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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 takin

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 any sport in the world are in the NFL and when you think about the things that happen in any single game, they truly are spectacular. OBJ's "The Catch" is one of the most impressive things in the history of sports period. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=818_M8gOnqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=818_M8gOnqQ But the NFL is finding itself in a really tough position. I love this sport, but I find it ethically difficult to watch now. It would be one thing if the NFL was doing everything it could to protect its athletes, but it's absolutely clear they are trying to bury their heads in the sand on this one: > “We need a couple million of dollars. What is stopping us is the money. We’re ready to roll.” Think about this: we currently have no way to diagnose CTE in living people, we think we may have a way, the "we" in that is pretty credible as its the person who discovered CTE, and it will cost roughly $2mm, and the NFL isn't tripping over themselves to write the check for some reason. It would cost 12 seconds of superbowl ad revenue to fund this, and in fact the NFL has pledged $100mm to investigate CTE, but basically they just aren't doing it: http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/20509977/nfl-takes-control-brain-research-100-million-donation-all-ending-partnerships-entities http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/20509977/nfl-takes-c... This is kind of shameful, and as a fan of this sport I really hope they figure out how to have a better position on this issue, because what's going on right now is not sustainable.

madebysquares 9y ago
I have been wat hung football since i was kid but like you the past couple of years it has become harder to justify watching these big hits and traumatic injuries knowing the damage it is doing to players when they get older.
anigbrowl 9y ago
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.
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  Yeah it's an impressive catch but I can recall a number of equally impressive catches from cricket too.
robbiep 9y ago
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 the other three which display to my way of thinking a fluidity and flexibility that I believe to be more skilful and also a reflection of a deeper cultural flexibility. But now my cultural biases are flooding out heavily. What is interesting however is that neither rugby union, league or AFL have anywhere near the level of concussive damage, maybe because the lack of protection leads to a different approach to bodily harm. Full disclosure, one of the products my company makes and is commercialising in Australian Rugby Union is a concussion monitoring system so this is a deep interest of mine both from the tech/commercial side but also the medical side. You are right though, greater awareness of the risks is going to endanger these sports. A parting word of hope - we still allow boxing, and CTE is medically known as ‘punch drunk syndrome’ from the first reported cases of the medical literature. Concussion management is a rapidly evolving field and my sister (for whom I built the side project which we are now commercialising) thinks that being able to have a biochem test like we do for heart attacks would totally change the field - big head knock, troponin-like test, then follow up and treatment as appropriate. It’s super interesting and we need to put players first whatever we do
- icelancer 9y ago
  >>That’s a highly cultural-specific viewpoint. What is? That the NFL has the best athletes in the world? If the NFL athletes trained for a year to do anything else, or you put all the athletes in the world into a decathalon of power/speed/strength specific events, it would be an insane blowout. NFL players would crush every other group of athletes individually and probably combined, and I say this as someone who has worked with Rugby Union and AFL players in Australia. There is no comparison, they are the best athletes in the world for any fair value of athletics you want to use.
  - jacobolus 9y ago
    How about a literal decathlon? But come on, there are tremendous differences difference between the body types and skills involved in swimming, gymnastics, bobsled, trick snowboarding, 100 meter dash, marathon, boxing, sumo, table tennis, basketball, archery, rock climbing, ballet, ... https://imgur.com/a/cOTTF https://imgur.com/a/cOTTF You can’t just say “these particular athletes matching a particular archetype are ‘the best’, and could be retrained to beat anyone at anything”.
ohashi 9y ago
>The most impressive athletes in any sport in the world are in the NFL and when you think about the things that happen in any single game, they truly are spectacular. That seems like a wildly opinionated statement in an otherwise good comment.
sharkweek 9y ago
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 watched a player die on the field with the Ricardo Lockette injury a few years back - not a dirty hit, or anything, just the result of a violent game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BEx1BqTlhI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BEx1BqTlhI
- icelancer 9y ago
  >>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.
rifung 9y ago
> The most impressive athletes in any sport in the world are in the NFL If you're going make such outrageous claims at least give some explanation? How do you measure how impressive an athlete is?
- icelancer 9y ago
  Context-neutral speed, strength, power metrics would all go to NFL players if you had a worldwide combine of running/jumping/lifting/etc. It would be laughable. See my bio if you think this opinion is subjective.
