Follow Up On Baning Football, Now SI's Peter King Is Thinking About Banning FB

[mu03eng]

First of all, using wiki answers as your primary source might not be the best way to support an argument. Second, while I was only 5 at the time, I have never heard of Doo Duk Kim. I would imagine most people in their 30s have no idea who he is, and certainly wouldn't blame him for boxing not being popular.

But third, and most important, you are trying to compare a guy dying in the ring to guys taking their lives years after their careers ended. That isn't apples to oranges, it's apples to couches. Do you really think the families of Duerson or Seau would stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting a dime out of the NFL for a wrongful death suit? If 5-10 NFL players were dying each year on the field of play, you might be on to something. But 2 guys committing suicide years later? Sorry, but that argument has less than zero traction. Unless you can prove the suicide rate of NFL players is wildly higher than the suicide rate of the average citizen (about 12/100,000), there's simply nothing to this but sensationalism.

+1

[GGGG]

First of all, using wiki answers as your primary source might not be the best way to support an argument. Second, while I was only 5 at the time, I have never heard of Doo Duk Kim. I would imagine most people in their 30s have no idea who he is, and certainly wouldn't blame him for boxing not being popular.

Duk Koo Kim...I didn't realize he came up in conversation.  I remember that fight.  I remember when he died.  However, everything that fight may have done to undermine boxing, Mike Tyson's emergence undid.  And when he was at his peak, he was an absolutely brutal fighter.  And not all his fights were on pay-per-view.  I remember when he completely annihilated Marvis Frazier on a Saturday afternoon on Wide World of Sports.  He was a thing.

What undermined boxing was pay-per-view and too many champions.

[brewcity77]

What undermined boxing was pay-per-view and too many champions.

That coupled with a weak heavyweight division. The heavyweights have always been the prize draw, but neither the quality nor quantity is there that once was. Obviously the Ali, Frazier, Holmes, Foreman era was a golden age, and while Tyson and Holyfield were great, the quality and quantity of top heavyweights has simply dwindled.

[Tugg Speedman]

First of all, using wiki answers as your primary source might not be the best way to support an argument. Second, while I was only 5 at the time, I have never heard of Doo Duk Kim. I would imagine most people in their 30s have no idea who he is, and certainly wouldn't blame him for boxing not being popular.

But third, and most important, you are trying to compare a guy dying in the ring to guys taking their lives years after their careers ended. That isn't apples to oranges, it's apples to couches. Do you really think the families of Duerson or Seau would stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting a dime out of the NFL for a wrongful death suit? If 5-10 NFL players were dying each year on the field of play, you might be on to something. But 2 guys committing suicide years later? Sorry, but that argument has less than zero traction. Unless you can prove the suicide rate of NFL players is wildly higher than the suicide rate of the average citizen (about 12/100,000), there's simply nothing to this but sensationalism.

An anonymous internet message board looking down its nose at wiki's credibility.  Wow, is this the pot calling the kettle black!!

What part of the Duk Doo Kim Wiki is inaccurate?  I remember the fight as I watched it live and that is largely how I remember it.

The golden era of boxing was the 1910s (Jack Johnson) to the 1950s, not the 1970s.  Like I noted before, the Gene Tunney Jack Dempsey "long count fight" was 1927 in Solider Field in Chicago drew 135,000.  Try doing that today with anything other than the Superbowl in Soldier's Field.  Try doing that with any entertainment draw today in Soldier's Field.  My point is whatever you though boxing was in the 1970s, it was orders of magnitude more popular in the 1910s to 1950s.  Tyson's uptick in popularity was a small correction in a larger bear market for boxing popularity driven by "cultured people" getting turned off by excessive violence and deaths. If it happened to boxing, it can happen to football.


