5 ms·

There are several sports than can be dangerous and involve risk of death, like basically all forms of racing, climbing, endurance, etc. As long as practitioners

There are several sports than can be dangerous and involve risk of death, like basically all forms of racing, climbing, endurance, etc. As long as practitioners are educated and consenting, I don't see a problem. The problem is if the those responsible for the athletes are not upfront on the risks, or if the athlete is not able to make a proper judgement to consent, like a child.

Cerium 8y ago
The problem with sports like football is that they are an accumulative damage sport as opposed to a safe until accident sport.
jacobsenscott 8y ago
In all the sports you named - brain injury is not a regular part of the sport - it happens when something goes wrong. In football players suffer mild traumatic brain injury in every game, as a regular part of game play.
- rkangel 8y ago
  While this seems to be the likely scenario, this isn't actually known for sure yet. We know that every concussion causes cumulative damage, but it is unclear what level of sub-concussive hit causes cumulative damage? It's almost certainly not 'none', but we don't know whether it's a light tap, or an almost concussive hit. For example, it could be that concussion is a red herring and certain angles and acceleration profiles are the issue and these don't correlate at all with concussion.
privacypoller 8y ago
Yes, there are risks in all these activities, the problem with full-contact football, or hockey & lacrosse is that there is no way to be educated and consenting for an aspect that is inherent to the very nature of the activity, especially if you're a kid. Up in Canada the pro-contact hockey crowd loves to talk about "teaching kids how to hit properly" which I'd suspect is a similar attitude to those coaching 5-yr-olds in full-pads football. But what does this mean? They seem to think that by addressing the technique of what is at it's a core a violent and damaging activity you can somehow mitigate the effects. I'm not buying it. Football is even worse; it's not the highlight reel tackles but the every single play collisions at the line that lead to long term, consistently demonstrated traumatic head injuries. Frankly I feel that the NFL working to address the root causes of head injuries is like asking Facebook to take care of personal information and privacy protection. They are entirely incompatible.
- soperj 8y ago
  you don't even start contact in hockey until your teens. Hitting properly means using your shoulders and hitting the player in the shoulders or chest.
  - dingaling 8y ago
    Specifically ice hockey, I assume? Field hockey ( just called hockey in Europe ) doesn't involve bodily contact.
jsgo 8y ago
Racing is the closest, but with climbing and endurance, you're battling the environment and yourself. In football, the person going after you provides a factor you really can't plan for.

Cerium 8y ago

The problem with sports like football is that they are an accumulative damage sport as opposed to a safe until accident sport.

jacobsenscott 8y ago

In all the sports you named - brain injury is not a regular part of the sport - it happens when something goes wrong. In football players suffer mild traumatic brain injury in every game, as a regular part of game play.

rkangel 8y ago
While this seems to be the likely scenario, this isn't actually known for sure yet. We know that every concussion causes cumulative damage, but it is unclear what level of sub-concussive hit causes cumulative damage? It's almost certainly not 'none', but we don't know whether it's a light tap, or an almost concussive hit. For example, it could be that concussion is a red herring and certain angles and acceleration profiles are the issue and these don't correlate at all with concussion.

privacypoller 8y ago

Yes, there are risks in all these activities, the problem with full-contact football, or hockey & lacrosse is that there is no way to be educated and consenting for an aspect that is inherent to the very nature of the activity, especially if you're a kid. Up in Canada the pro-contact hockey crowd loves to talk about "teaching kids how to hit properly" which I'd suspect is a similar attitude to those coaching 5-yr-olds in full-pads football. But what does this mean? They seem to think that by addressing the technique of what is at it's a core a violent and damaging activity you can somehow mitigate the effects. I'm not buying it. Football is even worse; it's not the highlight reel tackles but the every single play collisions at the line that lead to long term, consistently demonstrated traumatic head injuries. Frankly I feel that the NFL working to address the root causes of head injuries is like asking Facebook to take care of personal information and privacy protection. They are entirely incompatible.

soperj 8y ago
you don't even start contact in hockey until your teens. Hitting properly means using your shoulders and hitting the player in the shoulders or chest.
- dingaling 8y ago
  Specifically ice hockey, I assume? Field hockey ( just called hockey in Europe ) doesn't involve bodily contact.

jsgo 8y ago

Racing is the closest, but with climbing and endurance, you're battling the environment and yourself. In football, the person going after you provides a factor you really can't plan for.