(08-23-2017 11:56 AM)Chappy Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 10:47 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 09:05 AM)Chappy Wrote:  Cheerleading and Soccer have higher concussion rates than football, with Girls Soccer having the highest rate of any sport.

I wonder if headgear will be mandatory in Girls Soccer soon.

The above is a lie. I can see this become a political creed however

You'll have to take that up with Dr. Wellington Hsu. He is a professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University.

The big difference is that football players wear helmets while soccer players do not. But then I guess you get into the debate of whether wearing a helmet leads to more concussions since you tend to get a little careless with your head.

You have 2 issues going on with football. Concussions are the more "acute" issues pertaining to head traumas. However, the chronic condition is the CTE damage that accumulates over time that is based on the brain rocking in the skull. This can accumulate even without experiencing concussions - only repeated hard collisions. Add in the additional issues with long term/permanent damage to joints and it makes it even easier for the parents to start forbidding kids to play the sport.

I agree with the poster who stated that it will become the sport of the poor. It will be a way out of the poverty of the inner city.

Fake news...When schools in the Midwest start cancelling football seasons I will pay attention. Rich liberal schools in NYC and San Francisco dropping it in favor of "safer sports" should take a look at the concussion rates in soccer first. I have yet to see any evidence of college players and CTE. The pro's are different and they are paid handsomely to abuse their bodies. If guys were smart they would start shortening their careers significantly to avoid the abuse though. However, most of those guys are just wired to physically compete no different than a lab that loves to retrieve. It is hard to tell them to just walk away.

Edit: I see the soccer thing has already been beat to death.

(08-23-2017 09:05 AM)Chappy Wrote:  Cheerleading and Soccer have higher concussion rates than football, with Girls Soccer having the highest rate of any sport.

I wonder if headgear will be mandatory in Girls Soccer soon.

Doesn't matter, it is all about perception.

This story goes out to all the denialists out there. And yes, it's in the same state highlighted in Miko's post.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/27288...ray-family

(08-23-2017 05:28 PM)Rube Dali Wrote:  This story goes out to all the denialists out there. And yes, it's in the same state highlighted in Miko's post.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/27288...ray-family

With a condition like that the young man could have died from any hard bump on the left side. Football did not cause the enlarged spleen, and the rupture, which is one of the worst risks from mono, could have occurred anywhere.

If this story highlights anything it is the need for a thorough physical examination prior to athletic competition for any sport. If the physician had used two rigid fingers to do the standard check for an enlarged liver or spleen by pushing under the right and left sides of the rib cage this condition might well have been spotted even without an x ray. Routine blood work would have revealed the abnormal white cell count (monocytes) and the spleen would have been flagged as a risk.

Now I'm certainly not defending the risk of CTE and concussions, but this story had absolutely nothing to do with it. This unfortunate young man could have ruptured that spleen flopping on his bed, let alone playing a contact sport. Deaths due to aneurysm could just as easily have occurred under such circumstances.

It was a well written and sensitive story of a family that was rent by asymptomatic mononucleosis.

(08-23-2017 04:50 PM)Shox Wrote:  Fake news...When schools in the Midwest start cancelling football seasons I will pay attention. Rich liberal schools in NYC and San Francisco dropping it in favor of "safer sports" should take a look at the concussion rates in soccer first. I have yet to see any evidence of college players and CTE. The pro's are different and they are paid handsomely to abuse their bodies. If guys were smart they would start shortening their careers significantly to avoid the abuse though. However, most of those guys are just wired to physically compete no different than a lab that loves to retrieve. It is hard to tell them to just walk away.

Edit: I see the soccer thing has already been beat to death.

I live in a big time football state in the Midwest. Friends of ours have a kid that is a freshman in HS. When he was in 7th grade, he sustained a concussion that had lingering symptoms for about a year. He no longer plays football today. In the past, there would have been enough pressure that he would have soldiered on. I no longer see that as the dominant mindset today. Football is the most important sport for this HS - they went to the state championship game in their division the previous 2 seasons.