Lastly, regarding the statement "apples to couches" ... my fear is the NFL is going to lose this lawsuit and it is going to have a profound effect on football.  High school football is going to end as insurance is going to be too expensive.


http://nflheadinjurylawsuits.com/


More players file concussion lawsuits against the NFL

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-05-03/worldsport/sport_nfl-lawsuit_1_concussions-deceased-nfl-players-player-safety?_s=PM:WORLDSPORT

More than 100 former professional football players, including former Atlanta Falcons Jamal Anderson, Chris Doleman, and O.J. Santiago, are adding their names a growing list of players suing the NFL.

They join more than 1,500 other players who claim that the National Football League hid the dangers of concussions from them.

The latest lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta by attorney Mike McGlamry, states that the NFL "repeatedly refuted the connection between concussions and brain injury."

It goes on to assert that the organization failed "to take reasonable steps necessary to protect players from devastating head injuries. Moreover, the NFL has downplayed and misrepresented the issues and misled players concerning the risks associated with concussions."

Regarding these claims, the NFL has repeatedly stated that player safety is a priority. The NFL has said that "any allegation that the NFL intentionally sought to mislead players has no merit."

Similar suits against the NFL have already been consolidated for trial in Philadelphia, but a trial date has not been set.

The filing cites recent scientific studies that have found a connection between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease that results in Alzheimer's-like symptoms, including memory loss and mood swings.

CTE results only from repeated blows to the head, and can be diagnosed only after death. According to the lawsuit, 12 cases of CTE have been detected in deceased NFL players.

Former Green Bay Packer Dorsey Levens, who McGlamry also represents, says that when he played in the mid-1990s, he had no idea of the consequences the game could have. He filed suit in January of this year.

At the time of the filing, Levens told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, "I wasn't worried at all, you know, because that's the way you play the game of football. We weren't aware of the long-term ramifications of concussions like we are today. So I didn't worry about it when I played."

[brewcity77]

The golden era of boxing was the 1910s (Jack Johnson) to the 1950s, not the 1970s.  Like I noted before, the Gene Tunney Jack Dempsey "long count fight" was 1927 in Solider Field in Chicago drew 135,000.  Try doing that today with anything other than the Superbowl in Soldier's Field.  Try doing that with any entertainment draw today in Soldier's Field.  My point is whatever you though boxing was in the 1970s, it was orders of magnitude more popular in the 1910s to 1950s.  Tyson's uptick in popularity was a small correction in a larger bear market for boxing popularity driven by "cultured people" getting turned off by excessive violence and deaths. If it happened to boxing, it can happen to football.

Completely fallacious comparison. You can't compare the attendance figure of any sporting event in 1927 to modern day. Not in an era of television. People attended events because it was the only way to see them. That's not the case today. If you can't get ringside or courtside or on the 50, there are many that would rather stay at home and watch the game from the comfort of their own home. Imagine if you had a Super Bowl that wasn't televised. Think they'd have any trouble selling 135,000 seats if the venue was large enough? My bet is they could probably sell 250,000+ if they could find somewhere to house that many people and there was no televised coverage.

Lastly, regarding the statement "apples to couches" ... my fear is the NFL is going to lose this lawsuit and it is going to have a profound effect on football.  High school football is going to end as insurance is going to be too expensive.

As far as either ending, they may change, but they won't end. The Levens comments are particularly relevant. He says "we weren't aware of the long-term ramifications". I have little doubt the NFL will argue they also weren't aware of those ramifications. All of these players have physicians, and with how often guys get second opinions, I'm sure not every doctor they talked to was in the NFL's pocket. If their physicians weren't telling them all the risks, why is it the NFL's duty to do additional research? I understand it should be, but from a legal perspective, it will be hard to prove the NFL culpable of deliberately covering up medical information from the players, which is what it will take to win that lawsuit.

