http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/n...er-5696358

Quote:An Argentine footballer has died after sustaining a fatal head injury during a match.

Emanuel Ortega, 21, was playing for San Martín de Burzaco in Argentina's fifth tier when he challenged for the ball by the touchline. He lost his balance in the physical battle and crashed head first into a concrete wall that separated the crowd from the pitch.

Despite receiving immediate medical treatment and being rushed to hospital, Ortega died early on Thursday morning - nearly two weeks after sustaining the double skull fracture - after surgery couldn't save the midfielder.

No, not really. Just figured I would create a hysterics thread like some folks do around here when there is the least little indication of an injury related retirement in football.

Well played, Kaplony

A couple years ago there was a shooting outside a Little League game in Northern California
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Vall...449183.php


and this year we had a nice little brawl in the SWAC between Southern and Texas Southern women's basketball teams
http://theadvocate.com/sports/southern/1...-marred-by

Ban those sports too, I say!

Time to ban concrete walls!

(05-15-2015 02:11 AM)goofus Wrote:  Time to ban concrete walls!

sound like a Nascar guy.

Unfortunately for the NFL and CFB is that the most serious injury concerns are not based on accute traumas. What the issue is related to is due to long term effects of repeated trauma that leads to chronic, irreversible brain damage. I know this was tongue in cheek, but in the story above there is a tangible fix that would prevent all future injuries in this way. However, there are zero fixes today that can address chronic head trauma. It's going to be a race against the clock, with middle class families pulling more and more of their kids away from the sport as time rolls on and the only ones left that will participate will be the ones under economic duress. Poor people will gladly roll the dice if it means they can pull their family and the following generation out of poverty. Then instead of it being a sport that all are happy to participate in, it will ultimately become like watching gladiators in the colosseum. Ultimately it comes down to economics.

A lot of junior leagues are banning headers.

(05-15-2015 07:16 AM)miko33 Wrote:  Unfortunately for the NFL and CFB is that the most serious injury concerns are not based on accute traumas. What the issue is related to is due to long term effects of repeated trauma that leads to chronic, irreversible brain damage. I know this was tongue in cheek, but in the story above there is a tangible fix that would prevent all future injuries in this way. However, there are zero fixes today that can address chronic head trauma. It's going to be a race against the clock, with middle class families pulling more and more of their kids away from the sport as time rolls on and the only ones left that will participate will be the ones under economic duress. Poor people will gladly roll the dice if it means they can pull their family and the following generation out of poverty. Then instead of it being a sport that all are happy to participate in, it will ultimately become like watching gladiators in the colosseum. Ultimately it comes down to economics.

Yeah, I think there's a distinct difference. The prospect of a freak accident (which happens in every sport) is quite different than concerns about repeated head trauma (which is more specific to football). My kids are in kindergarten now, so it will be interesting to see football participation rates through their childhood. We live in a town that has historically had very strong youth-to-high school football programs (at least by Illinois standards), but it's also made up of the upper middle class families that, demographically speaking, would be most likely to avoid football going forward.

(05-15-2015 08:25 AM)bullet Wrote:  A lot of junior leagues are banning headers.

Isn't that like banning jumping in basketball?

There is a high school in my area that plays in an old baseball stadium. The corner of the endzone is only several feet from a cinder block wall. It doesn't have any padding on it. I have always thought that it was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

(05-15-2015 08:25 AM)bullet Wrote:  A lot of junior leagues are banning headers.

Yes, and this just compounds the "problem". What will these kids do when they get to high school and have to header but have never been taught properly?

(05-15-2015 08:37 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(05-15-2015 07:16 AM)miko33 Wrote:  Unfortunately for the NFL and CFB is that the most serious injury concerns are not based on accute traumas. What the issue is related to is due to long term effects of repeated trauma that leads to chronic, irreversible brain damage. I know this was tongue in cheek, but in the story above there is a tangible fix that would prevent all future injuries in this way. However, there are zero fixes today that can address chronic head trauma. It's going to be a race against the clock, with middle class families pulling more and more of their kids away from the sport as time rolls on and the only ones left that will participate will be the ones under economic duress. Poor people will gladly roll the dice if it means they can pull their family and the following generation out of poverty. Then instead of it being a sport that all are happy to participate in, it will ultimately become like watching gladiators in the colosseum. Ultimately it comes down to economics.

Yeah, I think there's a distinct difference. The prospect of a freak accident (which happens in every sport) is quite different than concerns about repeated head trauma (which is more specific to football). My kids are in kindergarten now, so it will be interesting to see football participation rates through their childhood. We live in a town that has historically had very strong youth-to-high school football programs (at least by Illinois standards), but it's also made up of the upper middle class families that, demographically speaking, would be most likely to avoid football going forward.

I'm sure we've all seen this article at one time or another.
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/page...sal-factor

Regardless on whether the risks are overblown or only marginally worse than other sports, the genie is out of the bottle. So what if only 5% of participants suffer the issues or even 1%? Parents are not going to take that risk - at least those that have the means to provide their children with a variety of options for pursuing careers.

(05-15-2015 09:09 AM)bullitt_60 Wrote:  

(05-15-2015 08:25 AM)bullet Wrote:  A lot of junior leagues are banning headers.

Yes, and this just compounds the "problem". What will these kids do when they get to high school and have to header but have never been taught properly?

That's the all around issue...younger kids aren't being properly taught to head the ball and rather than forcing clubs to get rid of parent coaches and get the right coaches in place, they just try to ban heading. It's the equivalent of banning passing plays in peewee football because they might hurt their fingers catching the ball.

(05-15-2015 10:13 AM)bearcatfan1211 Wrote:  

(05-15-2015 09:09 AM)bullitt_60 Wrote:  

(05-15-2015 08:25 AM)bullet Wrote:  A lot of junior leagues are banning headers.

Yes, and this just compounds the "problem". What will these kids do when they get to high school and have to header but have never been taught properly?

That's the all around issue...younger kids aren't being properly taught to head the ball and rather than forcing clubs to get rid of parent coaches and get the right coaches in place, they just try to ban heading. It's the equivalent of banning passing plays in peewee football because they might hurt their fingers catching the ball.

That's not the whole issue. Their brains are still developing and heading creates a lot of movement. It also promotes head to head collisions.

Soccer is tops among girl's for concussions among high school athletes. Couldn't readily find the ESPN article from a couple years back that had a chart with rates by sport, but its been posted here before. Found a different one that showed a rate 1/4 of football for boys and 1/2 for girls-which rate was higher than anything else but boy's lacrosse. (https://www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/de...wsID=15157) Also found this which says that women's collegiate soccer players concussion risk is higher than HS football players.

http://www.expressnews.com/sports/colleg...230076.php

"Would you let YOUR son play soccer, Barrack Obama?