rolling American football death spiral thread

nice leg

i really loved jackson as a player, this is a hard read.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/sports/football/vincent-jackson-death-cte.html

http://i.imgur.com/Pn8OxXO.png
so uh are we 100% sure belichick didn't do this intentionally to fuck goodell

or to fuck the giants?

why not both

Kind of hilarious how the nfl has back to back weekends of fantastic games then we all get reminded how it is in fact a radioactive wasteland as an organization

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2022/3/7/22966292/calvin-ridley-gambling-suspension-atlanta-falcons

I cannot believe that this kind of shit still goes on. Infuriating.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/nyregion/buffalo-bills-stadium-deal.html

It is infuriating, and even more to hear idiot NFL fans championing that kind of shit. A few years ago, when the Chicago Bears started making noise about moving out to the suburbs, I couldn't believe how many dipshits were actually arguing for this type of deal to keep them happy.

not gonna be a banner week for the league

this was disturbing

it is really astonishing how the NFL tears through running backs (and also how people like walter payton or frank gore lasted as long as they did)

todd gurley's last season was as a 26yo. for these very reasons i can't blame le'veon bell for holding out when he did (he was also 26) but then he was basically done. derrick henry is going to keel over at any moment. the colts may ruin jonathan taylor before he turns 25

needless to say, teams realize this -- that running backs are more or less fungible -- so these guys never even get paid before being replaced by someone younger/cheaper/less crippled

it was even worse when the standard for almost EVERY team was running feature backs into the ground for 300-400 carries a season, causing them to be effectively finished after 3 or 4 seasons

still happens, not quite as bad, but teams will always prioritize their WRs over their RBs nowadays. the WRs will get the paydays while the RBs are jettisoned when they get too expensive.

Barry Sanders was smart to retire in his prime. Fuck the record books.

always makes me think of Joe Posnanski's article about Priest Holmes

https://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/priest-holmes-real-life-or-fantasy/

and then the follow up after Luck suddenly retired

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/ignore-the-pain

northside isd legends frogbs, m bison, and priest holmes

Will Damar Hamlin’s near-death change anything? I wish it would be so. This game needs to go.

It may fade a bit, but it won't go away. Boxing still makes some people a ton of money.

doubt it. on the one hand, any added scrutiny on the safety of football is obviously productive. on the other hand, if it's determined that he went into cardiac arrest bcuz of a benign but specifically timed impact to the chest (as ppl have speculated) then i doubt anything will meaningfully happen bcuz there isn't much you can do aside from outright eradicating the sport which we know isn't going to happen. also i think ppl could rightly argue that this was a freak incident when you consider how often similar instance of impact have happened across football over many years w/o something like this ocurring.

i guess the question for me is if they determine that there is something specific to football that caused this and makes it more likely to happen again in the future, bcuz there are plenty of other sports (hockey, basketball, rugby etc) where players get hit in the chest in ways that are considered routine to the sport and not dangerous w/in that context. also, high level athletics can exacerbate underlying heart issues (if not previously detected) even w/o any impact i.e. christian eriksen's cardiac arrest and resuscitation in the 2020 euros or keyontae johnson who was a college basketball player who collapsed on the court in 2020 as well. it's possible this was caused by the physical exertion of playing a pro sport than something specific to football

in any event, there's been some really scary concussions this year (tua in the bengals game in particular) that feel endemic to football specifically vs other sports, and we've seen the NFL attempt to address concerns stemming from the tua injury in ways that have seemed rather disorganized, on-the-fly, ineffective and circumnavigable. so i wouldn't hold out much hope that anything will change bcuz the incentive in an industry (any industry, really) w/ so much money at stake (in various ways) will always be to push safety of the vulnerable to the side in pursuit of the jackpot at the end of the rainbow

yeah i dont see this changing anything, maybe a new protective plate over the chest cavity for this specific area of impact.

