8 ms·

I don't understand these arguments. Are they forcing players to do it? If the players are well aware of health risks and still make decision to play the game, h

I don't understand these arguments. Are they forcing players to do it? If the players are well aware of health risks and still make decision to play the game, how is the sports organization to blame?

pizza 9y ago
Evil runs on volunteers better than it does coerced conscripts.
mobilefriendly 9y ago
95% of the people playing contact football are minor children. The NFL and NCAA, and their equipment partners, underwrite and promote the youth sport but do little to mitigate the brain injury issue...frankly it is unethical to permit under-18 kids to play contact football.
adanto6840 9y ago
College with $50k+ of debt, if even able/eligible to get in -- versus "free" college. In many cases I suspect it's the "only chance" for some of these kids and, at best, it's extreme exhortation for most all of them.
- golergka 9y ago
  I wasn't aware that people without college education in US suffer from mass starvation and getting it is a matter of life and death.
  - pizza 9y ago
    You jest, but I've been noticing over time that that kind of joke is, very gradually, but definitely, becoming less of a joke that gets as big a laugh as it might have in, say, 2006.
rjtavares 9y ago
It really depends on where you stand on the freedom vs society protection debate. Some think that society should protect vulnerable individuals (in this case, mostly poor people that see in football a way to get well-off/rich) from predatory organizations (in this case, a monopolistic organization that has proven to have no regard for the health of its workers). Notice that most people aren't asking for a ban of the sport - just some rule changes to minimize the health risks.
- macintux 9y ago
  Admittedly I haven't looked to see what proposals are out there, but I have a really hard time picturing rule changes that could minimize the risks. The game seems designed explicitly to cause harm.
clort 9y ago
Your premise is wrong. It sounds as if it should be right, but the framing is awry The players are not really aware of the health risks, furthermore they are young and foolish and impressionable and are following the path of glamour which has been sold to them as youngsters. The sports organization is aware of the risks and are using the players to make vast sums for themselves, they are pushing the glamourous path and they are not supporting the discarded players. They are ignoring the debt to society incurred generating their profit and that is not good unless you think that their tax payments should cover it (do they? I don't know..)
- katastic 9y ago
  If the NAACP was selling sex trafficking to cheer leaders to profit from them, we'd care. But because we're destroying the brains and bodies of males with illusions of fame and fortunem and brainwashing them into thinking they're "heroes" and "warriors", it's all the young adult boys fault--even though they're still trying to find their place in the world and the brain clearly still develops until at least 25-years old. And if a major college was teaching students that global warming is false and the Earth was 3,000 years old, and that coal and lead were good for the lungs, the public would be outraged. Don't brainwash out kids! But again... brainwashing football players... they must be jocks... so to hell with them. They "chose" their lives and their eventual crippling diseases. ... But did they? "Disposable male" culture, indeed.
  - msingle 9y ago
    I think you meant NCAA (not NAACP)
  - dang 9y ago
    Your last several comments all break the HN guidelines by being uncivil and/or unsubstantive and/or flamebait. We've warned you about this before. If you keep doing this, we're going to ban your account. We do appreciate your substantive posts but you're damaging the site with these other ones, which are not at all the kind of internet forum HN is trying to be. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
lbotos 9y ago
Let us also remember that to a large swath of Americans youth, sport is seen as an avenue out of poverty. You better believe that if it was your "one shot" to change social class, you might take it at 16 without thinking about the literal brain impact. It's literally the closest thing you can get to modern day gladiators.

I don't understand these arguments. Are they forcing players to do it? If the players are well aware of health risks and still make decision to play the game, how is the sports organization to blame?

pizza 9y ago

Evil runs on volunteers better than it does coerced conscripts.

mobilefriendly 9y ago

95% of the people playing contact football are minor children. The NFL and NCAA, and their equipment partners, underwrite and promote the youth sport but do little to mitigate the brain injury issue...frankly it is unethical to permit under-18 kids to play contact football.

adanto6840 9y ago

College with $50k+ of debt, if even able/eligible to get in -- versus "free" college. In many cases I suspect it's the "only chance" for some of these kids and, at best, it's extreme exhortation for most all of them.

golergka 9y ago
I wasn't aware that people without college education in US suffer from mass starvation and getting it is a matter of life and death.
- pizza 9y ago
  You jest, but I've been noticing over time that that kind of joke is, very gradually, but definitely, becoming less of a joke that gets as big a laugh as it might have in, say, 2006.

rjtavares 9y ago

It really depends on where you stand on the freedom vs society protection debate. Some think that society should protect vulnerable individuals (in this case, mostly poor people that see in football a way to get well-off/rich) from predatory organizations (in this case, a monopolistic organization that has proven to have no regard for the health of its workers). Notice that most people aren't asking for a ban of the sport - just some rule changes to minimize the health risks.

macintux 9y ago
Admittedly I haven't looked to see what proposals are out there, but I have a really hard time picturing rule changes that could minimize the risks. The game seems designed explicitly to cause harm.

clort 9y ago

Your premise is wrong. It sounds as if it should be right, but the framing is awry The players are not really aware of the health risks, furthermore they are young and foolish and impressionable and are following the path of glamour which has been sold to them as youngsters. The sports organization is aware of the risks and are using the players to make vast sums for themselves, they are pushing the glamourous path and they are not supporting the discarded players. They are ignoring the debt to society incurred generating their profit and that is not good unless you think that their tax payments should cover it (do they? I don't know..)

katastic 9y ago
If the NAACP was selling sex trafficking to cheer leaders to profit from them, we'd care. But because we're destroying the brains and bodies of males with illusions of fame and fortunem and brainwashing them into thinking they're "heroes" and "warriors", it's all the young adult boys fault--even though they're still trying to find their place in the world and the brain clearly still develops until at least 25-years old. And if a major college was teaching students that global warming is false and the Earth was 3,000 years old, and that coal and lead were good for the lungs, the public would be outraged. Don't brainwash out kids! But again... brainwashing football players... they must be jocks... so to hell with them. They "chose" their lives and their eventual crippling diseases. ... But did they? "Disposable male" culture, indeed.
- msingle 9y ago
  I think you meant NCAA (not NAACP)
- dang 9y ago
  Your last several comments all break the HN guidelines by being uncivil and/or unsubstantive and/or flamebait. We've warned you about this before. If you keep doing this, we're going to ban your account. We do appreciate your substantive posts but you're damaging the site with these other ones, which are not at all the kind of internet forum HN is trying to be. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

lbotos 9y ago

Let us also remember that to a large swath of Americans youth, sport is seen as an avenue out of poverty. You better believe that if it was your "one shot" to change social class, you might take it at 16 without thinking about the literal brain impact. It's literally the closest thing you can get to modern day gladiators.