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Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

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Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#61

Post by k3oni »

runT1ME wrote: post #44
Azkar wrote: post #28

So what's the big picture here? We've suspected for years that football leads to brain trauma. Does that mean the NFL should shut down? Should they continue to operate as normal? There have been efforts recently to make the game safer for players, but the amount of concussions and injuries seen every season don't seem to be decreasing. Can you make the game "more safe" without drastically changing the game? Any game…

Take the helmets off. Players would no longer run at each other head first, and be forced to grapple a bit more. Concussions are en extreme rarity in grappling/wrestling sports. They can still happen, but it's a freak accident rather than an inevitability each down.

I second this, american football derived from rugby. Look at how rugby players tackle with no helmets and no padding. It really looks like adding the protective gear doesn't help the players as much as they were thinking.

Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#62

Post by troisx »

CurtMonash wrote: post #39

I abruptly stopped being a football fan last November. The immediate reason was Bill Belichick staking his own reputation on Donald Trump's assaults on the media, in a close state in a close election. But CTE was making it hard to remain a football fan anyway.

So players killing people, players beating their wives and kids, and players breaking the law constantly didn't make you stop being a fan. But one coach exercising his political rights did. Fascinating.

Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#63

Post by learc83 »

ineptech wrote: post #34

Has "whether you let your kids play football" joined the long, long list of boolean values that separate members of the Red Tribe from the Blue Tribe? If not, I think it's inevitable that it will. Someone will try to get their school to close its football program, someone else will complain that the health dangers are exaggerated by the liberal media because football is a red-state passtime, and pretty soon it'll be…

There's already plenty of red state soccer moms that refuse to let their kids play football.

Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#64

Post by amelius »

magic_beans wrote: post #47

"Urschel is pursuing his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the offseason, focusing on spectral graph theory, numerical linear algebra and machine learning." This guy has a back-up plan. Good man.

Sounds like a very broad plan to me.

Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#65

Post by aresant »

A few colorful facts to the story here:

1) 3 years of service vests into NFL pension plan, he just hit qualification - value pegged at $21,360 a year for life (3)

2) He has not publicly commented on his retirement or reasons for it.

3) He has a hugely awesome secondary option - doctorate of math at MIT

4) He was at end of his rookie contract, next year would be the "in the money" year for him so he is clearly leaving a lot of cash on the table.

5) Over three years he "only" earned ~$1.8m http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/baltimore-ravens/john-urschel-145... - which after tax is 7 figures but still not a lot.

6) He has been notoriously thrifty, living on $25k a year and driving a used car (2). So would imagine at some level he has been planning this outcome, or leaving option wide open.

(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/07/27...

(2) http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bs-sp-ravens-john-urschel...

(3) http://firstquarterfinance.com/nfl-pension-plan-retirement-p...

Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#66

Post by cjbprime »

Splines wrote: post #51
Azkar wrote: post #28

So what's the big picture here? We've suspected for years that football leads to brain trauma. Does that mean the NFL should shut down? Should they continue to operate as normal? There have been efforts recently to make the game safer for players, but the amount of concussions and injuries seen every season don't seem to be decreasing. Can you make the game "more safe" without drastically changing the game? Any game…

> Can you make the game "more safe" without drastically changing the game? Any game played at this high of a speed, with this strong of players is going to have some inherent danger to it. I'm only a casual watcher of football, but I think it would be possible to change the game. My non-expert impression is that the game has evolved over the years (and I could certainly be wrong) and incentivizing players to avoid ca…

I've read it may be the case that the head collisions at the snap at the start of every single play is causing CTE via microconcussions, not just the dramatic concussions you can see overtly.

Also, teams practice more than they play. Practice causes concussions too, and penalties won't help.

Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#67

Post by phkahler »

Azkar wrote: post #28

So what's the big picture here? We've suspected for years that football leads to brain trauma. Does that mean the NFL should shut down? Should they continue to operate as normal? There have been efforts recently to make the game safer for players, but the amount of concussions and injuries seen every season don't seem to be decreasing. Can you make the game "more safe" without drastically changing the game? Any game…

>> Should I feel bad as a fan for watching football? Is it any worse than buying clothing made by child labor from a third world country?

Those are personal decisions and I don't think anybody should tell you how you should feel. It's your choice how to feel about it. You get to define your own morality and live with your choices in the context of your own beliefs.

Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#68

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

Something that wasn't pointed out in the article is that the vast majority of cases where a NFL player's family donates the brain to CTE study is where they already were showing some degenerative symptoms.

They can't test for CTE on living people and if someone has it but say dies from a heart attack before ever showing symptoms, they likely aren't donating to the CTE study.

Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#69

Post by notfromhere »

HiroshiSan wrote: post #30
simlevesque wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> everyone who's getting their PhD is a genius No but anyone with a PhD has a brain worth preserving.

Everyone has a brain worth preserving...my point was when you google "John Urschel", most of what the news has to say about him is that he is a Math Genius, because he is doing his PhD at MIT, which I don't believe is the case.

No, he's considered gifted in math because he has more than a few papers already published and in review. That's noteworthy for a guy who just started his PhD

Re: Ravens OL John Urschel, 26, retires abruptly, two days after CTE study

#70

Post by pavel_lishin »

ineptech wrote: post #34

Has "whether you let your kids play football" joined the long, long list of boolean values that separate members of the Red Tribe from the Blue Tribe? If not, I think it's inevitable that it will. Someone will try to get their school to close its football program, someone else will complain that the health dangers are exaggerated by the liberal media because football is a red-state passtime, and pretty soon it'll be…

Do kids face the same risk factors as professional NFL players? Someone who plays in high school isn't necessarily going to play football for their entire life; do four years of football from ages 14-18 significantly increase risk?
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