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> Wearing protective helmets just ups the ante as players launch into each other with full force. Agreed, but funny thing is the protection has gradually devel

by Isamu 9y ago

> Wearing protective helmets just ups the ante as players launch into each other with full force. Agreed, but funny thing is the protection has gradually developed over time to limit injury. American football used to be played with no protection, then with very limited protection, leather helmets, pads. Then hard helmets, armored pads. Etc. Kind of an arms race, as with increased protection, the hits keep getting harder. Unintended consequences of trying to reduce harm.

cavanasm 9y ago
I'm not so sure about this. If you look historically, in game deaths seem very common in early football. As the game has gotten better pads, players have also been getting much MUCH bigger, which is increasing risk, but we haven't seen regular documented deaths during games like in the 1890s~1930s every few years. Now we get lots of deaths due to outside issues though (lots of car accidents and shootings on that list in recent years; lots of recent suicides on the NFL list just above too). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_football_players_who_died_during_their_careers#College https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_football_play... EDIT: I realize we're talking long term vs short term, but I wasn't able to find pre-compiled data comparing timelines of major advances in football pads and injury rates.
amiramir 9y ago
This phenomenon is known as Risk Compensation[1]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation
mcguire 9y ago
It's likely that protection has improved the situation. http://time.com/3387798/football-deaths/ http://time.com/3387798/football-deaths/ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E5DC143EE033A25752C2A9679D946897D6CF&legacy=true http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E5DC143EE...
QuotedForTruth 9y ago
And people were dying before helmets. The differences in risk between Rugby and football are not because of helmets. Its an entirely different game. There is blocking in football whereas hitting in Rugby is mostly limited to the ball carrier. The flow of rugby is much more lateral than football where most players run right at each other.

by Isamu 9y ago

cavanasm 9y ago

I'm not so sure about this. If you look historically, in game deaths seem very common in early football. As the game has gotten better pads, players have also been getting much MUCH bigger, which is increasing risk, but we haven't seen regular documented deaths during games like in the 1890s~1930s every few years. Now we get lots of deaths due to outside issues though (lots of car accidents and shootings on that list in recent years; lots of recent suicides on the NFL list just above too). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_football_players_who_died_during_their_careers#College https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_football_play... EDIT: I realize we're talking long term vs short term, but I wasn't able to find pre-compiled data comparing timelines of major advances in football pads and injury rates.

amiramir 9y ago

This phenomenon is known as Risk Compensation[1]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation

mcguire 9y ago

It's likely that protection has improved the situation. http://time.com/3387798/football-deaths/ http://time.com/3387798/football-deaths/ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E5DC143EE033A25752C2A9679D946897D6CF&legacy=true http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E5DC143EE...

QuotedForTruth 9y ago

And people were dying before helmets. The differences in risk between Rugby and football are not because of helmets. Its an entirely different game. There is blocking in football whereas hitting in Rugby is mostly limited to the ball carrier. The flow of rugby is much more lateral than football where most players run right at each other.