and fast as you do in the NFL but to say parents shouldnt allow their kids to play football because of these stories you hear from NFL players is ridiculous. Obviosuly it is up to the parents but I played football for 7 years and I never once had a concussion or a serious injury. Concussions are a serious issue and I think they are be taken a lot more serious these days then they used to be which is good but I think they are a lot more likely to happen in college football and the NFL than kids playing football.

[GuyFawkes38]

Ha, I guess part of the reason I wouldn't let my kids play football is that I don't like it as much as basketball, baseball, etc...

But the point Gladwell makes is that it's not the intensity of the hits. It's the repetition. That's why linemen have the most risk, not QBs or WR's.

So it's not the intensity of the NFL that puts those players in the major risk category. It's the length they have been playing the game.

It really mirrors the boxing situation. It's probably fine if you only have your kid box and play football in high school. But playing in college and the NFL poses major risks. Playing at that level has to draw a lot of people to the sport.

[GuyFawkes38]

As it is, the best athletes are going to basketall. If players have a choice between football and baseball, they choose baseball.

I think Gladwell is on to something. If there's more research which shows the risks of playing football, the above trends will accelerate.

[D-West & PO-Z]

As it is, the best athletes are going to basketall. If players have a choice between football and baseball, they choose baseball.

I think Gladwell is on to something. If there's more research which shows the risks of playing football, the above trends will accelerate.

Nah.


....

[BandAid]

As it is, the best athletes are going to basketall. If players have a choice between football and baseball, they choose baseball.

I think Gladwell is on to something. If there's more research which shows the risks of playing football, the above trends will accelerate.

Baseball and basketball also have guaranteed contracts. The business side of football is a lot more cut throat than the other major sports. Not saying safety isn't an issue, just not the only one with multi-sport athletes.

Robert Smith used to be a heck of a running back with the Minnesota Vikings. He retired early due to the worry of health effects.

[SixFig]

It is gonna take someone, maybe multiple people, dying ON an NFL field to push parents away.

It will happen. That hit at the end of the Steelers - Ravens AFC championship game last year was oh so close.

[Muskied]

Baseball players have almost/may have been killed by line drives and hit by pitch....hockey players have been paralyzed/almost killed....you see deaths in auto racing all the time, but it just leads to safety restrictions. Where there is $ to be made, by the league and athletes, there will be players and there will be leagues. If anything, softer helmets or safety requirements will be added....but it isn't going anywhere.

[GuyFawkes38]

Robert Smith used to be a heck of a running back with the Minnesota Vikings. He retired early due to the worry of health effects.

Can't prove it, but maybe Tiki Barber and Barry Sanders also bolted for that reason.


Baseball players have almost/may have been killed by line drives and hit by pitch....hockey players have been paralyzed/almost killed....you see deaths in auto racing all the time, but it just leads to safety restrictions. Where there is $ to be made, by the league and athletes, there will be players and there will be leagues. If anything, softer helmets or safety requirements will be added....but it isn't going anywhere.

Like I said above, I think it's the regularity of the abuse, not its intensity, which leaves many doctors extremely worried.

Forty years ago, nobody considered boxing to be an abusive sport. But perceptions change. Gladwell isn't arguing that this will happen overnight (he said something about 10-20 years in the future he wonders how football can sustain itself with the growing evidence of its dangers).

[D-West & PO-Z]

Can't prove it, but maybe Tiki Barber and Barry Sanders also bolted for that reason.



Tiki said as much. He had other things he wanted to do too but he also wanted to walk away from the game healthy.

[Kahns Krazy]

Boxing's decline has far more to do with the marketing skill of the MMA guys than concerns about injuries. MMA is huge, and I'm sure the long term effects are at least as bad as boxing's.

[xudash]

Football will NOT decline in this society for three basic reasons:


It's in the 'blood' of the nation - it is now long established at all levels.

There are simply too many people that grow up with it and love it, but, more to the point, it will always have a pool of talent from which to draw because less advantaged people of all races see it as a possible way out of their circumstances - if not by achieving to the pro level then achieving to the point of earning a college degree.

Money. There is a ton of it at the pro level and the college game has never been better funded
, notwithstanding the expense of fielding a team.

[Fireball]

I think boxing's decline has a lot to do with pay-per-view also. When you can't see boxing without shelling out $50 to watch a fight, that's going to prevent your fanbase from growing.

Football is on free TV every Saturday and Sunday. Add in basic cable, and you get games from Thursday through Monday. I don't see football going way of boxing unless the NFL makes the same stupid broadcasting decisions as boxing has.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I think boxing's decline has a lot to do with pay-per-view also. When you can't see boxing without shelling out $50 to watch a fight, that's going to prevent your fanbase from growing.

Football is on free TV every Saturday and Sunday. Add in basic cable, and you get games from Thursday through Monday. I don't see football going way of boxing unless the NFL makes the same stupid broadcasting decisions as boxing has.

Ya I read an article about how boxing is to blame for its own decline.

