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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

#131

Post by aanm1988 »

paulddraper wrote: post #117
aresant wrote: post #65

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…

> after tax is 7 figures but still not a lot What exactly is "a lot of money" (and how much do you think MIT professors are paid)? I think point #6 is more relevant than point #5.

Dude is doing a PhD in linear algebra and ML.

He will have the option to make a very comfortable amount of money.

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

#132

Post by heygrady »

jpttsn wrote: post #112
Stratoscope wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're actually doing is creating the kind of discourse you claim to be deriding.

How? Does nationwide political sentiment turn on HN comments?

Prescribing someone to a "tribe" based on some kind of arbitrary test is divisive.

Examples:

- People with red hats on are my friends

- People that like chocolate ice cream are idiots

- People who let their children play football are Trump voters

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

#133

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

jdelaney wrote: post #121
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That study was a bit misleading in that they only tested brains that were suspected of having CTE in the first place.

Dr. McKee, the study's author, acknowledged that and addressed it: > But 110 positives remain significant scientific evidence of an N.F.L. player’s risk of developing C.T.E., which can be diagnosed only after death. About 1,300 former players have died since the B.U. group began examining brains. So even if every one of the other 1,200 players had tested negative — which even the heartiest skeptics would agree could…

But it should not be unexpected for the number to be higher. For years people who weigh hundreds of pounds are hitting each other repeatedly. And they are paid considerably well for it. Plus, we should compare this to other sports as well, as even most non-contact sports (soccer, basketball, even baseball) have collisions from time to time. Football should have a higher percentage than those, but without knowing the percentages in even 'safe' sports, these numbers are practically meaningless.

The real issue would arise if they can somehow test high school students and find similarly high percentages (90+ percent), but since you can't test right now until they are deceased (from what I understand), that would be extremely hard to do.

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

#134

Post by cookiecaper »

paulddraper wrote: post #117
aresant wrote: post #65

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…

> after tax is 7 figures but still not a lot What exactly is "a lot of money" (and how much do you think MIT professors are paid)? I think point #6 is more relevant than point #5.

"A lot of money" is also known as "Fuck you money". Enough money that you can say "fuck you" to anyone without worrying about the consequences.

$1M is not even close to that, especially not for a young guy who has to pay for the next 60 years of his and his family's existence.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good starting point, and you can definitely be reasonably secure on it if you invest wisely and continue to work (e.g., buying a reasonably-priced house in a stable neighborhood and staying in it long term; this will take about 1/3 of that $1M, btw), but it's not enough to be truly independent. A single serious lawsuit will easily drain $1M, for example.

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

#135

Post by dceddia »

QuotedForTruth wrote: post #123
paulddraper wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> after tax is 7 figures but still not a lot What exactly is "a lot of money" (and how much do you think MIT professors are paid)? I think point #6 is more relevant than point #5.

I think the point is he isn't "set for life" like some may expect NFL players to be.

He certainly could be, if he keeps living on $25k/year. See [0] and run some calculations at [1].

0: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...

1: https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement

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

#136

Post by heygrady »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #113
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…

I played football in up through High School, and I'd definitely say I would be a different person today if I hadn't gone through it. The camaraderie amongst the team is unique amongst every experience I've had since. Plus working through something so challenging definitely provides a great level of satisfaction. I like who I am today, even if I might have a higher risk for any symptoms, and I believe football played…

Feeling camaraderie is not exclusive to football. I felt that same thing being in the marching band and playing soccer. It is a good thing for young people to belong to a team and work together to achieve a common goal.

Because it's possible to experience the benefits of camaraderie without the risks of brain damage, it's sensible to question if football is too dangerous for children.

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

#137

Post by luckydata »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #113
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…

I played football in up through High School, and I'd definitely say I would be a different person today if I hadn't gone through it. The camaraderie amongst the team is unique amongst every experience I've had since. Plus working through something so challenging definitely provides a great level of satisfaction. I like who I am today, even if I might have a higher risk for any symptoms, and I believe football played…

Don't you think any kind of challenge in a team setting would have provided the same growth without the side effect of possibly irreversible brain damage?

I'm happy you like football, but I don't think you can say it forms character in a unique way, it's just a team sport and there's tons of team sport where hitting people with your head aren't the bread and butter of it.

Try volleyball, if you have to fuck up something I would rather go with the knees and hips rather than the head.

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

#138

Post by dragontamer »

learc83 wrote: post #99
dragontamer wrote: post #52

Football may get a lot of study recently, because its one of the most popular sports. But Basketball injuries can ruin you for life as well. I have a cousin who has severe amnesia after getting knocked out during a Basketball match. Its like years of his life were wiped away after his concussion. He was a straight-A student too, these sorts of things are severely damaging to your student career. Brain injuries exist…

>Boxing, MMA The biggest difference is that most parents don't sign their kids up for Boxing in kindergarten. I was a big kid (I'm 6'5" now), and I live in the south, so of course my parents signed me up to play football at 6. In other sports where kids start very young, like soccer, the contact injuries are usually a result of accidents. You aren't trying to slam into people at full speed.

Its pretty common to use your head to physically stop or even change the direction of the ball in Soccer. There are accidents of course, but the standard norms of Soccer still don't seem very healthy for the brain.

I'm aware of the "Football towns" across USA. Basketball is bigger in my area though, which might be why I hear more about Basketball-related injuries.

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

#139

Post by opportune »

dceddia wrote: post #135
QuotedForTruth wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is he isn't "set for life" like some may expect NFL players to be.

He certainly could be, if he keeps living on $25k/year. See [0] and run some calculations at [1]. 0: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim... 1: https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement

People generally don't retire to $25k/year, especially if they eventually get married and have children. The only way to really make something like that work is to move somewhere extremely inexpensive like SEA. That's unrealistic for most people.

This is the one thing that has always struck me as odd abut the FIRE community. FIRE is a good goal but it's highly abnormal for people to retire early with these very low annual salaries for themselves. Sure, it works if you're a single childless 30 year old. But you also generally have to be comfortable staying single and childless if you're going to "retire" to $25k/year.

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

#140

Post by blang »

aresant wrote: post #65

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…

He has also had some endorsement money with Bose.
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