I’d be stunned if it resulted in even that kind of thing, beyond some players choosing to wear a specific plate. I haven’t seen that tackle but from my understanding it didn’t even look particularly hard, but if the hit was the direct cause he must have been hit at just the right spot with just the right amount of total impact. Which kind of reminds me in a way of dale Earnhardt’s death, he spun out in a way that was pretty “normal” for a nascar race but hit the wall at just the right angle to be killed instantly.

I think if Hamlin had a specific medical issue that was underlying, that’s even less of a reason for the nfl to do the right thing and enforce more protection for the players. It can just be chalked up to the individual and not the sport.

because it often involves 90 mins of running around in the sun, cardiac issues have been at the forefront in association football for quite a while, I mean have a look at this list

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_association_footballers_who_died_while_playing

what it has meant for bigger clubs is comprehensive monitoring of heart health, for example Sergio Aguero retired due to an arrhythmia just after transferring to Barcelona in 2021.

don't know that much about American football but would imagine the concussions are a much greater threat.

yeah sudden cardiac death in soccer is HUUUGE, probably one reason they wear those electronic bra-looking things under their jerseys (well that and just the coach knowing when to sub them out).

American football, besides leaving the game with the equivalent of 75-year old limbs, you might also leave with CTE and cognitive problems that go unresolved for the rest of your life. lots of suicides among retired players.

in the NFL the game is very much short burst type exertion rather than running around constantly the whole time, plus generally speaking players are only on the field half of the game vs potentially the whole game (not to mention special teams players who are on the field only briefly during kickoffs/returns/etc.)

America is as likely to rethink football for its brutality as we are to stop going to restaurants because of latin worker exploitation, which is to say we know what the problem is but we don't ultimately care enough to change. i am totally okay with anyone who continues to watch the game but I had to stop a few years ago when i realized that sooner or later i was gonna watch someone killed on the field if i didn't and that there's a faint but true whiff of culpability that goes along with that.

i think one of the nfls biggest issues is what this guy is talking about:

Here's the scary side of the Damar Hamlin story nobody but @Gbush91 wants to talk about. pic.twitter.com/X4Wgx0dXs4

— Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show (@ultCLEsports) January 4, 2023

yeah that part of it definitely crossed my mind. he's a second year player. hopefully this is high profile enough that they'll make an exception for him but there's still a huge underlying issue here.

The guy in Spottie's link is otm. You don't hear about this shit because the networks have a vested interest in keeping the nfl money machine churning. even the players association leadership will pussyfoot around this because they're the ones who negotiated the CBA.

anyone playing in the NFL who isn't kicking is entering a lottery where they're putting up their bodies in exchange for the opportunity to be rich through their forties. seem like the chance of generational wealth is roughly equivalent with dying in your forties.

hit to the chest/heart has killed a few cricket players too

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatalities_while_playing_cricket

Another reason to deny football any viewership and to agitate against it, if even in conversation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/us/damar-hamlin-prayers-football-religion.html

Football remains king.

NFL made up 82 of the top 100 most-watched U.S. TV broadcasts in 2022.

(📊 @LevAkabas/@sportico) pic.twitter.com/9QiyKItUJj

— Mark J. Burns (@markjburns88) January 6, 2023

I mean, we live in a depraved and broken country.

surprised the season finale of squid game didn't make it on there

wait for the reality remake

Bigger sham: NIL collectives not coordinating with athletics departments or Super PACs not coordinating with candidates

For those of you who, like me, have purposefully avoided NFL news, this is a useful summary: https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2023/2/6/23583787/the-uncomfortable-messy-truth-of-watching-the-nfl

If those ugly headlines won’t force a moral reckoning, what will?

Possibly a player who is popular enough to be known by non-fans being decapitated on-air during a game. If his parents protest. Possibly.

Holy shit @ the cost of the NFL Sunday Ticket package via Youtube TV - $350+$70/mo or $450 and only Sunday day games no Thursday/Sunday/Monday night.

Good.

haha, of fucking course. there goes my plan to surprise mom with Giants games.

idk i might still do it.

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.