(01-20-2019 01:09 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(01-19-2019 05:54 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Rugby coaches will insist that there is a simple way to reduce football injuries--take off the headgear.

With no helmet, players are a lot more aware of proper technique. Put it on, and they think they are invincible and can go spearing people with it.

There are (at this point admittedly isolated) places where rugby is growing as football declines because of the concussion issue.

I've heard this a lot, but I wonder if this is due in part to the fact that rugby doesn't have as much scrutiny because there's less money being thrown around. It also doesn't address the issue of rugby being far less likely to put a ball carrier in a position where there are defenders running full speed at them from in front and from behind at the same time (forward passes). Generally, a ball carrier in rugby is either in front of every defender or behind every defender, maybe with an exception for the full back that they can turn away from (turn the hits from front and back to side-on). A receiver on a crossing route is surrounded by line backers and safeties, and a running back through the line has to deal with linemen and linebackers. I'd like to see experiments where teams demonstrate American football with less or no padding to see if it's viable, but I'm not sold on it, yet.

Some questions for this board might be:

1) Would changes to the game of football, in particular, in order to further prevent/lessen risk of CTE (such as no helmets, etc...) help or hurt Rice's fortunes on the gridiron versus the present competition vis-a-vis where the program is now (has been for many decades, give or take?)

2) If the answer to 1) above is positive for our school, should we then work together in a more concerted (and public) effort with the world's largest Medical Center across the street (and within BRC) to help make it so?

3) Would helping with the "experiments" necessary to reduce these injuries/risks allow (finally) some significant additional millions from the academic budget (and dare I say, endowment) to legitimately flow directly to the athletic dept for the specific intent of improving football health (and then maybe the fortunes of our team on the field in terms of success, "moving the needle" as it were finally?)

4) And finally, would partnering in such manner with the Medical center personnel across the street help improve football attendance and interest as there would be a medical reason for those folks to attend, be interested in Rice's program specifically?