rolling American football death spiral thread

Tired of the tropes in this article. This guy is in complete denial that he’s aiding and abetting the untimely and early deaths of people in his community, not helping them “find a way out.”

Free article here

Slightly unexpected, in that this is illustrated by David Squires -- normally doing (the other kind of) football, this is his first specific one about the American version I can think of:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2023/sep/06/david-squires-on-eric-smith-and-the-nfls-toll-on-one-players-mind-and-body

Completely wrecked by this feature.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/16/us/cte-youth-football.html

wow

that was tough to get through

One thing that happens in that video happens to me, tho obviously I don't have a son, nor one that plays football—

but whenever I pass by a football field, and see all these young men and boys tackling each other, I am overwhelmed with sadness and anger. Just seems so senseless.

i *almost* played football in high school. several of the PE coaches saw me running track and tried to recruit me to play wide receiver, which in retrospect feels more like recruiting a kid for the military. i actually really enjoyed playing football casually at local parks, where my friends and i were definitely tackling each other, but we were also not beating the hell out of each other. but HS football was a different trip. i didn't want to get hit head-on while catching a pass, to get a limb snapped during a tackle, it just generally seemed like a bad idea. i'd seen enough clips of gritty chicago bears wideout tom waddle getting assassinated in the red zone by opposing safeties to know i didn't want that to happen to me.

I played in high school and have heard the comparisons to the military before, twice by teammates who wound up enlisting. I guess its mostly in the way they really do try to break you down and convince you that the only virtue is to give more than your body can handle, and that anything less is not only shameful but also an act of cowardice that lets down your teammates. Well they don't quite say it in those words but still. I played basketball too and it definitely was not like that. But football is a very different sport, I mean if you play you will get hurt, simple as that.

I don't think I was really ever at 100%, but especially after 5 games or so, you get one side of your body hurt, so you overcompensate and get the other side hurt as well, and there's a certain point where after the 2nd quarter you just want it to be over. That kind of made me wince when they decided to extend the NFL schedule by a game, I mean it's those last few that really suck for these guys. I played about half at tight end, which made you susceptible to some really big hits, and after a couple of those you just really really did not want the ball to come your way. I also played on the OL which gets you hurt in a different, more mundane sort of way. The soreness I felt the morning after some of those games...yeesh. Sometimes I'd be lined up against a guy who not only had 30-40 pounds on me but was faster than me as well. Those games were hell, especially since the only reason I was in that position is because my school was small, so we just kinda had who we had. There wasn't really anyone who could help. I think one game I basically held on every single play, because if I didn't the QB was gonna get killed, and we were already on our 3rd one. I'm proud to say I only got flagged twice but only because even holding didn't slow the guy down much.

That said I'm still glad I played, I mean some of it really was fun and I think the bonds you make really are something special. But yeah at the end of every season I just thought "fuck this, I'm not playing next year", and then I'd kinda get pressured into doing it anyway, not that it would take much. I guess I'm lucky nothing serious ever happened.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39212869/kirby-smart-laments-fsu-opt-outs-georgia-orange-bowl-rout

College football coaches are the worst people on Earth. Can’t believe these shithead kids didn’t risk their futures on a meaningless game!

College bowl games have very rapidly lost their whole reason for existence. The possible exceptions might be for a few of the smaller Division I college teams from the off brand conferences - most of whose players will never sniff an NFL contract, so that a trip to some place like Chattanooga or Gainesville to play a game in mid-winter sounds like a fun break. The truly small college divisions already get to have a meaningful playoffs.

Smart was mostly being a gracious winner in those comments. He isn't calling out the players. He's pointing out how the bowl system is broken and that FSU was a good team this year, whatever the meaningless bowl score.

We might also treat non-playoff bowl games similar to a pre-season scrimmage. Some fans will still be interestwd. So long as people don't treat the scoreboard as unweighted data about who was actually good this year, it's fine.

narrator: people continued to treat the scoreboard as unweighted data about who was actually good this year

A similar story to the NYT one above about young injuries - the detail about the NFL player (Dave Duerson, mentioned above) who specifically shot himself in the heart so that his brain could be studied wrecked me.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/cte-impact-young-football-players-1234804580/