Whither Football?

I'd toss in a suggestion that would certainly be unpopular in some quarters but makes a lot of sense to me: put a weight limit on players of 220 pounds (100 kg). For a professional athlete, even a very tall one, that weight should be fine. Players would weigh in before every game.

To my eye, this has several advantages:
- Players are not actively encouraged to be overweight
- Each hit is coming in at 15-30% less force than today resulting in less short term and long term injuries.
- The game is opened up to more talented players who aren't gifted with ridiculous size.

Of course this doesn't solve the problem. High school players are noticably smaller than this and they have the same issues with concussions that the pros do. I think at the high school level, it is more about awareness and gettting players who have had their bells rung out of harms way.

- Players are not actively encouraged to be overweight

- Each hit is coming in at 15-30% less force than today resulting in less short term and long term injuries.

- The game is opened up to more talented players who aren't gifted with ridiculous size.

Of course this doesn't solve the problem. High school players are noticably smaller than this and they have the same issues with concussions that the pros do. I think at the high school level, it is more about awareness and gettting players who have had their bells rung out of harms way.

Impossible. The average weight of a lineman is something like 300 pounds. You'd basically be talking about getting rid of every single lineman in the game who is currently playing. That isn't going to happen.

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- Players are not actively encouraged to be overweight

Players are already not actively encouraged to be overweight. In the modern game, overweight=super slow and that just doesn't cut it.

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- Each hit is coming in at 15-30% less force than today resulting in less short term and long term injuries.

I don't think this is necessarily true at all. Lower weight = higher speed. The higher speeds of impact will compensate somewhat for the lowered mass.

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- The game is opened up to more talented players who aren't gifted with ridiculous size.

The game is already wide-open to players of all sizes. I'd say there's probably a bigger variation in body sizes in football than any other sport.

BOSTON — The suicide of the former Chicago Bears star Dave Duerson became more alarming Monday, when Boston University researchers announced that his brain had developed the same trauma-induced disease recently found in more than 20 deceased players.

The diagnosis adds a new and perhaps pivotal chapter to football’s still-unfolding narrative surrounding concussions. Duerson shot himself Feb. 17 in the chest rather than the head, presumably so that his brain could be examined by Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, which announced its diagnosis.

[...]

“It’s tragic that Dave Duerson took his own life, but it’s very meaningful that he recognized the symptoms of the disorder — it validates this condition,” said Dr. Ann McKee, the neuropathologist who examined Duerson’s brain. She said she found indisputable evidence of C.T.E. in the tissue samples, with “no evidence of any other disorder.”

We don't know what happened. We will never know what happened to Junior Seau. For me, that was the problem. The NFL has never been a reliable arbiter on player safety and brain injury. I don't want to sit around with my beer and wings on Sunday and wonder whether my pastime contributed to the murder of a young mother and the orphaning of a little girl. I'm just not up for it.

Doctors: Junior Seau's brain had CTE

SAN DIEGO -- Junior Seau, who committed suicide in May, two years after retiring as one of the premier
linebackers in NFL history, suffered from the type of chronic brain damage that also has been found in
dozens of deceased former players, five brain specialists consulted by the National Institutes of Health
concluded.

Seau's ex-wife, Gina, and his oldest son Tyler, 23, told ABC News and ESPN in an exclusive interview
they were informed last week that Seau's brain had tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy,
a neurodegenerative disease that can lead to dementia, memory loss and depression.

CTE Discovered in More Than 99 Percent of Deceased NFL Players' Brains in Study

According to findings published Tuesday, more than 99 percent of brains from deceased former NFL players that were examined
for a study contained chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

The study was published by medical journal JAMA (h/t CNN.com's Daniella Emanuel), and researchers detected CTE in 110 of 111
brains from former NFL players that were donated.

The study is the largest of its kind and examined the brains of 202 deceased former football players in all.

Aside from the brains of former NFL players, CTE was found in 48 of 53 college players and three of 14 high school players.

Per Emanuel, the NFL released the following statement on the study:

"The medical and scientific communities will benefit from this publication and the NFL will continue to work
with a wide range of experts to improve the health of current and former NFL athletes. ... There are still many
unanswered questions relating to the cause, incidence and prevalence of long-term effects of head trauma such
as CTE."

The league also noted that it contributed $100 million to neuroscience research in 2016 in addition to the $100 million it was
already spending on the cause along with its partners.

Within the study it was suggested that, while CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously, symptoms such as depression and anxiety
can exist in the living.

The brains that were found to contain CTE will be further studied in an effort to see if there are genetic links present with regard
to the disease.

It might sound shocking, but it's not a new revelation for Dr. Bennet Omalu, author of Truth Doesn't Have a Side. If his name sounds familiar, you may have seen him portrayed by Will Smith in the Hollywood movie version of his story, Concussion.

'There is no justifiable reason whatsoever why a child under the age of 18 should continue to play these games.'
- Dr. Bennet Omalu


The Nigerian-American forensic pathologist and neuropathologist discovered the condition and coined the term CTE back in 2002. He warns CTE is only one condition of a very broad spectrum of diseases following blows to the head.

"If your child plays any of these high impact, high contact, coalition sports and receives repeated blows to the head … your child is more likely to die before the age of 42 through violent means," Dr. Omalu tells The Current's host Megan Williams.

He adds that a child has about two to four times increased risk of committing suicide or suffering from a major psychiatric illness, including major depression, by playing dangerous contact sports.

"Knowing what we know today, there is no justifiable reason whatsoever why a child under the age of 18 should continue to play these games. These games are potentially dangerous and should be left for only adults."

'If you love your son and daughter, why would you intentionally expose him or her to the risk of permanent brain damage.'
- Dr. Bennet Omalu

Over 15 years ago, Dr. Omalu says he warned people of the risk exposure to brain damage associated with playing contact sports. No one listened, but he believes physicians need to speak out.

"We have always known dating back centuries that in whatever human activity whereby the head is exposed to repeated blows, there is a very, very high chance of brain damage — if not 100 per cent risk of brain damage."