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Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

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Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#191

Post by wils1245 »

brightball wrote: post #188
wils1245 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the profit you’re counting at Clemson including stadium outlays?

As in the cost of building/improving the stadium? Those are usually multi-year projects so I'm not sure how it figures in to the accounting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Stadium_(Clemson)#Con...

Yes, that’s what I mean. Pointing that out because athletic programs are sometimes “profitable” because they bill the school for stadiums. My alma matter charges a yearly fee straight to the students for their new football stadium.

Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#192

Post by hyperbovine »

brightball wrote: post #160
hyperbovine wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why in God’s name should an institution of higher learning have a nine-figure athletics budget? That is just pure lunacy. The NCAA represents everything that is sleazy and wrong with the relationship between colleges and athletic programs, that is why everyone hates them. When the reckoning finally comes, and it will, we will look back upon this period and marvel.

Why shouldn't they, exactly? As earlier stated, they supporting multiple programs with multiple facilities, scholarships, Title IX, coaches, strength programs, trainers/medical support, practice facilities, etc. Of all of those programs, at most schools only 1 or 2 actually MAKE money. At Clemson, the football program supports EVERY other scholarship sport that competes at the D1A level.

Again, what is the purpose of our universities spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year managing multiple athletic facilities, coaches, strength programs, trainers/medical support, practice facilities, etc.? How is that at all related to their core mission of research and educating young adults? If we as a society think that we should be devoting those sorts of resources to running what is essentially a shadow professional sports system for unpaid athletes, fine. But let's dispense with the fiction that this is somehow aligned with the goal of higher education.

Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#193

Post by _uhtu »

slg wrote: post #96
emj wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most importantly addressing behaviour is the only way to get injuries down, buying more useless protection gear does not work. The cult of the helmet need to stop.

I have said it elsewhere in the thread, but will repeat it and expand on it here. The helmet is a big red herring in the brain trauma debate. The trauma in football is caused by a simple physics problem. Imagine a person moving at full speed. That person collides with an identical person moving at the same speed in the opposite direction and they both hit each other at their center of mass. These two people now come…

The bigger problem with helmets is that they feel like they protect you from concussions when in reality they don't at all. That makes people go out there feeling invincible and leading with the head.

Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#194

Post by Balgair »

code_duck wrote: post #85
pizza wrote: post #48

"I can't believe people were so dumb about smoking in the 1950s.. how were they so dumb? did they not know it caused cancer?" this is a kinda modern equivalent, imo..

The thing is that both activities were always clearly likely to be harmful, if you took a step back from the cultural perspective that accepted them so thoroughly. Smoking tobacco is inhaling an acrid a mix of chemicals that makes you cough, kind of feel sick and lightheaded, smells awful and leaves a tan stain - it’s not hard to guess that it’s not healthy. Remember that half of people who die from tobacco die from…

First: smoking and nicotine usage is harmful to you, full stop.

That disclaimer out of the way, nicotine's prevalence is mostly due to it's addictive qualities. However, the usage of nicotine in WW2 and the industrialization of it's manufacture shortly before the war cannot be missed when talking about nicotine's prevalence mid-century.

Nicotine, like any drug, has a multitude of effects. In certain situations, these effects can be beneficial. The only reason I can think of is: if you have a reasonable suspicion of major bodily trauma occurring before the side effects of nicotine wear off (you are about to die). Nicotine promotes alertness, calmness, and an adrenal response, lowering the flow of blood to the periphery and increasing blood pressure. At high concentrations, it also causes sedation.[0] Also, there is interesting research about those sedative properties in connection with schizophrenia.[1]

Smoking a cigarette while on/near a battlefield is not a terrible decision. You may be more alert, calm and less panicked, already primed with adrenaline, and may experience less blood loss to limb wounds. Back at camp when you can smoke to your heart's (mal)content, you can sedate yourself as well. I'm not certain on the effects with PTSD, but as a sedatory drug, I would imagine it would lessen PTSD (no evidence here, just speculation).

So, if you sling crack and have been sought after by your creditors, you may want to pick up a pack. If you are a SWAT team member about to go into a building, you may want to chew some gum. If you are in Aleppo currently, you may want to light up.