Two things will keep youth-level football alive. The first will be a waiver system. Kids like playing football. Lots of parents, even despite the risk, like having their kids play football. I am pretty sure some schools require waivers to be signed already that take the school out of the liability equation, but those will be ramped up to make sure that the parent's insurance is responsible for the child's well-being. Second, if that fails, the NFL will simply have to follow the European soccer model and begin a club format that lets the children play under their umbrella. You'll see teams setting up youth leagues around the country and players directly funneling up the ranks to the pro level. It will essentially be a minor-league system that starts somewhere from age 8-12. It wouldn't surprise me if they even started paying some kids at those ages. And of course, waivers, waivers, waivers.

The NFL will either beat or buy out that impending lawsuit (I'd put money down that they'll beat it), make a move to "improve safety", though whether it actually does or not will remain to be seen, and they'll adapt, just as all sports must do to survive. But saying that the sport could be gone in 10 years? That's preposterous.

[RushmoreAcademy]

Basketball is a far more television friendly sport than football. It surprises me that it hasn't become more popular over here. Not sure I want to open that can of worms, though.

I know personally some fans that like football because the commitment is a lot less.  "Television friendly" to someone that doesn't really like sports much may be only being on once a week.  Wives may be more likely to get behind that that an 82 games hockey or NBA season, or a 162 game MLB season.  Even with college basketball, if you like the sport as a whole, you can see games many days a week, while if you are a fan of just pro or just college football, you can theoretically get it all out of the way in a day.

[Henry Sugar]

I posted the link to this article, but am going to repost it in full.  Personally, I believe that it is neither a foregone conclusion that football will go away nor that football will remain at its current level of popularity.  I find it entirely plausible that football's overall popularity could go down significantly and be impacted by CTE and concussions.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7559458/cte-concussion-crisis-economic-look-end-football

====

What Would the End of Football Look Like?
An economic perspective on CTE and the concussion crisis
By Tyler Cowen and Kevin Grier on February 9, 2012

The NFL is done for the year, but it is not pure fantasy to suggest that it may be done for good in the not-too-distant future. How might such a doomsday scenario play out and what would be the economic and social consequences?

By now we're all familiar with the growing phenomenon of head injuries and cognitive problems among football players, even at the high school level. In 2009, Malcolm Gladwell asked whether football might someday come to an end, a concern seconded recently by Jonah Lehrer.

Before you say that football is far too big to ever disappear, consider the history: If you look at the stocks in the Fortune 500 from 1983, for example, 40 percent of those companies no longer exist. The original version of Napster no longer exists, largely because of lawsuits. No matter how well a business matches economic conditions at one point in time, it's not a lock to be a leader in the future, and that is true for the NFL too. Sports are not immune to these pressures. In the first half of the 20th century, the three big sports were baseball, boxing, and horse racing, and today only one of those is still a marquee attraction.

The most plausible route to the death of football starts with liability suits.1 Precollegiate football is already sustaining 90,000 or more concussions each year. If ex-players start winning judgments, insurance companies might cease to insure colleges and high schools against football-related lawsuits. Coaches, team physicians, and referees would become increasingly nervous about their financial exposure in our litigious society. If you are coaching a high school football team, or refereeing a game as a volunteer, it is sobering to think that you could be hit with a $2 million lawsuit at any point in time. A lot of people will see it as easier to just stay away. More and more modern parents will keep their kids out of playing football, and there tends to be a "contagion effect" with such decisions; once some parents have second thoughts, many others follow suit. We have seen such domino effects with the risks of smoking or driving without seatbelts, two unsafe practices that were common in the 1960s but are much rarer today. The end result is that the NFL's feeder system would dry up and advertisers and networks would shy away from associating with the league, owing to adverse publicity and some chance of being named as co-defendants in future lawsuits.

It may not matter that the losses from these lawsuits are much smaller than the total revenue from the sport as a whole. As our broader health care sector indicates (try buying private insurance when you have a history of cancer treatment), insurers don't like to go where they know they will take a beating. That means just about everyone could be exposed to fear of legal action.