Sure, this is just one anecdote. However, I think it's descriptive of the awareness that both the kids and parents have now vs 10 years ago and earlier. Fewer kids are going to play with hidden injuries. The injury situation in HS football is wide spread. While there are plenty of kids who get away from the game with no long term effects, there are plenty of kids who don't. "Trick" knees, lower back injuries, etc that are chronic conditions on top of the head trauma risks are making people more wary of the sport. IMHO, fewer kids will play as time moves on.

(08-23-2017 02:28 PM)jacksfan29 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 11:55 AM)MU88 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 11:15 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 10:47 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 09:05 AM)Chappy Wrote:  Cheerleading and Soccer have higher concussion rates than football, with Girls Soccer having the highest rate of any sport.

I wonder if headgear will be mandatory in Girls Soccer soon.

The above is a lie. I can see this become a political creed however

https://consumers.healthday.com/cognitiv...20657.html

Most of the articles citing football as the most dangerous were early studies in 2012 and a bit later. The article cited is from March 2017. A wider variety of sports besides football were researched for high schools. The results showed that Women's Soccer was indeed the sport that suffered the highest % of concussions among participants.

I'm sure just as it has been with every health related caution that there are studies all over the place on this topic, but none of them has women's soccer lower than 3rd in causation.

Editorial note: For some reason this link won't work. Just Google "Which High School Sports suffer the most concussions" and look for the March issue of Consumer Health Day. Sorry for the inconvenience.

But Stug is correct in as much as it will be politicized. Which may become the #1 cause of concussion as many Americans will wind up banging their head against the wall over the issue.

The one thing that makes me pause is that the study concluded that baseball and girls volleyball had the largest increase in concussions. Really? Both my kids play club volleyball, school volleyball and sand volleyball. Its an 11+ month a year sport. I see way, way too much volleyball. The only, and I mean only, kid that ever saw pulled off a court and sent to the trainers for a potential concussion was my son. It was a fluke incidence and it turned out that he was fine. I am over 50 and I have seen 1 concussion in baseball and it was the result of a player slipping on wet grass in the outfield. There may be more, but its rare that one hits their head during a baseball game.

I have to honest, I question many of the diagnoses of concussion. These trainers are so, so very careful that every blow to the head or near the head is considered a concussion. Further, I think trainers are even more careful with girls. Now, I get that soccer can be a rough sport. I do think concussions happen. But, I think our definition of a concussion has expanded so much that the number of the concussions in girls soccer is a result of that expanded definition.

As for football, it is a dying sport among kids in many areas. I see concussion fears driving numbers down in suburbs, more affluent areas and ethnic areas less familiar with the sport. Football numbers are way down in cities due to other factors besides concussions. It seems to me that the numbers are still strong in rural areas. The lifestyle probably has something to do with it. Long term, I think football has a numbers problem. Baseball compensated for the lack of inner city youth playing the sport by going outside the country. Given the expense of football, it may be impossible to mimic that strategy. But, they are going to have to figure out something.

It isn't just concussions. I have three brothers. We all played HS FB. We all have lingering affects (knees, hips, lower back) from the game. If I had to do it over again I would have focused on baseball and basketball. Both sports I played in college, both sports which I had to quit due to lingering hip and back injuries sustained playing football.

My son is 12. He plays soccer and is a competitive skier. He likes to watch FB, has no interest in playing. There are more options these days. Along with single sport specialization I expect FB numbers will continue to fall. Will it disappear? No.

I suspect that what you point out may become a more compelling argument against playing football than just concussions. Chronic pain, and the availability of addictive pain killing drugs, are a natural byproduct of any sport in which the prevailing culture applauds those who "play through the pain".

Football is, at its core, a "gladiator sport". But in the time of the real gladiators, few of them lived beyond their "playing days". Football players do. Even professional football players do. They just don't live as long as other people.

(08-23-2017 10:54 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 08:41 AM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 08:24 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  4.5 percent is "plummeting". How much is enrollment down? From what im seeing full contact football is being delayed so that most kids don't play it a super early age. Starting play in middle school is plenty early enough---probably even waiting until HS is fine.

