Saw this and wondered what the former players on here think about how the game is evolving? I personally would no longer want my son to play past high school, and have directed him towards sports I consider less dangerous long term: baseball, soccer, tennis, swimming, golf. However, I still like watching football (well, college football, as I find the pro game these days generally boring), and of course am on record as wanting Rice to get better players.

Seems a lot more former players are having long term issues later in life from having played the game. What have been some of your experiences as you age and do you feel you have problems/injuries related to when you played? Do you think the game is more violent and less safe today than when you played? Would you want your own sons to play beyond high school, and if so, does the level of play matter to you as far as their lifelong safety? Is my feeling correct that sports like baseball, soccer, tennis, swimming, golf, are safer than football these days?

Is $1,500 per helmet worth spending to help provide additional safety per each player, or is it wasted money that could better be used elsewhere in the football program?


See the new football helmet that got funding from the NFL
by: Daniel Roberts Yahoo Finance
Monday, February 01, 2016

Watch the 3-minute video in the story link

NFL players suffered 31.6% more concussions last year than they did in 2014, according to new data released this month. As the New York Times points out, it's possible that the higher numbers simply mean that more concussions were diagnosed last year, not that there were more concussions, but it is an alarming stat nonetheless.

The league knows it has a problem with head injuries. And even if the problem is not new, the league recognizes that fans are more aware of the issue than ever before, thanks to high-profile books, increased media interest, and a big-budget biopic, "Concussion," starring Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist credited with discovering chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the disease found in the brains of many deceased former football players.

A new, safer helmet won't be an instant solution to the crisis, but it is a start. The ZERO1 helmet, from Seattle-based startup VICIS (a spin-out from the University of Washington, which co-developed the helmet) has been in development for more than two years. Now it's ready to show off; VICIS is pulling off the camouflage tape it covered the helmet in for months at public events, and CEO Dave Marver is bringing it around to different college and pro football programs across the country.

Marver tells Yahoo Finance that several NFL programs, plus 10 of the top 20 Division I college football teams, have committed to test the helmets this spring at practice, and that VICIS expects to see the helmet on the NFL field come fall. The NFL does not select a single helmet each season and require players to wear it; rather, the players choose their helmet, and this is one of the dangers: a running back might go for a lighter helmet over one that is safer, but heavier. (The NFL declined to comment on which particular helmet its players choose to wear.)

VICIS (the company name is Latin for "change") named its helmet the ZERO1, Marver says, as a reference to the company's goals: "zero compromises, zero defects, and the road to zero concussions." The helmet contains multiple layers of different material inside to slow acceleration. The front of the helmet crumples a little bit on impact, like a car bumper, which you might think would be a problem, but in fact may be more effective at protecting the skull than more basic helmets that seek to deflect a hit with a hard outer shell.



"Existing helmets haven't changed much since the 1970s," Marver says. "They have a very hard outer shell, and they're designed to protect against skull fracture... they don't do a great job at reducing impact forces, and that's what most people think causes brain injury."

VICIS warns that its helmet can't prevent a concussion from happening. But it can lessen the impact of a hard hit. "We're just hopeful it can reduce risk of concussion and make the sport safer," Marver says. "But ultimately, it's going to take a multifaceted approach: rule changes, increased vigilance, and better equipment."

As far as better equipment goes, the NFL, along with General Electric (GE) and Under Armour (UA), launched the Head Health Challenge in 2013 as part of the NFL and GE’s broader Head Health Initiative. All three of them invested $20 million in a fund to award grants to head-injury solutions. VICIS and the University of Washington were among three final winners of the Head Health Challenge II. The other winners were the U.S. Army (which developed a strap that would connect a player's helmet to his chest to keep the head from jerking back on impact) and Viconic, a Dearborn, Mich., company that makes an underlay for artificial turf to soften impact when a player lands on the ground. University of Washington (with VICIS as its commercial partner) received $750,000 in total funding from the challenge to work on the helmet.

The helmet is the most consumer-facing of these three winning products—the one that is easiest for football fans to understand and get excited about. It'll be ready for players to wear by next season, but whether players will choose to wear it is a different question. As Marver acknowledges, "The athletic trainer, equipment manager, and the player himself all care about different things."