Other than that, stay away from the stuff like the life killing poison it is meant to be.

That said, when it comes to these types of sports, benefits may exist as well. For some people, those HS/Pop-Warner football years may be the best they have. The concept of 'hoop-dreams' is alive and well 30 years later [2] and is not just limited to basketball.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Psychoactive_effects

[1] http://www.schizophrenia.com/nicotine.benefits.htm

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_Dreams#Aftermath

Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#195

Post by sli »

bronson wrote: post #144
code_duck wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like a stretch to compare the most normal activity ever, moving your body, to intentionally ingesting poison. For one, if exercise makes you dizzy, nauseous, sweaty, and all your muscles ache, you are either severely out of shape are overdoing it. I smoked for a fair portion of my life. The main motivation for addicts is to relieve the craving for tobacco. It’s pleasurable in some ways other than that, but c…

You're wrong about exercise (ask any water polo player...) > cigarettes did not leave me feeling well most of the time. Sounds like an easy habit to kick!

> Sounds like an easy habit to kick!

This is an odd view on the nature of physical addiction. I personally know more smokers that hate their smoking than smokers who are ambivalent or actually enjoy it.

Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#196

Post by brightball »

wils1245 wrote: post #191
brightball wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As in the cost of building/improving the stadium? Those are usually multi-year projects so I'm not sure how it figures in to the accounting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Stadium_(Clemson)#Con...

Yes, that’s what I mean. Pointing that out because athletic programs are sometimes “profitable” because they bill the school for stadiums. My alma matter charges a yearly fee straight to the students for their new football stadium.

As long as I’ve been getting donation requests, the school has touted its pride in paying for everything with fundraising in terms of facility improvements.

Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#197

Post by brightball »

hyperbovine wrote: post #192
brightball wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn't they, exactly? As earlier stated, they supporting multiple programs with multiple facilities, scholarships, Title IX, coaches, strength programs, trainers/medical support, practice facilities, etc. Of all of those programs, at most schools only 1 or 2 actually MAKE money. At Clemson, the football program supports EVERY other scholarship sport that competes at the D1A level.

Again, what is the purpose of our universities spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year managing multiple athletic facilities, coaches, strength programs, trainers/medical support, practice facilities, etc.? How is that at all related to their core mission of research and educating young adults? If we as a society think that we should be devoting those sorts of resources to running what is essentially a shadow…

Do you see a purpose to the non-revenue sports?

Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#198

Post by [deleted] »

wils1245 wrote: post #170
snomad wrote: post #111

Their is some measurable chance the NFL and football disappear w/in 30 years. Sooner or later a college / high school will lose a lawsuit for a player w/CTE, and schools will have no choice but to stop participation. Once that happens, talent level and interest in the sport will die off. Kinda silly cities are in such a rush to continue building new stadiums. The unspoken elephant whenever these studies come up is sk…

I think a lawsuit stopping the sport is highly unlikely. It’ll die off gradually as the game is starved off of young participants, which sap it of both elite players and viewers. See: boxing. And I think it’s much too soon to say other sports with occasional head impacts are bad to do now that football is known to be unsafe. Football has head to head collisions as a matter of course, every play. Soccer, with the head…

[deleted]

Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#199

Post by golergka »

adanto6840 wrote: post #75
golergka wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand these arguments. Are they forcing players to do it? If the players are well aware of health risks and still make decision to play the game, how is the sports organization to blame?

College with $50k+ of debt, if even able/eligible to get in -- versus "free" college. In many cases I suspect it's the "only chance" for some of these kids and, at best, it's extreme exhortation for most all of them.

I wasn't aware that people without college education in US suffer from mass starvation and getting it is a matter of life and death.

Re: Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

#200

Post by rurban »

kakarot wrote: post #155
rurban wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has. Compare to healthy societies.

Could you elaborate?

Well first, football trainers in highschool and college would face a lot of lawsuites, supporting and even causing death threatening concussions on innocent teens. Which would lead to reforms, like amateur boxing helmets. Which would not be enough, given the football rules and mindset. But loosing the support from amateur sports would lead to less support in the professional killing game. Mom's have a lot of power.
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