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Haven’t read this yet.

Reading it now.

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What does it mean that the most popular and unifying form of entertainment in America … features giant muscled men, mostly African-American, engaged in a sport that causes many of them to suffer brain damage?

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As Susan Margulies, a concussion expert at the University of Pennsylvania, explained to Charlie Rose, no helmet has been devised that can “effectively reduce the rotational acceleration, that sloshing within the head that’s happening in the brain itself.”

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Randle El is just one of many players to point out that the violent nature of the game — the focus of our guilty pleasure — is the same thing that breaks spines, shatters bones, renders middle-aged men demented.

Margaret Soltan, January 23, 2016 4:29PM
Posted in: sport

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One Response to “Haven’t read this yet.”

  1. charlie Says:

    A perfect tackle, one which the defensive player explodes into the midsection or legs of the opponent, causes the most damage. Reason is that the opponents head will whiplash, and it’s that movement which causes the brain to hit the skull. The worst tackle are the ones aimed at the head because it is a far smaller target than the midsection of the body. The idea that helmets are going to protect from direct head blows misses the point.

    I don’t know if any helmet can protect from form tackles, which is, according to the game’s logic, clean and professional. But several years of that kind of punishment is going to create brain damage, there is no way to mitigate that problem. And with players getting so much bigger and faster, causing more energetic collisions, brain trauma is a guarantee…

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