--

Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.

My experience is with soccer with my daughter. Soccer players suffer significant numbers of concussions caused by head to head as well as head to ground contact. There are several protection items available but so far they have proven to be problematic. Players using them tend to be more aggressive thinking they are protected and play more reckless. The current line of thinking in soccer is proper fundamentals is more important than protective equipment. Not to mention that the girls don't like the looks of the protective equipment. Not fashionable. Maybe football needs to go back to the old leather helmets....

Reading last post gave me an aha moment. All of the above, including leather-style helmets.

Teach avoidance of head contact at all costs.

Then add small airbags for safety to protect against the inevitable collisions that still would happen.

These airbags are probably not yet technologically feasible even today- but they would have to deploy only when sensors indicated a head impact was imminent.

(02-02-2016 09:18 AM)jhruzek Wrote:  Maybe football needs to go back to the old leather helmets....

After playing rugby, I thought the way to make football safer was just take the facemask off the helmet. When you can't use your face as a spear, you're a lot less likely to try to ram your head into things.

I'm only 25. My ankles, knees, shoulders, elbows, and fingers pop all the time due to various injuries. Part of the game as an offensive lineman. Would I trade it for anything? No, I knew I was signing up for football. Football is a brutal sport, which is why I loved it.

I think the game is safer than when I played even two years ago. But does that necessarily mean that it is better? Incidental head to head contact is an ejection now. Completely ridiculous. If it's not malicious or on purpose, no point in throwing the kid out or even a flag. It's part of the game. If you hit a guy in the chest and slide up and your helmet hits the other guy, why should that be a penalty? If a player is defenseless and you clearly give a guy a headshot, that should be a penalty.

Football has always been more dangerous than those sports, generally speaking.

I hope my sons have the ability to play football, but if it is glorified two-hand-touch, I won't want them to play. There's something satisfactory about ringing another person's bell on the field, imposing your will on them, or dominating them all game. If they take that away, it wouldn't be football anymore.

I stopped playing football because I became slow for my size and no longer bigger than most (or any). Having apparently avoided serious injury I turned to rugby (union). I can honestly say compared to football it was brutal, but that was in the days you could run into the scrum. After every match it was a competition whether I would have more 'knots' on my arms or head. I'm not sure what damage if any those collisions had. I do believe however that playing prop forward and giving up 30 to 50 pounds against my opponent probably contributed to my two compressed vertebrae (L4/L5 and L5/S1). I can't imagine ever recommending anyone to play rugby especially tight head prop even under the new laws.

As for football, maybe they should make helmets a bit brittle such that if 'abused' it breaks or cracks. The perpetrator could be ejected if it was viewed as a malicious hit and the victim immediately assessed for possible concussion?

Had two concussions in the 60s. Spent the night in hospital. Don't remember what happened in the games.

Got my bell rung playing football in high school during a practice. But otherwise, I was fine. Playing soccer, I took two soccer ball head shots at close range...and it was 25°F. That hurt.

Roger Goodell Speaks Out on Concussions, 'Rooney Rule' for Women
By KATIE KINDELAN, Good Morning America
Friday, February 5, 2016

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says there is a “culture change” in the NFL when it comes to concussions and, if he had a son, would have no problem allowing him to play the sport.

“The number of concussions went up this year and they're going to go up and they're going to go down in any given season, but screenings went up by 108 percent and also we saw more self-reporting in the players and teammates,” Goodell told “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts. “That’s what I call the culture change.”

‘Concussion’ Film Inspires High School Football Star to Reject College Scholarships

“It used to be, as you know, ‘It’s just a ding.’ Those days are long gone and that's a positive thing for our game,” Goodell said.

Goodell, who has two daughters, said he would encourage a son to play the sport because of the "tremendous values" that come from playing football.

"I would not only want him to play football, I would certainly encourage him to do it and I would let him do it," he said. “There is risk involved in anything in life but what we need to do is to make sure we show people how to get the most out of playing sports and do it safely.”

This week, as buzz for Sunday’s Super Bowl was building, it was announced that former Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler, who died last year, also suffered from the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

The issue of CTE has also been put in the public spotlight with the Will Smith-starring movie “Concussion.” Goodell says the league is now “leading the way” in protecting its players and investing in research.