This slow death march could easily take 10 to 15 years. Imagine the timeline. A couple more college players — or worse, high schoolers — commit suicide with autopsies showing CTE. A jury makes a huge award of $20 million to a family. A class-action suit shapes up with real legs, the NFL keeps changing its rules, but it turns out that less than concussion levels of constant head contact still produce CTE. Technological solutions (new helmets, pads) are tried and they fail to solve the problem. Soon high schools decide it isn't worth it. The Ivy League quits football, then California shuts down its participation, busting up the Pac-12. Then the Big Ten calls it quits, followed by the East Coast schools. Now it's mainly a regional sport in the southeast and Texas/Oklahoma. The socioeconomic picture of a football player becomes more homogeneous: poor, weak home life, poorly educated. Ford and Chevy pull their advertising, as does IBM and eventually the beer companies.

There's a lot less money in the sport, and at first it's "the next hockey" and then it's "the next rugby," and finally the franchises start to shutter.

Along the way, you would have an NFL with much lower talent levels, less training, and probably greater player representation from poorer countries, where the demand for money is higher and the demand for safety is lower. Finally, the NFL is marginalized as less-dangerous sports gobble up its market share. People — American people — might actually start calling "soccer" by the moniker of "football."

Despite its undeniable popularity — and the sense that the game is everywhere — the aggregate economic effect of losing the NFL would not actually be that large. League revenues are around $10 billion per year while U.S. GDP is around $15,300 billion. But that doesn't mean everyone would be fine.

Big stadiums will lose a lot of their value and that will drag down neighboring bars and restaurants, causing a lot of them to shut their doors. Cable TV will be less profitable, and this will hasten the movement of TV-watching, if we can still call it that, to the web. Super Bowl Sunday will no longer be the best time to go shopping for a new car at the dealership.

Take Green Bay as a case study: A 2009 study of the economic impact of the Packers' stadium estimated "$282 million in output, 2,560 jobs and $124.3 million in earnings, and $15.2 million in tax revenues." That's small potatoes for the national economy as a whole, but for a small and somewhat remote city of 104,000, it is a big deal indeed.2

Any location where football is the only game in town will suffer. If the Jets and Giants go, New York still has numerous other pro sports teams, Broadway, high-end shopping, skyscrapers, fine dining, and many other cultural activities. If college football dies, Norman, Oklahoma (current home to one of us), has … noodling? And what about Clemson, in South Carolina, which relies on the periodic weekend football surge into town for its restaurant and retail sales? Imagine a small place of 12,000 people that periodically receives a sudden influx of 100,000 visitors or more, most of them eager to spend money on what is one of their major leisure outings. It's like a port in the Caribbean losing its cruise ship traffic. (Overall, the loss of football could actually increase migration from rural to urban areas over time. Football-dependent areas are especially prominent in rural America, and some of them will lose a lot of money and jobs.)

Outside of sports, American human capital and productivity probably rise. No football Saturdays on college campuses means less binge drinking, more studying, better grades, smarter future adults. Losing thousands of college players and hundreds of pro players might produce a few more doctors or engineers. Plus, talented coaches and general managers would gravitate toward management positions in American industry. Heck, just getting rid of fantasy football probably saves American companies hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Other losers include anything that depends heavily on football to be financially viable, including the highly subsidized non-revenue collegiate sports. No more air travel for the field hockey teams or golf squads. Furthermore, many prominent universities would lose their main claim to fame. Alabama and LSU produce a large amount of revenue and notoriety from football without much in the way of first-rate academics to back it up. Schools would have to compete more on academics to be nationally prominent, which would again boost American education.

One of the biggest winners would be basketball. To the extent that fans replace football with another sport (instead of meth or oxy), high-octane basketball is the natural substitute. On the pro level, the season can stretch out leisurely, ticket prices rise, ratings rise, maybe the league expands (more great athletes in the pool now), and some of the centers and power forwards will have more bulk. At the college level, March Madness becomes the only game in town.