  - rimliu 9y ago
    Your bio has no data to prove what you claim.
  - rifung 9y ago
    > Context-neutral speed, strength, power metrics But if you choose these traits then naturally it's going to benefit those athletes who compete in sports where it's more beneficial to get.. big.. That's like saying tennis/table tennis/badminton players are all mediocre athletes because they aren't able to lift as much weight even though it isn't as beneficial or is even potentially harmful to be very heavy in those sports but of course any serious athlete is going to optimize their training for their sport.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
stupidgeek314 9y ago
First of all, you misappropriated "The Catch" from 1981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catch_(American_football) 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.
thesumofall 9y ago
> 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)?
- naeem 9y ago
  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.
  - tmd83 9y ago
    Impressive but yeah I don't really get that quote. Look at cricket just because I know it. It don't have the fight with other players but talk about the reflex time needed for the close catch, athleticism and presence of mind to make sure the ball doesn't go over the boundary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boHfs7nopHc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boHfs7nopHc But they are all really different. Different sports required different skill calling one set of skills most athletic is really weird.
- Cyph0n 9y ago
  I'm not very familiar with football either, but I can say that OP is heavily exaggerating and probably not familiar with sports history at all. Heck, I'm not huge sports fan, I can come up with half a dozen more impressive feats in sport off the top of my head. * Beamon's long jump record in 1968 Olympics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEt_Xgg8dzc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEt_Xgg8dzc * Maradona's goal of the century: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wVho3I0NtU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wVho3I0NtU * Zidane CL final, won Real Madrid its 9th CL title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFfomw-Z4uE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFfomw-Z4uE * O'Sullivan, fastest 147[1] in history (snooker = 4D chess in my opinion): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3C7I5lRZII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3C7I5lRZII * Sotomayor's high jump world record in 1988 Olympics (his lowest time and still 0.01 m higher than anyone else since then!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n6NhV4CaiU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n6NhV4CaiU * Usain Bolt [1] 147 is the maximum number of points you can get in a game of snooker. The only way to do this is to alternate pocketing a red ball then a black ball until all red balls are off the table; this nets you 120 points. Once this is done, you need to pocket the remaining colored balls, ending with the black ball, for an additional 27 points. All this must be done without conceding a single point to your opponent (i.e., no mistakes). Start watching from 1:10 for the action.
CamperBob2 9y ago
The most impressive athletes in any sport in the world are in the NFL Call me when one of them free-climbs El Capitan.
kid0m4n 9y ago
I will see your 50 MPH catch and raise you 100: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX8EQXMtX8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX8EQXMtX8w While OBJ's was impressive, I have seen even more crazy catches in Cricket and Baseball!
- tmd83 9y ago
  Funny thing when I thought of fantastic catches the first thing I thought about the first catch in that video of yours. I remembering seeing that live and I think that was the first time in cricket history someone consciously did that double step catch. It seems in recent days (I haven't followed much lately) that thing has become a lot more common even two players in tandem doing it. It's so interesting that once you know something's possible a lot more people can do it. But yeah that first one was special at points, both the reflex and the speed of thought to find a way to do this that never been done before. I think he single handedly raised the level of fielding in cricket by showing what's possible and that it can truly be a game changer in terms of producing result.
pjc50 9y ago
Why would the NFL fund this? Then they might actually find the CTE, in people who were still alive to sue. They know that success means the end of their sport in its current form. This is like asking why the cigarette industry doesn't fund cancer research.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> Football is a sport that is designed to really allow people to showcase the limits of the human body. Not really; depending on dimension, gymnastics, ballet, marathon, short-distance sprinting, powerlifting, and any number of other sports and physical arts are far better at showcasing the extremes of what the body can do. > The most impressive athletes in any sport in the world are in the NFL Well, “impressive” is subjective, and all this really says is that you are particularly prone to being impressed by the kind of display that the NFL provides.
TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
> "The Catch" is one of the most impressive things in the history of sports period. So I finally got around to watching the catch. Cool catch, but isn't the catching ability of a receiver augmented by tact gloves?[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protective_equipment_in_gridiron_football#Gloves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protective_equipment_in_gridir...