“If I had known that I could have we could have done things different we could have made more changes but the league has a history of changing the game,” he said. “We're over 100 million dollars in research going not just to make football safer, this is going to make all sports safer, the military safer, and quite frankly will probably have an impact on brain disease in general.”

‘Concussion’ Film Inspires High School Football Star to Reject College Scholarships

By JULIA JACOBO, ABC News
Feb 3, 2016, 6:35 PM ET



A high school football star in Pennsylvania got what most players dream of: several scholarships to Division I schools. But after 18-year-old John Castello saw the movie "Concussion," he decided the potential health risks the game poses isn't worth the free ride to college, so he turned them all down.

Castello had been offered full scholarships to seven Division I AA schools, including the University of Delaware and James Madison University, he told ABC News today. Watching the movie "Concussion" over the Christmas holiday, which stars Will Smith as Nigerian doctor Bennet Omalu and his findings on the impact of concussions on NFL players, significantly altered how he thought about his future.

"I thought it would shed some light and help me make a decision on whether I should play football or not," he said.

Castello was "taken aback" by the movie, he said, adding that watching the health of Pittsburgh Steelers center "Iron Mike" Webster deteriorate made him think twice about the sport he loved so much growing up.

"Growing up a Steelers fan, everyone loved Mike Webster," he said. "To see what he went through, because of football, that really hit me hard."

Castello said witnessing the misfortunes of former football players, from the high school to the professional level, has served as a cautionary tale and aided in his resolution to stop playing.

"They've attempted suicide, gone bankrupt, broke,homeless -- and at a young age -- not older, but in their 40s and 50s," he said. "That’s very concerning to me."

The high school senior has received some flack from fellow students and recruiting coaches who have called him "soft" or "too scared" to play.

"They didn’t understand where I’m coming from," he said.

His high school football coach called him a "great football player."

"I don’t think there’s any doubt about that," Mars Area High School head football coach and athletic director Scott Heinauer told ABC News today, citing the level of recruitment Castello experienced.

"He’s a great kid," Heinauer said. "No matter what he does in life, John will be successful."

Castello said the thing he'll miss most about football is the brotherhood, but the 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound tight end and defensive end decided to focus on another sport he's been playing for almost 10 years: basketball. But the decision was made even more difficult by the fact that he hadn't yet been offered any basketball scholarships.

"It was very, very hard to choose,” Castello said, but added that it's "probably the right choice" for the future.

Scary story today on Yahoo! Sports:

Thurman Thomas's brain as injured as if he'd 'fallen off a house'
By Jay Busbee
Monday, April 25, 2016
Shutdown Corner

Thurman Thomas, the Hall of Fame running back who helped lead the Buffalo Bills to four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s, has at last disclosed the toll football took on his body and brain ... and the story isn't a pretty one.

Speaking to the District School Board of Niagara’s International Concussion Summit in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Thomas for the first time offered a sobering breakdown of the way that repeated head trauma has affected his life. “Still to this day, I can’t control my mood swings," he said, per the Niagara Fals Review. "On so many days, I have to apologize to my family for them. I thank God that I have a family that understands the things that I’ve been through over my 13-year (professional) career, and even after my 14 or 15 years that I’ve been retired. They all understand that with my mood swings, sometimes I just can’t help it.”



Thomas became aware of the severity of the problem a couple of years ago, when he was driving a route he followed every day and suddenly realized, “I didn’t know where I was and I didn’t know what I was doing. I had to make the most difficult call I’ve ever made. I had to pull over on the highway, call my wife, and explain to her the events that just happened. She said, ‘you need to come back home.’ I knew that there was a problem.”

The former Bills back recounted the stories of his first concussion, when he got blindsided by a Broncos defender ("Before I got to the ground, everything just went pitch black. My eyes are open, but I can’t see anything. About seven or eight seconds go by, it clears up again") to the time quarterback Jim Kelly appeared concussed and ran five straight handoffs to Thomas.

Thomas, who played 13 seasons and rushed for more than 12,000 yards, received the news from his doctor: his brain was “similar to someone who has fallen off the top of a house, on to the front of his head, or going through a windshield of a car several times."

