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There aren't many things in the world that are simple enough that they can be described in a snarky one-line quip. This however, is one of them. I really do th

There aren't many things in the world that are simple enough that they can be described in a snarky one-line quip. This however, is one of them. I really do think it's that simple. The sport itself is flawed in design.

dekhn 9y ago
I've always thought football was a sport intentionally designed as an analogy to war, so in some sense, head injuries are an expected outcome.
- breck 9y ago
  An Army professor and former college football athlete described combat to our class once as “Football with guns”. It’s a gross reduction I’m sure but probably some truth to it.
  - dekhn 9y ago
    I think George Carlin summed it up best: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor7.shtml http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor7.shtml Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle. Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium. Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying. In football you wear a helmet. Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness. Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death. n football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.
switchbak 9y ago
I often hear people say you have to 'coach how to hit properly' as if hitting with your head is just a bad habit, but when you watch the top pros they spear people with their heads, even high speed hits. This is built into the game, and the equipment enables it. I have not seen any meaningful change from the NFL (or CFL, haha) to specifically combat this risk. I think they know the game is exciting because of these brutal impacts, and they're afraid to water it down and risk profits just to protect the (expendible) players.
- Clubber 9y ago
  You aren't allowed to lead with your head, or target the helmet. It's called "targeting," and it will get you ejected on the first offense.
  - kodablah 9y ago
    So every running back and lineman that lead with their head every play all get ejected for targeting on the first play of the game? Or do you recognize that targeting is applied very subjectively and usually involves someone defenseless on the receiving end.
    - Clubber 9y ago
      Yes, it involves a defenseless player. Why don't you elaborate on the rule rather than being smug? Perhaps a dissertation for everyone, since I obviously didn't explain it fully and thoroughly enough to your satisfaction. Wow this place is turning into WaPo.
      - dang 9y ago
        Please don't cross into being uncivil even if another comment is wrong or annoying. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
notyourwork 9y ago
I don't think its flawed though I agree with your sentiment. I think the point is why is anyone surprised this is the outcome of playing that sport?
- Clubber 9y ago
  It wasn't known that concussions caused plaques to build up in your brain that causes permanent degenerative brain damage until fairly recently. When I was playing years ago, it was called, "getting your bell rung." It was a temporary problem like getting a muscle cramp or something.
  - notyourwork 9y ago
    I don't think it takes a medical diagnosis to use common sense and think if I hit my brain a bunch there will be lasting impressions. (Boxing, soccer, football to name a few.)
    - Clubber 9y ago
      Why would you think that? What evidence did you have before this? I think you are relying on hindsight a little too much.
      - notyourwork 9y ago
        Boxing head injuries have been well documented as have head injuries from brain trauma in soccer players. Its not a far stretch to extrapolate that and wonder if football might have similar problems with my head.
        Clubber 9y ago
        Well, since you knew something no one else did until recently, you probably should have said something. Think of all the people you could have saved. :)
billmalarky 9y ago
The snark is a bit unwarranted in my opinion because it isn't entirely that cut and dry. The pads provide the illusion of safety - the hits honestly don't feel, or look, as bad. Well now we're starting to find out that the pads don't protect against this sort of long term damage, they only protect against visceral short term damage. It wasn't unreasonable to think that a contact sport like football could be played safely with pads because that's what appeared to be the case - on the outside.
lkrubner 9y ago
"The sport itself is flawed in design." The health aspects of this are the most urgent, but I'd argue that as coaches and analysts have developed algorithms to optimize very particular strategies, they've also squeezed much of the fun out of the game. I wrote about this elsewhere: ---------------------- Watching professional sports has become less fun over the last 50 years, due to athletes improving while the rules of most games have gone largely unchanged. Basketball players are taller, on average, than 60 years ago, yet the height of the basket has not been raised. Tennis players have learned to optimize techniques for smashing serves, which often leads to boring games where everything is decided by the strength of a player's serve -- obviously tennis is more fun to watch when there is a long and dramatic volley. American football has seen a relative improvement in defense, such that some games are just 3 attempts at 10 yards, then punt, followed by 3 attempts at 10 yards, then punt, followed 3 attempts at 10 yards, then punt. I'm not exaggerating, I actually saw a game in December where there was something like 5 punts in 5 minutes of play action. Who wants to watch that? In the specific case of American football, an obvious change that could be made is to allow 5 or 6 attempts to get 10 yards, instead of 4. That would be fun, I love watching the pass or run plays, much more than the punts. I learned to love football when I was a little kid, because my older brother loved football and I liked to watch the games with him. Back then I remember many long, dramatic passes, of a type that have become rare as defense has gotten relatively better at stopping exactly that strategy. But whenever I explain to people that the rules of sports need to be often updated to keep up with changes in equipment and training regimes, I'm told that any change would render historical comparisons invalid. Obviously that is true, but what is more important, that we are able to compare today's game to a game in 1956, or that the game is fun? http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/am-i-completely-insane http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/am-i-completely-insan...