madebysquares 9y ago

I have been wat hung football since i was kid but like you the past couple of years it has become harder to justify watching these big hits and traumatic injuries knowing the damage it is doing to players when they get older.

anigbrowl 9y ago

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.

dingo_bat 9y ago
Yeah it's an impressive catch but I can recall a number of equally impressive catches from cricket too.

robbiep 9y ago

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 the other three which display to my way of thinking a fluidity and flexibility that I believe to be more skilful and also a reflection of a deeper cultural flexibility. But now my cultural biases are flooding out heavily. What is interesting however is that neither rugby union, league or AFL have anywhere near the level of concussive damage, maybe because the lack of protection leads to a different approach to bodily harm. Full disclosure, one of the products my company makes and is commercialising in Australian Rugby Union is a concussion monitoring system so this is a deep interest of mine both from the tech/commercial side but also the medical side. You are right though, greater awareness of the risks is going to endanger these sports. A parting word of hope - we still allow boxing, and CTE is medically known as ‘punch drunk syndrome’ from the first reported cases of the medical literature. Concussion management is a rapidly evolving field and my sister (for whom I built the side project which we are now commercialising) thinks that being able to have a biochem test like we do for heart attacks would totally change the field - big head knock, troponin-like test, then follow up and treatment as appropriate. It’s super interesting and we need to put players first whatever we do

icelancer 9y ago
>>That’s a highly cultural-specific viewpoint. What is? That the NFL has the best athletes in the world? If the NFL athletes trained for a year to do anything else, or you put all the athletes in the world into a decathalon of power/speed/strength specific events, it would be an insane blowout. NFL players would crush every other group of athletes individually and probably combined, and I say this as someone who has worked with Rugby Union and AFL players in Australia. There is no comparison, they are the best athletes in the world for any fair value of athletics you want to use.
- jacobolus 9y ago
  How about a literal decathlon? But come on, there are tremendous differences difference between the body types and skills involved in swimming, gymnastics, bobsled, trick snowboarding, 100 meter dash, marathon, boxing, sumo, table tennis, basketball, archery, rock climbing, ballet, ... https://imgur.com/a/cOTTF https://imgur.com/a/cOTTF You can’t just say “these particular athletes matching a particular archetype are ‘the best’, and could be retrained to beat anyone at anything”.

ohashi 9y ago

>The most impressive athletes in any sport in the world are in the NFL and when you think about the things that happen in any single game, they truly are spectacular. That seems like a wildly opinionated statement in an otherwise good comment.

sharkweek 9y ago

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 watched a player die on the field with the Ricardo Lockette injury a few years back - not a dirty hit, or anything, just the result of a violent game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BEx1BqTlhI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BEx1BqTlhI

icelancer 9y ago
>>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.

rifung 9y ago

> The most impressive athletes in any sport in the world are in the NFL If you're going make such outrageous claims at least give some explanation? How do you measure how impressive an athlete is?