Read further into that article. Youth football participation is down by 30%. That is plummeting. It is just now beginning to show at the high school level. Take a look at the map Michigan lost 9% of its HS football teams. That will become the new norm in most of the Northern states.

It also says this---

Demographic changes have drawn families here who are less familiar with American football. Sixty-one percent of High School North’s 1,500-some students are Indian American and Asian American. Some of those families have clashed previously with other families, many of them white, over the role of extracurricular activities in the school district.


“We didn’t grow up with football being part of the culture,” High School North booster club president Sandy Johnson said. Johnson is Chinese American and married to Olin Johnson, who is white and coaches one of West Windsor’s youth football teams. “It’s a struggle when parents don’t know the sport.”

For me personally---I see that issue----we are becoming a more immigrant, more hispanic based democgraphic---so that will lower participation rates a bit. We are also seeing a downturn in growth in that age group as well.

That said, there is no doubt that concussions and the resultant concern for long term brain damage is going to reduce participation----for a while. I didnt push my sons toward youth tackle football simply because its hard on the body. One chose to play in middle school---but was a very good pitcher (so he concentrated on baseball in HS). At the time I was making those decisions, the concussion thing was really still pretty new and unknown---but it didnt take a genius to know it was tough on the body. Having played youth and HS football with no major injuries, I knew I still have minor issues from relatively minor injuries during that period of my life.

Once people learn that soccer, hockey, lacross, and other sports actually have similar risk profiles the fear will fade. Id also add that there is now early research indicating that the cumulative effect of the huge number of micro impacts created by distance running may actually cause damage as well. lol...We will probably end up finding that the cumulative effect of life causes degradation of health and eventual death.

get out of here with those facts.

People who have never been to California need to pull statistics to prove a point! I always get an lol when people go to San Jose and are in culture shock.

(08-24-2017 08:25 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 02:28 PM)jacksfan29 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 11:55 AM)MU88 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 11:15 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 10:47 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  The above is a lie. I can see this become a political creed however

https://consumers.healthday.com/cognitiv...20657.html

Most of the articles citing football as the most dangerous were early studies in 2012 and a bit later. The article cited is from March 2017. A wider variety of sports besides football were researched for high schools. The results showed that Women's Soccer was indeed the sport that suffered the highest % of concussions among participants.

I'm sure just as it has been with every health related caution that there are studies all over the place on this topic, but none of them has women's soccer lower than 3rd in causation.

Editorial note: For some reason this link won't work. Just Google "Which High School Sports suffer the most concussions" and look for the March issue of Consumer Health Day. Sorry for the inconvenience.

But Stug is correct in as much as it will be politicized. Which may become the #1 cause of concussion as many Americans will wind up banging their head against the wall over the issue.

The one thing that makes me pause is that the study concluded that baseball and girls volleyball had the largest increase in concussions. Really? Both my kids play club volleyball, school volleyball and sand volleyball. Its an 11+ month a year sport. I see way, way too much volleyball. The only, and I mean only, kid that ever saw pulled off a court and sent to the trainers for a potential concussion was my son. It was a fluke incidence and it turned out that he was fine. I am over 50 and I have seen 1 concussion in baseball and it was the result of a player slipping on wet grass in the outfield. There may be more, but its rare that one hits their head during a baseball game.

I have to honest, I question many of the diagnoses of concussion. These trainers are so, so very careful that every blow to the head or near the head is considered a concussion. Further, I think trainers are even more careful with girls. Now, I get that soccer can be a rough sport. I do think concussions happen. But, I think our definition of a concussion has expanded so much that the number of the concussions in girls soccer is a result of that expanded definition.

As for football, it is a dying sport among kids in many areas. I see concussion fears driving numbers down in suburbs, more affluent areas and ethnic areas less familiar with the sport. Football numbers are way down in cities due to other factors besides concussions. It seems to me that the numbers are still strong in rural areas. The lifestyle probably has something to do with it. Long term, I think football has a numbers problem. Baseball compensated for the lack of inner city youth playing the sport by going outside the country. Given the expense of football, it may be impossible to mimic that strategy. But, they are going to have to figure out something.