"Nowadays there are as many as four heavyweight champs, none of which would be recognized except maybe one as legitimate. Boxer's undefeated records became more important than learning their craft through opposition. Financial demand seems to elevate year after year when the quality of product rarely changes.

How it works today is promoter's launch the initial battle with the television network and fight over money. When that concludes, the guys who actually do the fighting have to fight over the money left over. The influence of outside the ring factors gets stronger as time goes by, and there is no end in sight."

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/49765-why-the-decline-of-boxing-is-boxings-own-fault

[GuyFawkes38]

Yeah, I don't completely agree with Gladwell.

Boxing has been horribly managed, unlike MMA (although I wonder if MMA will ever really gain in the 35+ demographic due to its violence).

And it does seem that although Americans love football, the players are somewhat irrelevant. Even if parents keep their kids from playing football and the supply of good players decrease, that won't dampen the country's love of football. Just put some player in your favorite team's jersey and you'll be sold.

Maybe football won't "wither away". But I do think this whole thing can hurt it. If less kids play football they might be less interested in the sport when they grow up. At least some people might be turned off, like boxing and even MMA, to the abuse the players take.

Gladwell did say that congress will be holding hearings soon on this matter.

[D-West & PO-Z]

How popular is MMA? I have no interest in it and I dont know anybody who does really. Is it really growing that big?

[JimmyTwoTimes37]

How popular is MMA? I have no interest in it and I dont know anybody who does really. Is it really growing that big?

Its extremely popular in Japan and Korea. I know that their fighters in DREAM and other organizations are superstars over there.

In the US, its a little bit different. MMA is fighting to get more mainstream. The UFC is the dominant force and their PPV numbers show it is doing very well. They put on roughly a show a month with 5 televised fights and usually a title fight.

Like Kahn said, boxing did itself in mostly with all its different weight classes, shady promoters, lack of starpower today (Minus pacquiao/mayweather) and a seemingly endless number of promotions.

Nobody really knows the long term effects health-wise of MMA, but I can't imagine it being good. I believe football is unquestionably more dangerous due to the freakishly big men, the speed, and all the injuries.

That being said, football has made strides to become safer. My dad told me a story of when he got knocked unconscious at Stanford, came out for a play, and the coaches sent him right back in. He says to this day he doesn't remember half the game. He's fine today no long lasting effects other than superficial battle wounds. Nowadays there is no way that should happen and the sport is better for it. Apparently that was the norm back then.

Some of the old time coaches wouldn't let their players drink water during practice. They thought it made you tougher. College football and the NFL have taken good strides into making the sport safer.

Players today are just so ridiculously big, strong, and fast. That's a lethal combination. Football is still a great sport, but people are still turning a blind eye on a lot of the old timers. The average lifespan of a NFL player is not good at all (Some of it being due to their size I'm sure). I don't know what the answer is, but football will never go away (and it shouldn't) in my opinion.

[GuyFawkes38]

How popular is MMA? I have no interest in it and I dont know anybody who does really. Is it really growing that big?

I think it has a big cult following (males in their 20's and 30's) and some people think it's on the verge of going mainstream. Some fights are shown on Spike TV and others on pay-per-view.

[danaandvictory]

Wait, so Malcolm Gladwell took some random anecdotes and produced a grand sweeping thesis, and then a complete moron quoted it as truth? Unprecedented.

[GuyFawkes38]

I don't think football will wither completely away. But the NFL might have to end tackling and turn into a flag football league.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I don't think football will wither completely away. But the NFL might have to end tackling and turn into a flag football league.

And it would still be the most popular sport in this country.

[THRILLHOUSE]

One current problem in football is that because of the advancements in equipment players think they are invincible. Yeah obviously we are long past the days of leather helmets, but hits to the head are still incredibly dangerous but clowns like Ray Lewis and Hines Ward don't feel this way. Ray shouldve been fined a lot more than 25K for his hit on Chad and maybe even suspended a game.

[PM Thor]

Thrill is correct. The advancements in equipment has gotten to a tipping point. Helmets aren't being used solely to protect the head, they are being used as weaponry to hit opposing players. Add that to the size and speed, along with the feeling of invincibility, and players are doing things now that they would have never, ever done with lesser equipment.

Players have moved away from making a sound tackle to trying to lay the big hit on someone. Watch tonights game, count how many times you see a real, helmet on the hip, wrap your arms around the runner type tackle, as compared to guys launching with their helmet and shoulderpads, not even trying to wrap up. Not to mention the late "cleaning up the pile" hits too. Take for example the hit yesterday on the defenseless punt returner in the Bucs-Carolina game. Hits like this will get someone killed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOYqZfNbXcc

Carson Palmer said it best, "The truth of the matter is . . . somebody is going to die here in the NFL. It's going to happen."

I HATE dayton.

[Juice]

Helmets aren't being used solely to protect the head, they are being used as weaponry to hit opposing players.

Brandon Meriweather showed everyone that in the Miami-FIU brawl.