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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

#341

Post by yellowapple »

ianferrel wrote: post #195
nikofeyn wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

He probably owns his home. Most people who own property don't count the imputed rent as part of their expenses. Whether they should depends a lot on context.

Even without owning one's own home, not all areas have high rent, even within the same state. California, for example, has a pretty big swing in rents between the Bay Area and even Sacramento, let alone somewhere further north or south in the Central Valley.

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

#342

Post by jpttsn »

heygrady wrote: post #323
jpttsn wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure we're talking past one another here. Thought experiment: if I describe a topic in the forest, and nobody is there to hear it, am I still being divisive?

One wonders why you would say divisive things aloud in an otherwise lonely forest. Saying something hurtful, offensive, divisive, unnecessary... is problematic regardless of the size of the audience. You can see that the original "divisive" comment [1] on this thread sparked a large response. It's true that a HackerNews thread has a lower global-political impact than, say, a presidential tweet or a Supreme Court ruli…

It's tenacious to paraphrase the comment thread above you like that. I disagree with your characterization of the argument.

But maybe you're making the subtle point that "it matters if HN comments abuse quotation marks."

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

#343

Post by skybrian »

pfisch wrote: post #331
skybrian wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, there are ways you can risk your health for money, where the reverse trade isn't possible for any amount of money. So, getting back to the article, retiring early seems like a good trade.

Of course the reverse trade is possible. Vitamins, Trainers, Chefs that make you healthy meals, weird medical procedures: https://hiddenremote.com/2017/05/21/yes-blood-boy-silicon-va...

That's possible in some special cases, but it's also quite possible to ruin your health in ways that can't be fixed. And this is what football players are facing.

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

#344

Post by awkwarddaturtle »

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…

> 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 a lot of cash on the table.

The lifetime pension really helps, but if I were him, I would have stuck it out to see what I could get for my new contract. The rookie contract is low because of the changes made in the last CBA. His post-rookie contract could have netted him tens of millions.

But I'm greedy and would gladly sacrifice my health for a $40 million contract.

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

#345

Post by moretai »

slantyyz wrote: post #309
bearcobra wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average career earnings for an NFL player is somewhere around $5 million. That's a lot of money, but I'd argue it isn't a crazy amount to make over an entire career while in the top 1% of the field.

>> The average career earnings for an NFL player is somewhere around $5 million. Is that before paying management/agency fees + taxes, or after?

Probably before. You should watch 30 for 30: Broke. I'm sure some of it is hyperbole, but I'm also I'm sure it's way worse for some players. They probably just get screwed.

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

#346

Post by pfisch »

skybrian wrote: post #343
pfisch wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the reverse trade is possible. Vitamins, Trainers, Chefs that make you healthy meals, weird medical procedures: https://hiddenremote.com/2017/05/21/yes-blood-boy-silicon-va...

That's possible in some special cases, but it's also quite possible to ruin your health in ways that can't be fixed. And this is what football players are facing.

I mean you can always "risk" money for health with expensive ideas/inventions/treatments that may or may not work. Same as risking health for money.

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

#347

Post by slantyyz »

moretai wrote: post #345
slantyyz wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The average career earnings for an NFL player is somewhere around $5 million. Is that before paying management/agency fees + taxes, or after?

Probably before. You should watch 30 for 30: Broke. I'm sure some of it is hyperbole, but I'm also I'm sure it's way worse for some players. They probably just get screwed.

I've seen it. Unless you are good with your money and have a lasting career as an above average performer, I'm not sure that a lot of pro athletes are as wealthy as people think.

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

#348

Post by skybrian »

pfisch wrote: post #346
skybrian wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's possible in some special cases, but it's also quite possible to ruin your health in ways that can't be fixed. And this is what football players are facing.

I mean you can always "risk" money for health with expensive ideas/inventions/treatments that may or may not work. Same as risking health for money.

Always? No. Many health issues are actually incurable with current technology. For a simple example, many forms of hearing loss are incurable as far as we know. You can spend a lot of money on fancy hearing aids but it won't get you normal hearing again.

Old rich people can't spend money to cure all their ailments and be young again. Maybe someday, but not today. And it's not a gamble if there's no chance of success.

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

#349

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

rpearl wrote: post #222
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Just a team sport" No other sport works you as hard as Football does. Between three-a-days (practicing 8am to 8pm) for weeks, and each practice primarily consisting of basically playing football (running play after play, at 100%, for practice, with tackling), Football works you harder than any other sport. I'll get told by some this is just my opinion, but the vast majority of other sports are not shear tests of str…

For swimming at a college level, we got up at about 4:30, swam 5-7, lifted 7-8, then classes, then swam 4-6, then stretches/bodyweight exercises. This was while classes were in session. During the winter training trip, we would do the same, but also swam sprints in the middle of the day. Sometimes other teams, including the football team, would try to use the pool for off-sport workouts. We would crush them. But when…

Cardio vs strength training.

Also, hitting each other repeatedly. Or, well, directly competing at all with someone else.

Not really worth arguing if you don't see it.

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

#350

Post by dexterdog »

camiller wrote: post #256
learc83 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like there are about 3 times more kids playing soccer than tackle football. I'd say a 3x lower concision rate isn't close to "nearly as bad". In addition to concussions, football players are also believed to receive repeated microtrauma from running into each other repeatedly, which contributes to CTE. Football is a full contact sport. It is inherently more dangerous. Collisions in soccer happen accidentally. T…

In 2016 (in the US) 1.08 million students participated in high school football while 821,851 participated in soccer. I don't have stats available for middle school, but earlier than that the players don't hit nearly as hard, as they have considerable lower mass and speed. Not sure where your 3x number comes from, but I don't think we need to include YMCA recreational league soccer any more than we need to include fla…

Where are those numbers from? I know that football has a lot of extra bodies on the sideline, but it doesn't have a girl's team so I would guess that more kids are playing soccer than football. At the very least the number of man-hours played has to be way higher.
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