Another winner would be track and field. Future Rob Gronkowskis in the decathlon? Future Jerome Simpsons in the high jump? World records would fall at a rapid pace.

This outcome may sound ridiculous, but the collapse of football is more likely than you might think. If recent history has shown anything, it is that observers cannot easily imagine the big changes in advance. Very few people were predicting the collapse of the Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany, or the rise of China as an economic power. Once you start thinking through how the status quo might unravel, a sports universe without the NFL at its center no longer seems absurd.

So … Tennis, anyone?

Tyler and Kevin are academic economists who think the dismal science can shed some light on the inner workings of the sports world. Follow them on Twitter: Tyler is @tylercowen, Kevin is @ez_angus.

[Henry Sugar]

One more point to quote from another article

"In the last 20 years, 15,000 men have played in the NFL and less than 4% have played longer than 4 years.

This is a telling statistic because how many men can take the abuse for longer than 4 years? How many men have the skill to last longer than 4 years? Well, it is only about 652" (players).

Ever since I heard that statistic about the NFL, it's blown my mind.  When you look at the list of players suffering from CTE, depression, or other long-term illnesses, think about it in the context of "out of 652 players"

[Tugg Speedman]

This is not going away, and today's story is only going to increase the calls to "do something."

Junior Seau Diagnosed With Disease Caused by Hits to Head: Exclusive

http://abcnews.go.com/US/junior-seau-diagnosed-brain-disease-caused-hits-head/story?id=18171785


By JIM AVILA (@JimAvilaABC) , LAUREN PEARLE and RUSSELL GOLDMAN (@GoldmanRussell)
Jan. 10, 2013

A team of scientists who analyzed the brain tissue of renowned NFL linebacker Junior Seau after his suicide last year have concluded the football player suffered a debilitating brain disease likely caused by two decades worth of hits to the head, researchers and his family exclusively told ABC News and ESPN.

In May, Seau, 43 -- football's monster in the middle, a perennial all-star and defensive icon in the 1990s whose passionate hits made him a dominant figure in the NFL -- shot himself in the chest at his home in Oceanside, Calif., leaving behind four children and many unanswered questions.

Seau's family donated his brain to neuroscientists at the National Institutes for Health who are conducting ongoing research on traumatic brain injury and football players.

A team of independent researchers who did not know they were studying Seau's brain all concluded he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease typically caused by multiple hits to the head.

"What was found in Junior Seau's brain was cellular changes consistent with CTE," said Dr. Russell Lonser, chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Ohio State University, who led the study of Seau's brain while he was at NIH.

Patients with CTE, which can only be diagnosed after death, display symptoms "such as impulsivity, forgetfulness, depression, [and] sometimes suicidal ideation," Lonser said.

Seau's family described to ABC News and ESPN a long descent into depression in the years prior to his death.

Gina Seau, his ex-wife with whom he remained close following their divorce, said the linebacker had difficulty sleeping and became withdrawn and "detached emotionally" from his children. In one exchange, he described his mood as "low" and "dark."

"A lot of things, towards the end of his life, patterns that we saw and things that worried us, it makes sense now," she said of the diagnosis.

The night before his death, Seau sent a text message to his ex-wife and children in which he simply wrote, "I love you." They were the last words anyone would hear from him.

More than 30 NFL players have in recent years been diagnosed with CTE, a condition once known as "punch drunk" because it affected boxers who had taken multiple blows to the head. Last year, some 4,000 retired players filed lawsuits against the league over its alleged failure to protect players from brain injuries.

The NFL has said it did not intentionally hide the dangers of concussions from players and is doing everything it can now to protect them.

Gina Seau said she and her ex-husband expected physical injuries from playing professional football but never thought "you're putting your brain and your mental health at a greater risk."

Junior Seau, she said, was never formally diagnosed with a concussion but routinely complained of symptoms associated with concussions after receiving hits to the head during games and in practices in 20 seasons in the NFL.

