Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Concussion doctor says he found CTE in living NFL player

mercurynews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 211 posts

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

#21

Post by icelancer »

sharkweek wrote: post #14
wdewind wrote: post #6

I didn't grow up playing or really understanding sports. I was one of those guys who joked about "sportsball" and stuff like that. When I started really taking weight training seriously I started having a frame of reference for understanding sports and started really appreciating them. Football is a sport that is designed to really allow people to showcase the limits of the human body. The most impressive athletes in…

I'm pretty certain society will look back on football at all levels, most likely the younger "tackle" leagues especially, and think how barbaric it was in hindsight, specifically with the information we have about head injuries. This is sad, because I really enjoy relaxing fall/winter Sundays watching NFL games, but as you said, I'm starting to really struggle with the morality of it. I remember thinking I had just w…

>>I'm pretty certain society will look back on football at all levels, most likely the younger "tackle" leagues especially, and think how barbaric it was in hindsight, specifically with the information we have about head injuries.

Absolutely. It's a ridiculous sport and the NFL specifically themselves are completely unethical scum for perpetuating the myth that they care about player safety. Yet I find more contempt in my heart for the NFLPA, whose union has got to be the least competent and least effective group of organized workers in the United States, if not the world.

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

#22

Post by stupidgeek314 »

wdewind wrote: post #6

I didn't grow up playing or really understanding sports. I was one of those guys who joked about "sportsball" and stuff like that. When I started really taking weight training seriously I started having a frame of reference for understanding sports and started really appreciating them. Football is a sport that is designed to really allow people to showcase the limits of the human body. The most impressive athletes in…

First of all, you misappropriated "The Catch" from 1981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catch_(American_football).

Second, OBJ's one handed catch has been one-up'd by himself and other many times.

Saying "the most impressive things in the history of sports period" is hyperbolic, and simply wrong. You're neglecting every other sport, olympic achievment, or otherwise. The NE England Patriot's comeback in last year's superbowl is more like something we could talk about as being the greatest sports achievement of all time.

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

#23

Post by icelancer »

madebysquares wrote: post #7

This would be a game changer and potentially life saving for hundreds of athletes in all contact sports but mostly American football. I they can find the funding they need to further their research.

The problem is that the NFL stifles and blocks as many methods as possible in this regard. Though I'll admit it's rapidly changing, and for the better.

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

#24

Post by tmh79 »

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #9

Does the difficulty in diagnosis stem from the fact that it is hard to differentiate CTE from other degenerative brain diseases, or is it just hard to diagnose in the living altogether? I mean, is the presence of Alzheimer's-like symptoms a necessary but not sufficient condition? Being able to rule out the condition would be very valuable to former contact sport athletes worrying about the disease.

from what I understand, it is currently a chemical test that requires a biopsy or tissue sample, which is difficult to get from the brain because well, you remove part of the brain, which is bad.

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

#25

Post by dingo_bat »

anigbrowl wrote: post #10
wdewind wrote: post #6

I didn't grow up playing or really understanding sports. I was one of those guys who joked about "sportsball" and stuff like that. When I started really taking weight training seriously I started having a frame of reference for understanding sports and started really appreciating them. Football is a sport that is designed to really allow people to showcase the limits of the human body. The most impressive athletes in…

OBJ's "The Catch" is one of the most impressive things in the history of sports period. Every sports record is hailed as the most impressive thing in sports ever . I think your enthusiasm for the sport might be leading you into a bit of hyperbole here.

Yeah it's an impressive catch but I can recall a number of equally impressive catches from cricket too.

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

#26

Post by thesumofall »

wdewind wrote: post #6

I didn't grow up playing or really understanding sports. I was one of those guys who joked about "sportsball" and stuff like that. When I started really taking weight training seriously I started having a frame of reference for understanding sports and started really appreciating them. Football is a sport that is designed to really allow people to showcase the limits of the human body. The most impressive athletes in…

> OBJ's "The Catch" is one of the most impressive things in the history of sports period.

As someone not familiar with football (not from the US), can someone explain to me what makes this catch particularly impressive? Is it the speed (difficult to assess from a video)?

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

#27

Post by scientismist »

madebysquares wrote: post #7

This would be a game changer and potentially life saving for hundreds of athletes in all contact sports but mostly American football. I they can find the funding they need to further their research.

The best way to start saving lives is to get people to stop playing these types of sports.

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

#28

Post by naeem »

thesumofall wrote: post #26
wdewind wrote: post #6

I didn't grow up playing or really understanding sports. I was one of those guys who joked about "sportsball" and stuff like that. When I started really taking weight training seriously I started having a frame of reference for understanding sports and started really appreciating them. Football is a sport that is designed to really allow people to showcase the limits of the human body. The most impressive athletes in…

> OBJ's "The Catch" is one of the most impressive things in the history of sports period. As someone not familiar with football (not from the US), can someone explain to me what makes this catch particularly impressive? Is it the speed (difficult to assess from a video)?

At that distance, at the complete edge of the field (could’ve easily gone out of bounds), swarmed by two guys, with one hand. Most impressive things in history of sports might be a bit hyperbolic, but it’s pretty incredible.

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

#29

Post by bonesss »

elliottkember wrote: post #18
robbiep wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a highly cultural-specific viewpoint. For example Rugby union, league, AFL etc are all contact sports with huge followings - I can’t understand let alone (and probably because of my lack of understanding) stand NFL which I personally think culturally encapsulates an American approach to the world - this is the offence team, this is defence, let’s pad up and beat the shit out of the opposing side. Compared to t…

Someone once explained to me that rugby is a contact sport, and American football is an impact sport. The padding allows players to hit each other harder without bruising or direct impact, while the brain still bangs around in the skull.

We have an intuitive understanding of impacts that don't reflect the reality of the risks...

Boxers wear gloves to protect hands, not heads, and those big pillows mean harder hits mean more brain damage. Bareknuckle boxing is better for the brain.

No rugby player is lining up his skull and charging other players skulls like a ram or a goat, that would hurt, so they don't do it. Football players really need less protection for their heads so they stop doing things that are dumb for their brain.

The challenge with football is that the obvious corrections to the game would seem to be quite fan unfriendly... Touch football is hard to imagine on FOX SPORTS.

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

#30

Post by naeem »

donquichotte wrote: post #16

"The most impressive athletes in any sport in the world are in the NFL" What a ridiculous statement to make! Even probabilistically this makes no sense, since the players are selected out of 3e8 out of 7e9 humans. Check out socker players, marathon runners, climbers etc and you will see that every sport has their very own geniuses.

Marathon runners, climbers, etc you mentioned have a pretty narrow field of physical competence. No way in hell a climber can compare athletically to LeBron James.
Post reply on HN