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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

#151

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.

If he put $1M in a bond fund, he could probably expect to get around $40k a year on the interest alone. He would only pay 10% capital gains tax on that, which would leave him with $36k. Well above his $25k yearly budget. The bachelor lifestyle is cheap.

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

#152

"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.

This guy and the Nasa Astronaut Navy Seal Medic need to star in a buddy cop comedy!

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

#153
post #44
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.

My understanding is that the problem isn't specifically related to the incidence of concussions, but rather more related to the continuous lower-level trauma to the brain from hits during practices and games. That is why you see a lot of football teams at various levels switching to non-contact practices.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/421009/analyzing-hard-hit...

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

#155
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…

Yes, the NFL should shut down. Yes, it is worse than the 3rd world child labor scenario. The kid in the 3rd world probably has no other choices, and along with his peers, may actually be improving things for his society. Nicholas Kristof (of all people) pointed this out when it was found that someone documenting the horrible conditions at Foxconn fabricated melodramatic stories. (This was a big kerfuffle on This Amer…

so we should just ban boxing as well? skiing is super bad for your knees I hear, should we ban that as well? motor racing? bricolage?

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

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If he put $1M in a bond fund, he could probably expect to get around $40k a year on the interest alone. He would only pay 10% capital gains tax on that, which would leave him with $36k. Well above his $25k yearly budget. The bachelor lifestyle is cheap.

Not to mention the NFL pension on top of that. Not sure when he can draw it (at retirement, or does he wait until 55/60/62/65?), but even just modest investment returns + pensions puts him above the median US household income.

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

#157
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Which has worse concussion problems.

Love how some misinformed fact like that appears out of thin air, then becomes "truth"

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

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I made a response answering this over here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14867607

Basically, Football works you harder physically (strength), which makes the camaraderie that much stronger (you all overcame the same adversity).

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

#159
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NFL started out as almost exclusively white, and is now very mixed-race and the demographics are pretty purely skills-based. So I'm not sure any slave fighting analogies apply.

Slaves come in all races shapes, sizes and genders. It still applies.

no it does not, because in that film all the slaves were specifically black

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

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

Does SEA mean Seattle? My mind is blown that Seattle comes to your mind as the least expensive place in the US...

Southeast Asia.
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