It isn't just concussions. I have three brothers. We all played HS FB. We all have lingering affects (knees, hips, lower back) from the game. If I had to do it over again I would have focused on baseball and basketball. Both sports I played in college, both sports which I had to quit due to lingering hip and back injuries sustained playing football.

My son is 12. He plays soccer and is a competitive skier. He likes to watch FB, has no interest in playing. There are more options these days. Along with single sport specialization I expect FB numbers will continue to fall. Will it disappear? No.

I suspect that what you point out may become a more compelling argument against playing football than just concussions. Chronic pain, and the availability of addictive pain killing drugs, are a natural byproduct of any sport in which the prevailing culture applauds those who "play through the pain".

Football is, at its core, a "gladiator sport". But in the time of the real gladiators, few of them lived beyond their "playing days". Football players do. Even professional football players do. They just don't live as long as other people.

Just as Howard Beale was the first to be shot on television for having poor ratings (Network), Gladiators may yet be resurrected. Since TV ratings are predicated upon sex and violence it is only a matter of time.

(08-23-2017 03:18 PM)miko33 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 11:56 AM)Chappy Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 10:47 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 09:05 AM)Chappy Wrote:  Cheerleading and Soccer have higher concussion rates than football, with Girls Soccer having the highest rate of any sport.

I wonder if headgear will be mandatory in Girls Soccer soon.

The above is a lie. I can see this become a political creed however

You'll have to take that up with Dr. Wellington Hsu. He is a professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University.

The big difference is that football players wear helmets while soccer players do not. But then I guess you get into the debate of whether wearing a helmet leads to more concussions since you tend to get a little careless with your head.

You have 2 issues going on with football. Concussions are the more "acute" issues pertaining to head traumas. However, the chronic condition is the CTE damage that accumulates over time that is based on the brain rocking in the skull. This can accumulate even without experiencing concussions - only repeated hard collisions. Add in the additional issues with long term/permanent damage to joints and it makes it even easier for the parents to start forbidding kids to play the sport.

I agree with the poster who stated that it will become the sport of the poor. It will be a way out of the poverty of the inner city.

Really?

So if football is going to become a sport for poor people in the inner city. You better tell all of those mega schools in suburbs that usually win the championships to cancel their programs.

My goodness when did America become full of such pansies? If you don't want hit then just sit in the stands or become a cheerleader. Who does or does not play football has nothing to do with finances.

(08-23-2017 12:04 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Well the collisions in soccer are part of the issue, but the header as a shot might one day vanish due to this.

Head-to-head collisions are the only issue in soccer. They are rare compared to helmet-to-helmet hits in American football, but you're right that headers might someday be banned in soccer to avoid head-to-head collisions. I think that heading the ball is already banned (in sanctioned U.S. youth leagues) under the age of 12 or so for that reason.

And, as pointed out above, NOT having a helmet is probably more safe because it makes players more conscious of the dangers of head-to-head impact and makes them try to avoid it, whereas in American football, players are taught to use their helmet and head as a weapon.

Quote:Johnson, however, would find his calling in fall practices with “stun and separate,” a technique that Cabral had mastered while winning a Super Bowl with Chicago in the mid-1980s. Under Cabral’s tutelage, Johnson learned to drop larger offensive players with a single hit: forehead to the chinstrap, grab the breastplate of the shoulder pads and shove, a viciously lethal movement that cleared the way into the backfield.

(08-24-2017 07:30 AM)miko33 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 04:50 PM)Shox Wrote:  Fake news...When schools in the Midwest start cancelling football seasons I will pay attention. Rich liberal schools in NYC and San Francisco dropping it in favor of "safer sports" should take a look at the concussion rates in soccer first. I have yet to see any evidence of college players and CTE. The pro's are different and they are paid handsomely to abuse their bodies. If guys were smart they would start shortening their careers significantly to avoid the abuse though. However, most of those guys are just wired to physically compete no different than a lab that loves to retrieve. It is hard to tell them to just walk away.

Edit: I see the soccer thing has already been beat to death.

