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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

#281
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

nfl players cant start collecting that pension until they are 55

He will have to live off savings and deal with the incredibly limited options a PhD in an in demand field (from a top school) leave him with.

Poor guy.

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

#282
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.

With the stakes that high for the players you don't think the players will engage in dangerous behavior? It could be just as likely that we will see more skull fractures.

The rules need to be constantly adjusted to disincentivise dangerous behavior. If it hurts your team to injure others, injuries should happen less.

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

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

I live in a post-Soviet country - maybe one of the best in terms of GDP. Compared to the US it's basically the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of how much money you need to live - healthcare is free, you can rent an ok apartment on not much more than minimum wage, unemployment is below the EU average, transport is cheap (and public transport is good), food and entertainment isn't expensive. Yet people still lik…

I'm Israeli, and i've noticed the same phenomena(complaining) is popular among people of Soviet heritage.

Why is that ?

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

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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" For a lot of us this would be FU money if you don't have the desire to live big. Plus he gets the pension.

At least in the USA it is in no way FU money unless you are over 60 or something. Assuming you invested it all and didn't spend a single cent, that's 12K a year from interest (generous 7%). You can probably spend 30-40K for 30 years if you decide to dip into the principal. But if you are young, you will have to get a main income source.

You put a decimal point in the wrong place. 7% of 1.8M is 126K, not 12.6K. Really it would be more like 77K from 1.1M once you factor in taxes, but for most people that's more than enough to live on without ever touching the principal.

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

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i get out plenty. my apartment is even under market. i don't live with roommates. there is literally no way to get an apartment anywhere close to 50% cheaper by yourself in the market i am in. my experience is perfectly normal here. even in my previous city (a major US city), my rent was only 50% less than it is now. and in that market it would be equally as hard to find one at 50% of that price. if you live for a qu…

No roommates, just a different market. I live in Minneapolis which I do consider to be a great place. That said, the vast majority of Americans live in "different markets" than what you've described, so you might do well to understand how 24k/yr in rent is not normal for most people.

> which I do consider to be a great place

I'd rather pay 2k a month than deal with winters.

I grew up with snow. I'm over it.

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

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soccer has worse concussion problems? I've not heard that. What's the source?

using your head to hit the ball, and/or getting kicked in the head. ;) FWIW, though, I've not heard that point either.

The possibility of concussions is present in [nearly?] every sport. Typically, head injuries are not a core part of gameplay. In the case of soccer, there have been concerted efforts to remove "heading" from practice and from games. Football is being targeted because minor/severe concussions are commonplace and result from a core aspect of the game.

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

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you did take one side's view in a condescending and divisive manner. The side you took is the one that divides people into a Red Tribe and a Blue Tribe, ascribes stereotypical views to each, and makes lists of attributes to categorize people into one of these two tribes. People are quite a bit more complex than that, and these kinds of arbitrary binary divisions get in the way of finding common ground.

It's a bit of a strange prediction. If we take boxing as a model of a formerly massively-popular sport now considered excessively dangerous, we can observe that minority (Latino and African-American) participation remains high. These demographics are generally not considered part of the Red Tribe coalition. If football follows the same trend, it will be a weak tribal correlate at best.

Not trying to argue, but just curious: was boxing as big as football is now in the US? I'm not much into sports in general, and I wasn't around when boxing was big (or just completely missed it), so I'm lacking context.

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

#288

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.

"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…

I hate that term. There is no such thing. Bill Gates can't tell the President "fuck you" and the President can't tell the Pope "fuck you".

We live in an interconnected world and there isn't enough money in the world to make your actions consequence proof.

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

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 someth…

> 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? Different sports are different. I don't think that's hard to believe. I ran track and cross country for 9 years. Those are team sports but there was no camaraderie. People were friendly, sure, but there was no team spirit. There was more camaraderie in the half a…

Sure, but I think the comparison would be easy to make among sports with a similar team dynamic, like between football and soccer, rugby, basketball, etc. Players of the latter sports train and practice just as much (if in different ways) as football players, and the game dynamics of all of them require coordination and teamwork to a similar enough degree that any differences aren't earth-shattering.

It's a bit ridiculous to me to suggest that there is nothing like football when it comes to training, teamwork, and camaraderie. That's easily not true.

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

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on where you are from. In super blue Pittsburgh, not a chance on earth. Football will have to be nationally legisated against in order for its popularity to fall in Western PA. I am sure there are other, similar pockets in the country.

I'm originally from Western PA. It's not really "super blue" - at this point, it's pretty much just Republicans who also like unions.

When Pittsburgh's mayor is no longer elected in the Democratic primaries, I will be inclined to agree with you. Pittsburgh proper is still blue. There are red parts in Allegheny County, but that went blue last November too.
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