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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

#201

Post by dkrich »

nikofeyn wrote: post #191
brandall10 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth reading his 2015 article "Why I Still Play Football": https://www.theplayerstribune.com/why-i-play-football/ . Regarding mathematics as a career and his outlook on the financial issue - "I have a bright career ahead of me in mathematics. Beyond that, I have the means to make a good living and provide for my family, without playing football. I have no desire to try to accumulate $10 million in the bank; I a…

> "i ... live on less than $25k a year." there's no way i can believe that. my rent alone is $24,000.

Keep in mind that he's an NFL player, so he's in the offseason for most of the year, so he can live pretty much anywhere he wants. During the season a large portion of his costs are paid for by the team (hotels, meals, etc.).

I can definitely believe that as a football player he can get by on less than $25k of his own money.

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

#202

Post by tnecniv »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #118
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…

The thing with concussions is that it is definitely an injury football players used to simply play through, so any numbers on concussions that are more than >5 years old can't really be trusted. They should definitely remove kick off completely, since they almost have already. Any run back is almost a guaranteed full speed head to head collision. At least with most plays the tackle is made from a considerable angle (…

> Otherwise, I think it is what it is, just like people don't get up in arms about Boxing.

Doctors have warned about the long term health implications of boxing since the 50s, but nobody seems bothered by it. Boxing also isn't as popular as it used to be, so out of sight, out of mind I guess.

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

#203

Post by jaredtobin »

nikofeyn wrote: post #191
brandall10 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth reading his 2015 article "Why I Still Play Football": https://www.theplayerstribune.com/why-i-play-football/ . Regarding mathematics as a career and his outlook on the financial issue - "I have a bright career ahead of me in mathematics. Beyond that, I have the means to make a good living and provide for my family, without playing football. I have no desire to try to accumulate $10 million in the bank; I a…

> "i ... live on less than $25k a year." there's no way i can believe that. my rent alone is $24,000.

It's not that hard to believe. Here [1] is a somewhat e-famous example of a three-person family whose annual spending is around ~$25k.

[1]: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/01/16/exposed-the-mmm-fa...

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

#204

Post by camiller »

raverbashing wrote: post #157
dexterdog wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which has worse concussion problems.

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

Would you be ok with "nearly as bad"

"Based on the national estimate, the majority of concussions resulted from participation in football (40.5%, n = 55 007), followed by girls' soccer (21.5%, n = 29 167), boys' soccer (15.4%, n = 20 929),..."

So 40.5% of concussions in football and 36.9% in combined boys/girls soccer.

source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2140075/

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

#205

Post by default-kramer »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #12

Has he ever been recorded giving a lecture about the Math that he does? I found a paper of his [1]. Looking at his wikipedia he is specializing in spectral graph theory , numerical linear algebra and machine learning. I think following what his next steps will be might be interesting also. Might setup a scholar Google alert. [1] http://www.global-sci.org/jcm/openaccess/v33n2/pdf/332-209.p...

He has more papers here: http://math.mit.edu/~urschel/papers.html

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

#206

Post by LeifCarrotson »

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…

I thought your (2) link would point to said used car. Here's a post by John on Twitter with a photo of his old Nissan Versa:

https://twitter.com/JohnCUrschel/status/628306625753911297

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

#207

Post by w00bl3ywook »

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…

I got the same benefit from joining science club!

Minus the brain damage.

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

#208

Post by drtillberg »

sna1l wrote: post #6
sputknick wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's talked before about how addictive the feeling of playing is. It probably takes a lot to give up something you love.

Yeah, I realize that my armchair comment was a bit flippant. If someone told me that writing software (insert profession/thing you love) led to CTE, I'd obviously be really torn about it as well.

It's sedentary, statistically significant increase in risk of heart, circulatory problems. Interesting comparison.

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

#209

Post by icantdrive55 »

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's going to get $21,360 yr. forever. There are many places in America, and the world where 20 grand/yr. will do just fine. Not everyone ambition is to pay over 50% of their income working for iwontbehereinayear.com, or thebarriertoentryislowandthisistemporary.com

He will never be homeless. Plus--he's one of the few people who should write a self-help book, or do the seminar thing?

He's got it figured out early on. People want guys like him around them, and on their team.

The amout of nit picking that goes on here is a bit much.

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

#210

Post by sillysaurus3 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #184
brandall10 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth reading his 2015 article "Why I Still Play Football": https://www.theplayerstribune.com/why-i-play-football/ . Regarding mathematics as a career and his outlook on the financial issue - "I have a bright career ahead of me in mathematics. Beyond that, I have the means to make a good living and provide for my family, without playing football. I have no desire to try to accumulate $10 million in the bank; I a…

That is the secret to happiness as far as I am concerned; measure your days by how much you've learned not by how much you have earned. Interesting to know about the retirement 'vest' of 3 years. If he lives another 60 years that is a bit more than $1.25M.

That is the secret to happiness as far as I am concerned; measure your days by how much you've learned not by how much you have earned.

Yet the vast majority of the time, this sentiment comes from people who are well-off, e.g. someone with an MIT PhD and an almost impossible-to-screw-up future.

There are at least two possibilities. Either people who aren't well-off are just sour grapes, or they deal with a lot more than a lack of proper mindset.

The secret to happiness is no secret: if you have more money than you know what to do with, you can cover the vast majority of cases that will make you unhappy. If you, your children, or your pets get ill, you can get them proper medical care. For someone who lives on $25k/yr, that will almost always end in disaster.

I think it's not productive to pretend like money doesn't equate to happiness. The lust for money can do a lot of damage, but simply realizing that money is incredibly important to happiness is a realization that most people don't make. They spend extravagantly when Christmas comes around; they eat out because they want to "feel like a normal person," i.e. someone who can afford to eat out; they get expensive birthday gifts for family members. And why? Then when a financial disaster comes around, like someone getting ill with no insurance in the US, there are no resources left to deal with it.

I don't know. It's just far too easy to feel like there's a key to happiness waiting to be discovered. It's a multi-faceted and complex issue.

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