I live in a big time football state in the Midwest. Friends of ours have a kid that is a freshman in HS. When he was in 7th grade, he sustained a concussion that had lingering symptoms for about a year. He no longer plays football today. In the past, there would have been enough pressure that he would have soldiered on. I no longer see that as the dominant mindset today. Football is the most important sport for this HS - they went to the state championship game in their division the previous 2 seasons.

Sure, this is just one anecdote. However, I think it's descriptive of the awareness that both the kids and parents have now vs 10 years ago and earlier. Fewer kids are going to play with hidden injuries. The injury situation in HS football is wide spread. While there are plenty of kids who get away from the game with no long term effects, there are plenty of kids who don't. "Trick" knees, lower back injuries, etc that are chronic conditions on top of the head trauma risks are making people more wary of the sport. IMHO, fewer kids will play as time moves on.

I am 100% ok with and this is a good thing for the sport. If a kid has a bad knee, is prone to concussions, etc then it is good thing to hold them out of contact sports. That is smart parenting and the kid will be better off for it. The one negative of football is the tough guy perception that is celebrated, no sport is worth long term injury and health risk. Healthy and love football, then great, tryouts are next week.

(08-24-2017 02:45 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 03:18 PM)miko33 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 11:56 AM)Chappy Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 10:47 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 09:05 AM)Chappy Wrote:  Cheerleading and Soccer have higher concussion rates than football, with Girls Soccer having the highest rate of any sport.

I wonder if headgear will be mandatory in Girls Soccer soon.

The above is a lie. I can see this become a political creed however

You'll have to take that up with Dr. Wellington Hsu. He is a professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University.

The big difference is that football players wear helmets while soccer players do not. But then I guess you get into the debate of whether wearing a helmet leads to more concussions since you tend to get a little careless with your head.

You have 2 issues going on with football. Concussions are the more "acute" issues pertaining to head traumas. However, the chronic condition is the CTE damage that accumulates over time that is based on the brain rocking in the skull. This can accumulate even without experiencing concussions - only repeated hard collisions. Add in the additional issues with long term/permanent damage to joints and it makes it even easier for the parents to start forbidding kids to play the sport.

I agree with the poster who stated that it will become the sport of the poor. It will be a way out of the poverty of the inner city.

Really?

So if football is going to become a sport for poor people in the inner city. You better tell all of those mega schools in suburbs that usually win the championships to cancel their programs.

My goodness when did America become full of such pansies? If you don't want hit then just sit in the stands or become a cheerleader. Who does or does not play football has nothing to do with finances.

Respectfully, there is a difference between being tough and being stupid. More and more people are reviewing the injury potential with football and are drawing the conclusions that the upside potential is not worth the injury risks. I've met and grew up with a number of people who wish they never played football given the chronic injuries experienced today.

As shown in the OP thread and stated by others in this thread, the reasonable conclusions to draw from all this are that middle class and upper class families are dissuading their kids from pursuing football. Even some of the kids themselves are choosing to bypass it in favor of other sports. It will be a gateway for poor people to walk thru to escape poverty - if they are good enough.

IMHO, baseball will reassert itself as the most popular sport in the U.S. within the next 10 years. Much of it will be due to the reduced interest in kids participating in it coupled with the known research on concussions and CTE in particular.

(08-24-2017 03:34 PM)miko33 Wrote:  

(08-24-2017 02:45 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 03:18 PM)miko33 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 11:56 AM)Chappy Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 10:47 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  The above is a lie. I can see this become a political creed however

You'll have to take that up with Dr. Wellington Hsu. He is a professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University.

The big difference is that football players wear helmets while soccer players do not. But then I guess you get into the debate of whether wearing a helmet leads to more concussions since you tend to get a little careless with your head.

You have 2 issues going on with football. Concussions are the more "acute" issues pertaining to head traumas. However, the chronic condition is the CTE damage that accumulates over time that is based on the brain rocking in the skull. This can accumulate even without experiencing concussions - only repeated hard collisions. Add in the additional issues with long term/permanent damage to joints and it makes it even easier for the parents to start forbidding kids to play the sport.

I agree with the poster who stated that it will become the sport of the poor. It will be a way out of the poverty of the inner city.