icelancer 9y ago
Context-neutral speed, strength, power metrics would all go to NFL players if you had a worldwide combine of running/jumping/lifting/etc. It would be laughable. See my bio if you think this opinion is subjective.
- rimliu 9y ago
  Your bio has no data to prove what you claim.
- rifung 9y ago
  > Context-neutral speed, strength, power metrics But if you choose these traits then naturally it's going to benefit those athletes who compete in sports where it's more beneficial to get.. big.. That's like saying tennis/table tennis/badminton players are all mediocre athletes because they aren't able to lift as much weight even though it isn't as beneficial or is even potentially harmful to be very heavy in those sports but of course any serious athlete is going to optimize their training for their sport.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

stupidgeek314 9y ago

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

thesumofall 9y ago

> 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)?

naeem 9y ago
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.
- tmd83 9y ago
  Impressive but yeah I don't really get that quote. Look at cricket just because I know it. It don't have the fight with other players but talk about the reflex time needed for the close catch, athleticism and presence of mind to make sure the ball doesn't go over the boundary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boHfs7nopHc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boHfs7nopHc But they are all really different. Different sports required different skill calling one set of skills most athletic is really weird.
Cyph0n 9y ago
I'm not very familiar with football either, but I can say that OP is heavily exaggerating and probably not familiar with sports history at all. Heck, I'm not huge sports fan, I can come up with half a dozen more impressive feats in sport off the top of my head. * Beamon's long jump record in 1968 Olympics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEt_Xgg8dzc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEt_Xgg8dzc * Maradona's goal of the century: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wVho3I0NtU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wVho3I0NtU * Zidane CL final, won Real Madrid its 9th CL title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFfomw-Z4uE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFfomw-Z4uE * O'Sullivan, fastest 147[1] in history (snooker = 4D chess in my opinion): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3C7I5lRZII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3C7I5lRZII * Sotomayor's high jump world record in 1988 Olympics (his lowest time and still 0.01 m higher than anyone else since then!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n6NhV4CaiU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n6NhV4CaiU * Usain Bolt [1] 147 is the maximum number of points you can get in a game of snooker. The only way to do this is to alternate pocketing a red ball then a black ball until all red balls are off the table; this nets you 120 points. Once this is done, you need to pocket the remaining colored balls, ending with the black ball, for an additional 27 points. All this must be done without conceding a single point to your opponent (i.e., no mistakes). Start watching from 1:10 for the action.

CamperBob2 9y ago

The most impressive athletes in any sport in the world are in the NFL Call me when one of them free-climbs El Capitan.

kid0m4n 9y ago

I will see your 50 MPH catch and raise you 100: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX8EQXMtX8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX8EQXMtX8w While OBJ's was impressive, I have seen even more crazy catches in Cricket and Baseball!

tmd83 9y ago
Funny thing when I thought of fantastic catches the first thing I thought about the first catch in that video of yours. I remembering seeing that live and I think that was the first time in cricket history someone consciously did that double step catch. It seems in recent days (I haven't followed much lately) that thing has become a lot more common even two players in tandem doing it. It's so interesting that once you know something's possible a lot more people can do it. But yeah that first one was special at points, both the reflex and the speed of thought to find a way to do this that never been done before. I think he single handedly raised the level of fielding in cricket by showing what's possible and that it can truly be a game changer in terms of producing result.

pjc50 9y ago

Why would the NFL fund this? Then they might actually find the CTE, in people who were still alive to sue. They know that success means the end of their sport in its current form. This is like asking why the cigarette industry doesn't fund cancer research.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> Football is a sport that is designed to really allow people to showcase the limits of the human body. Not really; depending on dimension, gymnastics, ballet, marathon, short-distance sprinting, powerlifting, and any number of other sports and physical arts are far better at showcasing the extremes of what the body can do. > The most impressive athletes in any sport in the world are in the NFL Well, “impressive” is subjective, and all this really says is that you are particularly prone to being impressed by the kind of display that the NFL provides.

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago

> "The Catch" is one of the most impressive things in the history of sports period. So I finally got around to watching the catch. Cool catch, but isn't the catching ability of a receiver augmented by tact gloves?[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protective_equipment_in_gridiron_football#Gloves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protective_equipment_in_gridir...