"The head-to-head contact, the collisions are just, they're out of control," Gina Seau said.

"He was a warrior and he loved the game," she added. "But ... I know that he didn't love the end of his life."

For the Seaus, football gave them everything and, they believe, has now taken it all away. They understand its attraction and, all too well, its routine danger.

"I think it's a gamble," Gina Seau said. "Just be extremely aware of what could potentially happen to your life."

 None of the Seau children play football anymore and their mother is glad of that.

"It's not worth it for me to not have a dad," said one of the Seaus' sons, Tyler Seau, 23. "So, to me, it's not worth it."

Following the publication of this story, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy issued the following statement:

"We appreciate the Seau family's cooperation with the National Institutes of Health. The finding underscores the recognized need for additional research to accelerate a fuller understanding of CTE. The NFL, both directly and in partnership with the NIH, Centers for Disease Control and other leading organizations, is committed to supporting a wide range of independent medical and scientific research that will both address CTE and promote the long-term health and safety of athletes at all levels. The NFL clubs have already committed a $30 million research grant to the NIH, and we look forward to making decisions soon with the NFL Players Association on the investment of $100 million for medical research that is committed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. We have work to do, and we're doing it."

[ChicosBailBonds]

And....they will "do something" and the game will continue, and generate billions, etc, etc.  You might see better helmets, etc.

Some scientists are saying soccer heading leads to CTE...maybe the explains my memory loss.   

Smoking kills people every day, harms others, causes tremendous long term health costs to the economy.....hasn't been banned.  There are risks that people take and they know full well what they are.  Injuries are a part of football.

[Tugg Speedman]

And....they will "do something" and the game will continue, and generate billions, etc, etc.  You might see better helmets, etc.

Some scientists are saying soccer heading leads to CTE...maybe the explains my memory loss.   

Smoking kills people every day, harms others, causes tremendous long term health costs to the economy.....hasn't been banned.  There are risks that people take and they know full well what they are.  Injuries are a part of football.

I'm not arguing "they" should "do something."  I'm with you and wish it would go away but it is not going away.  Instead it is getting bigger and bigger.

Rather I'm saying this is like tobacco, the media is all over this and will not let it go.  They will keep bringing this up over and over until they change opinion.  When this happens, and the NFL loses the concussion lawsuit, that will be the end of Pop Warner and HS football as the cost of insurance will be so high no one can afford it.

People in Chiocs industry are in the middle of a speculative bubble as they promise (contracts) billions and billions to conferences and the NFL.  The problem is the media will continue to pound away that football is bad and causes concussions and ruins lives until they succeed.  "succeed" means the people in Chicos industry will make billions in the sale of advertising for this product against the promises (contracts) of billions of billions.  Restated, they are going to lose a lot of money.

[Lennys Tap]

Smoking kills people every day, harms others, causes tremendous long term health costs to the economy.....hasn't been banned.  There are risks that people take and they know full well what they are.  Injuries are a part of football.

Football won't be banned, but as people learn more about the devastating consequences that can result from playing it's popularity will ebb - just as it has for smoking.

[Avenue Commons]

I love football and played it for years. My son will not.

[Tugg Speedman]

Now Obama has weighed in on Football.

Get ready the sport is going to change and lose its popularity.

---

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112190/obama-interview-2013-sit-down-president#

Sticking with the culture of violence, but on a much less dramatic scale: I'm wondering if you, as a fan, take less pleasure in watching football, knowing the impact that the game takes on its players.

Obama:  I'm a big football fan, but I have to tell you if I had a son, I'd have to think long and hard before I let him play football. And I think that those of us who love the sport are going to have to wrestle with the fact that it will probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence. In some cases, that may make it a little bit less exciting, but it will be a whole lot better for the players, and those of us who are fans maybe won't have to examine our consciences quite as much.