That would be enough to give most people pause. Thomas has found himself in the middle of a conundrum common to many old players: how do you reconcile the fact that the game which has given you so much has also taken so much from you?

“One thing that I realized is that discussing the effects of concussions and the reality of the situation doesn’t make me less of a man, less tough, less loyal to the National Football League, a less love for the game,” he said. “All it means is that I’m not an ignorant fool, and that I don’t ignore factual evidence that this is happening to not only football players, but (other athletes).”

(02-02-2016 09:18 AM)jhruzek Wrote:  My experience is with soccer with my daughter. Soccer players suffer significant numbers of concussions caused by head to head as well as head to ground contact. There are several protection items available but so far they have proven to be problematic. Players using them tend to be more aggressive thinking they are protected and play more reckless. The current line of thinking in soccer is proper fundamentals is more important than protective equipment. Not to mention that the girls don't like the looks of the protective equipment. Not fashionable. Maybe football needs to go back to the old leather helmets....

Headed balls have become a focus in soccer, but, IMHO, the actual concussions that I've seen are elbow to head, head to head, knee to head, ground to head, or head to post. IMHO, the riskiest contact with the ball is ball-to-ear, which I've experience more times than I can count. For kids under-11 and younger, they've recently changed the rules to prohibit heading the ball. It's a bit ridiculous, as they implemented the rules mid-season for my son's league, and he ages out of those rules in a couple of months. In the few games that they played with the new rules, it seems to me that they are encouraging high kicks, which - IMHO - are way more dangerous than headed balls. At least, I've never seen a line of blood across someone's head from hitting a ball with their forehead.

(02-04-2016 12:03 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  Got my bell rung playing football in high school during a practice. But otherwise, I was fine. Playing soccer, I took two soccer ball head shots at close range...and it was 25°F. That hurt.

I don't know your age range, but the old leather balls did not feel good on the head when wet and/or cold.

(04-25-2016 11:27 AM)I45owl Wrote:  

(02-04-2016 12:03 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  Got my bell rung playing football in high school during a practice. But otherwise, I was fine. Playing soccer, I took two soccer ball head shots at close range...and it was 25°F. That hurt.

I don't know your age range, but the old leather balls did not feel good on the head when wet and/or cold.

Early 40s. While playing soccer, I have had some plays where I went up after the ball against a bigger player and well, physics won. And the head shots hurt like crazy. But nothing similar to the experience in which I was seeing stars after a helmet to helmet collision while playing football.

(04-25-2016 03:54 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 11:27 AM)I45owl Wrote:  

(02-04-2016 12:03 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  Got my bell rung playing football in high school during a practice. But otherwise, I was fine. Playing soccer, I took two soccer ball head shots at close range...and it was 25°F. That hurt.

I don't know your age range, but the old leather balls did not feel good on the head when wet and/or cold.

Early 40s. While playing soccer, I have had some plays where I went up after the ball against a bigger player and well, physics won. And the head shots hurt like crazy. But nothing similar to the experience in which I was seeing stars after a helmet to helmet collision while playing football.

Yeah, I've never lost my balance from getting hit with the ball after given a chance to wander in a circle or two. I doubt I'd make it through a football game without losing consciousness.

When Coach Pete got to Rice, he had the "room" that spring. Dozens quit, so when Peteys Pioneers arrived the fall of 71, our job was to be scout team and dummies before we even thought about playing the 5 Frosh games scheduled by the SWC. Coaches Pecatello (so) and Bobby Ross of Charger fame had a drill where 5-6 freshmen lined up and stood at attention, with hands at side and defensive people such as Roy Barnes would go down the line delivering forearm blows to our heads. Normally that drill is done on the sled these days. Made a lot of guys evaluate whether it was worth it or not, if not from pain, but from ego of going from High School star to dummy. Next year Conover brought in Lance Van Zandt whose favorite drill was to get scout teamer to stand at attention, head bowed down and defensive back would rip up your head. 14 out of 50 of Pete's folks graduated. But yet never felt I got concussion, or did not pay attention if I did. Wife says I forget chores and not thoughtful though?

(02-04-2016 12:03 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  Got my bell rung playing football in high school during a practice. But otherwise, I was fine.

