Make way for the lawsuits.
But don’t hold your breath waiting for an American university with a significant football program to stop bashing its students’ brains in.
Make way for the lawsuits.
But don’t hold your breath waiting for an American university with a significant football program to stop bashing its students’ brains in.
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August 12th, 2013 at 9:07PM
As a former hs/college athlete from the 80’s, I can attest to massive increase in size of football players, as well as the jump in speed and quickness. More mass, more velocity = more energy, more powerful collisions and more brain damage. The linked article chronicles the mental deterioration of one CFB player, and says that it was caused partly to hits to the head.
I disagree. While head shots do happen, the most severe damage happens with the accumulation of hits that occur no where near the head. A form tackle, one that has been standard industry practice, involves coiling the body by dropping the hips, and exploding into the players midsection or sternum, with shoulder pads. That creates a whiplash affect, which in turn, causes the brain to hit the skull. The head is not involved in the collision, but this manner of tackle is taught from the time a kid begins playing FB in grade school.
The problem is that both high schools and universities are demanding that players get bigger, stronger, faster. Those institutions cannot claim that they’re not liable if in fact they create the conditions for massive head trauma. Further, I know that kids are getting on PED’s much earlier than what was available to us. Very few of the linebackers nor safeties, who are the catalysts of some of the most egregious hits when I played nearly 30 years ago in high school, were 200 pounds. Now, when I checked the rosters of some of the teams in my San Francisco scholastic league, very few of the linebackers are less than 200lbs, and many of the safeties are over 200. College, many current safeties are the size of 80’s linebackers. If one of these suits can find that the universities knew that their players were on the gear, and in fact, encouraged the use of the juice, I don’t see how they aren’t on the hook for millions….
August 13th, 2013 at 12:38PM
charlie : The contrast you draw with your own experience is really striking. I appreciate that background. UD
August 14th, 2013 at 12:03AM
Thanks UD. What I posted was in light of the reasons I heard when I pointed out the enormous increase in the size of the players from those of a generation ago, specifically, the kids train all year, the diets are better, or worse, depending on who you believe, the strength and conditioning (S&C) programs are so much more sophisticated, on and on.
To all that, the only response is, BULLSHIT!!! The S&C programs of the 80’s were the same as those of today, heavy use of compound Olympic lifts, (deads, squats, presses, etc) sprinting and outdoor exercise. All of that is what is currently used. So, no, things haven’t changed much, making the things are so much better now than then so much nonsense.
No, something else is going on, and it’s pretty apparent that the use of PED’s is almost growing and universal. We were told that if we worked out all year long, including in season, the most we could expect to gain was about 8 lbs of muscle. Reason being is that during the football season, a player is burning the muscle he gained in off season. FB is grueling, and it was the norm to lose weight/size during the season, making those 8 lbs of muscle growth for the year a real accomplishment.
But that’s not what’s currently happening, most especially for college. The guys are putting on as much as 25 lbs per year, even with season demands. That is impossible, if you’re not on PEDs. That alone is a clear sign of that most D1 players are on the gear, the muscle gains per year aren’t possible for a non-geared athlete.
Why is any of that important? Because if a guy like me knows what’s going on, it’s impossible for university athletic departments not to know. If AD’s know, academic knows. If academic knows, NCAA knows. No plausible deniability on this one. D1 AD’s, I believe, encourage the use of PED’s, making the inevitable collisions and tackles that much more brutal and brain damaging. Ex players, who aren’t even thirty, are manifesting serious brain malfunction, the epidemic will become apparent as more players come forward. The colleges will be on the hook for their reckless use of their football fodder….