I tend to be more worried about college players than NFL players in the sense that the NFL players have a union, they're grown men, they can make some of these decisions on their own, and most of them are well-compensated for the violence they do to their bodies. You read some of these stories about college players who undergo some of these same problems with concussions and so forth and then have nothing to fall back on. That's something that I'd like to see the NCAA think about.

------

When the President says that's something that I'd like to see the NCAA think about that means they are going to change the rules in a big way before next season.

[ChicosBailBonds]

He's been so prescient on so many other things......

[Tugg Speedman]

He's been so prescient on so many other things......

He's not predicting ... He's ordering

[Abode4life]

When the President says that's something that I'd like to see the NCAA think about that means they are going to change the rules in a big way before next season.

So we officially live in a dictatorship now?

[GGGG]

When the President says that's something that I'd like to see the NCAA think about that means they are going to change the rules in a big way before next season.

Uhh....no...that's not what it means at all.

[LloydMooresLegs]

Sheesh.  Guys, take it easy. That's about as measured a statement as could be made.  You may think we live in a dictatorship, but this ain't the evidence you're looking for.

[Tugg Speedman]

So we officially live in a dictatorship now?

When the President makes a statement like that and your organization (NCAA) has members that accept a lot of Government money and when you're subject to a lot of government regulation (Title IX to name just one of many) you would be foolish to not pay attention.

And no, for POTUS, that is not a measured statement.  That is a call to action.

[GGGG]

Sure...it is a call to action.  But that doesn't mean they "are going to change the rules in a big way before next season."  In fact, I doubt they are going to do much more than what the NFL has already done with regards to defense-less receivers and the like.

I think the "nothing to fall back on" comment is the one to focus on.  Compensation beyond a scholarship...more focus on providing a quality education, etc. is the issue here.

[Tugg Speedman]

Sure...it is a call to action.  But that doesn't mean they "are going to change the rules in a big way before next season."  In fact, I doubt they are going to do much more than what the NFL has already done with regards to defense-less receivers and the like.

I think the "nothing to fall back on" comment is the one to focus on.  Compensation beyond a scholarship...more focus on providing a quality education, etc. is the issue here.

I guess we are saying the same thing ... for the NCAA to adopt the NFL's rules on head injures and limiting of contact practice would be a big deal.  The NCAA's rule are no where near as stringent as the NFL.  And that could happen by next season.

[GGGG]

I guess we are saying the same thing ... for the NCAA to adopt the NFL's rules on head injures and limiting of contact practice would be a big deal.  The NCAA's rule are no where near as stringent as the NFL.  And that could happen by next season.

Well, I don't really see that as being "in a big way."  It doesn't fundamentally change the nature of the game.

[Tugg Speedman]

Well, I don't really see that as being "in a big way."  It doesn't fundamentally change the nature of the game.

HBO Real Sports did a segment on this exact subject.  Namely, why doesn't the NCAA adopt the same rules as the NFL regarding head injuries/concussion.  They concluded their was a huge push back from coaches, ADs and schools that this will change the game in a big way.

Below is the tease, if you have an HBO sign-in, you can watch it.  Or, if you subscribe to HBO on your cable system, you should be able to find it in the Video on Demand section.

http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel/index.html#/video/video.html/eNrjcmbO0CzLTEnNd8xLzKksyUx2zs8rSa0oUc-PSYEJBSSmp-ol5qYy5zMXsjGyMXIyMrKll2WmltvmlebkqKVl5pSkFtmmpSaWlBalpqgBjbM1NLI0MDA3VkssLckvyEmstC0pKk0FANbSJKI=

[GGGG]

HBO Real Sports did a segment on this exact subject.  Namely, why doesn't the NCAA adopt the same rules as the NFL regarding head injuries/concussion.  They concluded their was a huge push back from coaches, ADs and schools that this will change the game in a big way.

They're wrong.  It hasn't changed the NFL in a "big way."