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How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

newyorker.com

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Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#11

Post by Iterated »

sgpl wrote: post #2

Somewhat unrelated but when I was in school and still naive (sophomore year - US equivalent), at the insistance of my house boxing captain (went to a boarding school that had 5 houses/residences), I took up boxing as a sport because it looked fun, and I thought I could win my weight category. Long story short, some senior went on a crazy diet, and entered my weight category, and as luck would have it, I was the one d…

Boxing is extremely damaging to the brain. The gloves make it even worse because it allows a boxer to sustain more blows for a longer period of time. If there were no gloves there would be quicker knockouts and less bouncing of the brain around in a boxer's skull for extended periods of time. This is why many posit that MMA is safer than boxing. Smaller gloves mean quicker knockouts. There are also ways to win MMA fights that don't involve direct punching.

Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#12

Post by p9idf »

johnvschmitt wrote: post #10
scoofy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of bs talk radio approach is exactly the thing scientists are trying to cut through. If the data says football is damaging most kids lives, we should go with the data. It's just a game and there are plenty of other games we can play. It has nothing to do with "fear-based news".

Go with the data, right. The data shows that NFL players have damage, not the average high school player. That's like saying, "Studies show that the top 0.01% of hackers are suicidal, so don't do computer programming!" I've played other team contact sports (Basketball & soccer), but really football was the best at making me resilient. There's no comparison. The benefits outweigh the risk for 99.9% of players, & for t…

"The benefits outweigh the risk for 99.9% of players"

Does the data support that or did you make that up? This would be a more interesting discussion if it has some scientific substance.

Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#13

Post by corin_ »

grogenaut wrote: post #9
sincerely_ wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There exist team sports that are not contact sports, though.

Technically, they're not sports

Technically (and subjectively for most people) they are. Golf, tennis, athletics, etc... plus the many limited-contact sports such as soccer, baseball, etc. etc.

Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#14

Post by ebrenes »

grogenaut wrote: post #9
sincerely_ wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There exist team sports that are not contact sports, though.

Technically, they're not sports

Last I checked volleyball and tennis are sports... And there's several very popular limited contact sports like baseball and basketball.

And that's sticking to the technical definition of contact sports, when I think we're really talking about collision sports, which is what NFL is classified in...

Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#15

Post by eric-hu »

p9idf wrote: post #12
johnvschmitt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go with the data, right. The data shows that NFL players have damage, not the average high school player. That's like saying, "Studies show that the top 0.01% of hackers are suicidal, so don't do computer programming!" I've played other team contact sports (Basketball & soccer), but really football was the best at making me resilient. There's no comparison. The benefits outweigh the risk for 99.9% of players, & for t…

"The benefits outweigh the risk for 99.9% of players" Does the data support that or did you make that up? This would be a more interesting discussion if it has some scientific substance.

It sounds like the data is unknown for the remaining 99.9%. In that case, no scientific conclusion should be drawn at all.

I still appreciate his johnvschmitt's initial comment because it's an anecdote about how football has benefited him.

Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#16

Post by rdtsc »

johnvschmitt wrote: post #5

This is another example of how you should handle fear-based news. This coming from a guy who played H.S. Football in Texas, & is still good at math: Look at your odds: 1) You are VERY unlikely to ever play in the NFL. 7B people, ~10k people in NFL. 2) If you play team sports as a youth, you will learn how to: A) deal with adversity, & perserve. Even if you don't win, you learn that you can survive, learn, & live. It…

1) But if you run full speed into other players and hit them head on doesn't matter the level or professionalism or type of sport, your brain is probably not going to fair well. This isn't about the NFL in a large picture, but about tolerance as a society of a brutal sport that induces cumulative damage of the brain.

2) I can see an even better alternative -- programming, being part of an open source project (hey I didn't have to think hard here I am a programmer so that came first to me) and well pretty much any physical activity that doesn't result hitting your head against things, gardening or even walking is probably good enough to escape the sedentarism effects.

Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#17

Post by [deleted] »

johnvschmitt wrote: post #5

This is another example of how you should handle fear-based news. This coming from a guy who played H.S. Football in Texas, & is still good at math: Look at your odds: 1) You are VERY unlikely to ever play in the NFL. 7B people, ~10k people in NFL. 2) If you play team sports as a youth, you will learn how to: A) deal with adversity, & perserve. Even if you don't win, you learn that you can survive, learn, & live. It…

[deleted]

Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#18

Post by stiff »

Unfortunately so-called "common sense" lags a few hundred years behind scientific understanding and most people for most of their lifes still think of themselves as a Cartesian spirit "trapped" in a body, at least until serious disease occurs for the first time.

The moment you really internalize that all your memories, dreams and reflections are collected in a small region in the front part of your brain, which basically is a ball of meat suspended in some fluid in your skull, is the moment you might start to actually care for your brain not getting thrown around too much. The same thing goes for car accidents and having a basic intuitive feel of high-school level physics .

Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#19

Post by brazzy »

Iterated wrote: post #11
sgpl wrote: post #2

Somewhat unrelated but when I was in school and still naive (sophomore year - US equivalent), at the insistance of my house boxing captain (went to a boarding school that had 5 houses/residences), I took up boxing as a sport because it looked fun, and I thought I could win my weight category. Long story short, some senior went on a crazy diet, and entered my weight category, and as luck would have it, I was the one d…

Boxing is extremely damaging to the brain. The gloves make it even worse because it allows a boxer to sustain more blows for a longer period of time. If there were no gloves there would be quicker knockouts and less bouncing of the brain around in a boxer's skull for extended periods of time. This is why many posit that MMA is safer than boxing. Smaller gloves mean quicker knockouts. There are also ways to win MMA fi…

Actually, if there were no gloves, there would be very little punching to the head, because that would often lead to broken fingers rather than knockouts.

Gloves were introduced because the few punches to the head nearly always caused cuts, making bare-knuckle boxing a very bloody sport.

Gloves made boxing palatable to the glamour crowd, at the cost of the fighters' health (and sometimes life).

Re: How Damaged Are NFL Players' Brains?

#20

Post by anigbrowl »

johnvschmitt wrote: post #5

This is another example of how you should handle fear-based news. This coming from a guy who played H.S. Football in Texas, & is still good at math: Look at your odds: 1) You are VERY unlikely to ever play in the NFL. 7B people, ~10k people in NFL. 2) If you play team sports as a youth, you will learn how to: A) deal with adversity, & perserve. Even if you don't win, you learn that you can survive, learn, & live. It…

Baseball is a team sport, and your odds of getting a blow to the head are a lot lower. They also seem to take such contact a lot more seriously.
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