"NFL admits football/brain disease link"

[The Shift]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/35809485

I'd hate to think that this might affect anyone who posts on this Smiley Smile board.

[alf wiedersehen]

It's certainly a step in the right direction for the NFL to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence.

[the captain]

I played in school up through 9th grade. (I wasn't good. I was always the geeky kid who liked football [and basketball, far more so] but was on his best day average. Understood the games, the angles, the techniques, but just was, um, yeah. A musician and scholar, OK?) I didn't go out for football my 10th grade year because I had bought a salmon-and-black Ibanez payable in installments at the store where I took lessons. Thus my focus had to shift to earning the money to pay the damn thing off. Thanks, Dairy Queen.

Other than learning my feet and ankles are shitty--I still get nasty tendonitis that gets into plantar fascitis territory at times--I never had any real injuries. But the head trauma stuff does make a person think about whether it's worth it, especially for the vast majority of players who never could possibly so much as sniff at college ball, much less professional. Concussions and brain damage for ... what, exactly? I've thought about whether I'd let my kid play, which is an easier thing to think about when, like me, you have no kids and no plans to have any kids.

I've heard interviews with high school coaches who say they believe within 25 years, if there is such a thing as football, it won't be recognizable to us, at least at the high school level and lower. In fact, I heard of a new proposal here (MN) that schools won't have tackle football until high school. I didn't catch whether it had been decided or just suggested.

[alf wiedersehen]

I played in school up through 9th grade. (I wasn't good. I was always the geeky kid who liked football [and basketball, far more so] but was on his best day average. Understood the games, the angles, the techniques, but just was, um, yeah. A musician and scholar, OK?) I didn't go out for football my 10th grade year because I had bought a salmon-and-black Ibanez payable in installments at the store where I took lessons. Thus my focus had to shift to earning the money to pay the damn thing off. Thanks, Dairy Queen.

Other than learning my feet and ankles are shitty--I still get nasty tendonitis that gets into plantar fascitis territory at times--I never had any real injuries. But the head trauma stuff does make a person think about whether it's worth it, especially for the vast majority of players who never could possibly so much as sniff at college ball, much less professional. Concussions and brain damage for ... what, exactly? I've thought about whether I'd let my kid play, which is an easier thing to think about when, like me, you have no kids and no plans to have any kids.

I had a hell of a time in football. I played as a lineman on every team (offensive, defensive, kick return, punting, etc.) except one, and I had heat exhaustion more than once. I also apparently inherited my father's shitty knees, and they filled with fluid multiple times. The sensation of "water on the knee" resembles some sort of solid, bar-like mass floating in between your kneecap and the top of your shin. On occasion, I also watched my fullback friend receive concussions from hitting other players. My quarterback broke his collar bone more times than is reasonable. Ironically, the only time I ever broke something was when I was playing catch in my yard, and the ball somehow fractured my thumb.

I was also slightly over the weight limit, so I had to wear an absurd amount of layers of thick clothing and go jogging every night so I could stay on the team.

It's a rough sport--and this all happened at the elementary- and middle-school level. I don't think I would let my child do it.