dekhn 9y ago

I've always thought football was a sport intentionally designed as an analogy to war, so in some sense, head injuries are an expected outcome.

breck 9y ago
An Army professor and former college football athlete described combat to our class once as “Football with guns”. It’s a gross reduction I’m sure but probably some truth to it.
- dekhn 9y ago
  I think George Carlin summed it up best: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor7.shtml http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor7.shtml Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle. Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium. Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying. In football you wear a helmet. Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness. Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death. n football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

switchbak 9y ago

I often hear people say you have to 'coach how to hit properly' as if hitting with your head is just a bad habit, but when you watch the top pros they spear people with their heads, even high speed hits. This is built into the game, and the equipment enables it. I have not seen any meaningful change from the NFL (or CFL, haha) to specifically combat this risk. I think they know the game is exciting because of these brutal impacts, and they're afraid to water it down and risk profits just to protect the (expendible) players.

Clubber 9y ago
You aren't allowed to lead with your head, or target the helmet. It's called "targeting," and it will get you ejected on the first offense.
- kodablah 9y ago
  So every running back and lineman that lead with their head every play all get ejected for targeting on the first play of the game? Or do you recognize that targeting is applied very subjectively and usually involves someone defenseless on the receiving end.
  - Clubber 9y ago
    Yes, it involves a defenseless player. Why don't you elaborate on the rule rather than being smug? Perhaps a dissertation for everyone, since I obviously didn't explain it fully and thoroughly enough to your satisfaction. Wow this place is turning into WaPo.
    - dang 9y ago
      Please don't cross into being uncivil even if another comment is wrong or annoying. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

notyourwork 9y ago

I don't think its flawed though I agree with your sentiment. I think the point is why is anyone surprised this is the outcome of playing that sport?

Clubber 9y ago
It wasn't known that concussions caused plaques to build up in your brain that causes permanent degenerative brain damage until fairly recently. When I was playing years ago, it was called, "getting your bell rung." It was a temporary problem like getting a muscle cramp or something.
- notyourwork 9y ago
  I don't think it takes a medical diagnosis to use common sense and think if I hit my brain a bunch there will be lasting impressions. (Boxing, soccer, football to name a few.)
  - Clubber 9y ago
    Why would you think that? What evidence did you have before this? I think you are relying on hindsight a little too much.
    - notyourwork 9y ago
      Boxing head injuries have been well documented as have head injuries from brain trauma in soccer players. Its not a far stretch to extrapolate that and wonder if football might have similar problems with my head.
      - Clubber 9y ago
        Well, since you knew something no one else did until recently, you probably should have said something. Think of all the people you could have saved. :)

billmalarky 9y ago

The snark is a bit unwarranted in my opinion because it isn't entirely that cut and dry. The pads provide the illusion of safety - the hits honestly don't feel, or look, as bad. Well now we're starting to find out that the pads don't protect against this sort of long term damage, they only protect against visceral short term damage. It wasn't unreasonable to think that a contact sport like football could be played safely with pads because that's what appeared to be the case - on the outside.

lkrubner 9y ago

"The sport itself is flawed in design." The health aspects of this are the most urgent, but I'd argue that as coaches and analysts have developed algorithms to optimize very particular strategies, they've also squeezed much of the fun out of the game. I wrote about this elsewhere: ---------------------- Watching professional sports has become less fun over the last 50 years, due to athletes improving while the rules of most games have gone largely unchanged. Basketball players are taller, on average, than 60 years ago, yet the height of the basket has not been raised. Tennis players have learned to optimize techniques for smashing serves, which often leads to boring games where everything is decided by the strength of a player's serve -- obviously tennis is more fun to watch when there is a long and dramatic volley. American football has seen a relative improvement in defense, such that some games are just 3 attempts at 10 yards, then punt, followed by 3 attempts at 10 yards, then punt, followed 3 attempts at 10 yards, then punt. I'm not exaggerating, I actually saw a game in December where there was something like 5 punts in 5 minutes of play action. Who wants to watch that? In the specific case of American football, an obvious change that could be made is to allow 5 or 6 attempts to get 10 yards, instead of 4. That would be fun, I love watching the pass or run plays, much more than the punts. I learned to love football when I was a little kid, because my older brother loved football and I liked to watch the games with him. Back then I remember many long, dramatic passes, of a type that have become rare as defense has gotten relatively better at stopping exactly that strategy. But whenever I explain to people that the rules of sports need to be often updated to keep up with changes in equipment and training regimes, I'm told that any change would render historical comparisons invalid. Obviously that is true, but what is more important, that we are able to compare today's game to a game in 1956, or that the game is fun? http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/am-i-completely-insane http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/am-i-completely-insan...