(04-25-2016 05:53 PM)I45owl Wrote:  Yeah, I've never lost my balance from getting hit with the ball after given a chance to wander in a circle or two.

(04-26-2016 12:05 PM)ETx Owl Wrote:  But yet never felt I got concussion...

Somehow, these assessments remind me of Homer Simpson's observations on child rearing (Season 11, "Behind the Laughter):

Quote:Homer: Then we figured out we could park them in front of the TV. That's how I was raised, and I turned out TV.

Tide of college football concussion lawsuits begins
By RALPH D. RUSSO (AP College Football Writer)
7 hours ago
AP - Sports


NEW YORK (AP) -- As many as 50 class-action lawsuits contesting how the NCAA, major college football conferences or individual schools handled concussions will be filed in the coming months by former players seeking damages for lingering brain injuries and ailments.

The first batch of six lawsuits was filed Tuesday and Chicago-based attorney Jay Edelson said the next wave will likely be filed within the next two weeks.

''The reason that we're bringing so many of them instead of one giant one is because the NCAA successfully argued to the court that we shouldn't be allowed to bring just one big case,'' Edelson said Wednesday. ''Because of that we have to file suit on a per school basis.''

The first six lawsuits were filed by players who played for Georgia, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Oregon, Utah and Penn State. The former football players claim problems ranging from loss of memory and cognitive function to dementia.

The lawsuits come as a settlement in another concussion case against the NCAA is awaiting approval by a federal judge.

Former Eastern Illinois football player Adrian Arrington in 2011 sued the NCAA over its handling of concussions and it resulted in a proposed settlement that provided no damages to be paid to players for injuries.

The proposal is still awaiting final approval from a federal judge in Illinois. It calls for the NCAA to create a $70 million fund for testing and monitoring former athletes for brain trauma and another $5 million for concussion research.

Arrington opposed the settlement, though other plaintiffs signed off, and Edelson has fought against it.

''These cases appear to be yet another attempt by Mr. Edelson to interfere with efforts to move forward a settlement in the Arrington case. The lawsuits reflect copycat activity and just because they keep repeating the same arguments does not make them true,'' said Donald Remy, NCAA chief legal officer.

In the Vanderbilt and Penn State cases, the schools are named directly named in the lawsuits. In the other cases, state laws protect the universities from being sued. The conferences named in the lawsuits are the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten, the Pac-12 and the Western Athletic Conference, where Utah competed while plaintiff and former defensive lineman Richard Seals played for the Utes.

''In terms of naming the schools individually, whether that's an easier path or not remains to be seen,'' Edelson said. ''We think that when we go before a jury the stories are going to be most impactful when we talk about in context of the school. The NCAA has a lot of liability, too, but the schools were the ones that had the most direct relationship with the student-athletes.''

The Penn State case was brought by three former players: Robert Samuels (1988-89), James Boyd (1997-2001) and Eric Ravotti (1990-94), but Boyd and Ravotti have since said they want their names to be removed from the lawsuits because they were misled about the nature of the cases by attorneys.

''Because of attorney-client privilege we can't go through the detail of all the communication that our team had with these two individuals but of course we have no interest in having someone lead such an important fight if their heart isn't in it,'' Edelson said. ''That's not good for us it's not good for the class. It's not good for them.''

(05-24-2016 10:44 AM)Maize Wrote:  Related...Bubba Smith CTE findings...

The list of deceased NFL players officially diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy has now reached 90.

Via Ken Belson of the New York Times, the late Bubba Smith has been diagnosed with CTE. Smith, who died in 2011, spent nine years in the NFL. The first overall pick in the 1967 draft, Smith played for the Colts, Raiders, and Oilers.

Smith, who became an actor after his football career ended, had Stage 3 CTE, according to the findings of researchers. The scale consists of four total stages.

Few are surprised to learn that players from the years before the NFL began to regard head trauma seriously had CTE. Much still remains unknown about the condition, however, including the specific symptoms that it causes.

Reports of deceased players having CTE will continue to emerge periodically. The real challenge for the NFL will arise if/when a test for CTE in living patients is developed — and if it detects the disease on a sufficiently widespread basis to impact the supply of willing participants in professional football.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/201...h-had-cte/