Really?

So if football is going to become a sport for poor people in the inner city. You better tell all of those mega schools in suburbs that usually win the championships to cancel their programs.

My goodness when did America become full of such pansies? If you don't want hit then just sit in the stands or become a cheerleader. Who does or does not play football has nothing to do with finances.

Respectfully, there is a difference between being tough and being stupid. More and more people are reviewing the injury potential with football and are drawing the conclusions that the upside potential is not worth the injury risks. I've met and grew up with a number of people who wish they never played football given the chronic injuries experienced today.

As shown in the OP thread and stated by others in this thread, the reasonable conclusions to draw from all this are that middle class and upper class families are dissuading their kids from pursuing football. Even some of the kids themselves are choosing to bypass it in favor of other sports. It will be a gateway for poor people to walk thru to escape poverty - if they are good enough.

IMHO, baseball will reassert itself as the most popular sport in the U.S. within the next 10 years. Much of it will be due to the reduced interest in kids participating in it coupled with the known research on concussions and CTE in particular.

Baseball has a lot to offer. It's historically our sport now exported to many other countries. It has statistically fewer head injuries, and fewer serious injuries overall than most sports. and it emphasizes both team and individual excellence.

And for a society glued to electronic devices with clocks and the attention span of gnats I would argue that baseball has a lot to teach us about a healthy pace of life. It is the only sport where equal opportunities to score are required, and where a clock cannot determine your fate. The strategies are intricate and encompass the entire competition. In that regard it is more like learning how to plan a lifetime than to schedule your day.

They just need to decide on standards for the wrap of the ball (density) and the consistency of the bats. Do that and keep the juice out of the game and we are set! I might add it is one of the few contests in life where the players converse with opponents and officials during the game. We could learn a little bit of that approach to how we deal with law officials, and our opposition politically.

Play ball!

(08-24-2017 03:34 PM)miko33 Wrote:  

(08-24-2017 02:45 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 03:18 PM)miko33 Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 11:56 AM)Chappy Wrote:  

(08-23-2017 10:47 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  The above is a lie. I can see this become a political creed however

You'll have to take that up with Dr. Wellington Hsu. He is a professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University.

The big difference is that football players wear helmets while soccer players do not. But then I guess you get into the debate of whether wearing a helmet leads to more concussions since you tend to get a little careless with your head.

You have 2 issues going on with football. Concussions are the more "acute" issues pertaining to head traumas. However, the chronic condition is the CTE damage that accumulates over time that is based on the brain rocking in the skull. This can accumulate even without experiencing concussions - only repeated hard collisions. Add in the additional issues with long term/permanent damage to joints and it makes it even easier for the parents to start forbidding kids to play the sport.

I agree with the poster who stated that it will become the sport of the poor. It will be a way out of the poverty of the inner city.

Really?

So if football is going to become a sport for poor people in the inner city. You better tell all of those mega schools in suburbs that usually win the championships to cancel their programs.

My goodness when did America become full of such pansies? If you don't want hit then just sit in the stands or become a cheerleader. Who does or does not play football has nothing to do with finances.

Respectfully, there is a difference between being tough and being stupid. More and more people are reviewing the injury potential with football and are drawing the conclusions that the upside potential is not worth the injury risks. I've met and grew up with a number of people who wish they never played football given the chronic injuries experienced today.

As shown in the OP thread and stated by others in this thread, the reasonable conclusions to draw from all this are that middle class and upper class families are dissuading their kids from pursuing football. Even some of the kids themselves are choosing to bypass it in favor of other sports. It will be a gateway for poor people to walk thru to escape poverty - if they are good enough.

IMHO, baseball will reassert itself as the most popular sport in the U.S. within the next 10 years. Much of it will be due to the reduced interest in kids participating in it coupled with the known research on concussions and CTE in particular.

You make good points but "baseball will become the most popular sport in the U.S. Within the next 10 years"----hahahahaha

Did you see this article on ESPN.com. Wow!

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_...settlement

I know it is not settled science. People who have never played football get ALS, get dementia. But continued articles like this could really bring a tipping point. Parents are very protective these days.