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RIP George Foreman. As a former combat sports fan, I find it increasingly difficult to watch. These guys (and gals) are doing enormous brain damage to themselv

RIP George Foreman. As a former combat sports fan, I find it increasingly difficult to watch. These guys (and gals) are doing enormous brain damage to themselves & their opponents. Foreman seemed to have been an outlier that came out OK, but listen to the slurring & garbled speech that comes from any other old fighter. I know someone who's a friend with a longtime UFC fighter- he had an anecdote about the guy putting his kids to bed and temporarily forgetting their names. Great fights are very entertaining, but ethically I really find it difficult to be a fan these days

SecretDreams 2y ago
This, but also extended to American football. These individuals are well compensated, but many are signing up for much shorter lives.
- AbstractH24 2y ago
  It's amazing how long it's taken football to fall from fame for this reason, like boxing did. Not certain it'll ever happen. At least not for the foreseeable future.
- lurn_mor 2y ago
  I think most folk would gladly shorten their lifespan by decades for a million dollars today - the ultimate sacrifice for future generational wealth? Not that a million gets you anything substantial anymore...
  - SecretDreams 2y ago
    Ya the issue is you shorten your lifespan up front by playing from a young age, but only have a small chance of actually getting the generational wealth. Typically, this a sacrifice your parents make for you on your behalf because they sign you up before you really know the downsides and by the time you can know the downsides, you've got your head too many times to be able to figure out the downsides.
- wileydragonfly 2y ago
  Soccer players suffer more concussions and they aren’t paid much. What do?
  - genocidicbunny 2y ago
    Personally, I would be interested to see a type of soccer where you can only use the feet -- head and upper body contact would be disallowed. It won't be the same game, but it would be kind of fun to see how players would adapt to those rules. There would probably be quite a bit more acrobatics involved to handle the ball being in the air.
    - Someone 2y ago
      I suspect disallowing all upper body contact would lead to more goals. Posting a defender on the goal line would be less effective. > There would probably be quite a bit more acrobatics involved to handle the ball being in the air. I think that could end up being disallowed, too because of the risk of feet hitting heads, especially inside the penalty area. Think of the body movements of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepak_takraw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepak_takraw but without the net separating teams.
  - SecretDreams 2y ago
    Do you have hard stats on this? I play an unholy amount of soccer, moreso for fun, but most of my life. I've seldom seen any concussions. I'm confident they can and would happen, but I'd love to dive into the veracity of your claim. Especially over the lifetime of play, not just at the professional level. A lot of football (American) players get their concussions in early, like highschool and college.
- genocidicbunny 2y ago
  The ones that are well compensated are the ones that survived high school and probably college football, where they weren't really compensated that much at all. In high school, the football coaches would nag me at the beginning of the football season to join the team -- understandable since I was an example of the kind of wall of muscle and flesh you wanted in your defensive lines. I never joined because it didn't seem like much fun to me to be constantly slamming into other guys of that size. More recently, I ran into one of the guys who did join the team, played defensive tackle, and went on to also play in college. Having also relatively recently seen up-close the effects of TBI, alzheimers, dementia -- even a short interaction made it obvious he was suffering heavily from hitting his head so much; the sad part is that he's the same age as me, and that by the time I hit middle age, he's probably going to be dead. Well, that's one of the sad parts, the other big one is that his reward for all that is two jobs in retail to try to make ends meet because he never got paid much for playing, and the TBIs made it hard to find a high-paying career.
  - amy214 2y ago
    Also a long known phenomena ... I believe it was Bill Gates who said, "He's a nice guy, but played a bit too much of the football with his helmet off"

SecretDreams 2y ago

This, but also extended to American football. These individuals are well compensated, but many are signing up for much shorter lives.

AbstractH24 2y ago
It's amazing how long it's taken football to fall from fame for this reason, like boxing did. Not certain it'll ever happen. At least not for the foreseeable future.
lurn_mor 2y ago
I think most folk would gladly shorten their lifespan by decades for a million dollars today - the ultimate sacrifice for future generational wealth? Not that a million gets you anything substantial anymore...
- SecretDreams 2y ago
  Ya the issue is you shorten your lifespan up front by playing from a young age, but only have a small chance of actually getting the generational wealth. Typically, this a sacrifice your parents make for you on your behalf because they sign you up before you really know the downsides and by the time you can know the downsides, you've got your head too many times to be able to figure out the downsides.
wileydragonfly 2y ago
Soccer players suffer more concussions and they aren’t paid much. What do?
- genocidicbunny 2y ago
  Personally, I would be interested to see a type of soccer where you can only use the feet -- head and upper body contact would be disallowed. It won't be the same game, but it would be kind of fun to see how players would adapt to those rules. There would probably be quite a bit more acrobatics involved to handle the ball being in the air.
  - Someone 2y ago
    I suspect disallowing all upper body contact would lead to more goals. Posting a defender on the goal line would be less effective. > There would probably be quite a bit more acrobatics involved to handle the ball being in the air. I think that could end up being disallowed, too because of the risk of feet hitting heads, especially inside the penalty area. Think of the body movements of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepak_takraw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepak_takraw but without the net separating teams.
- SecretDreams 2y ago
  Do you have hard stats on this? I play an unholy amount of soccer, moreso for fun, but most of my life. I've seldom seen any concussions. I'm confident they can and would happen, but I'd love to dive into the veracity of your claim. Especially over the lifetime of play, not just at the professional level. A lot of football (American) players get their concussions in early, like highschool and college.
genocidicbunny 2y ago
The ones that are well compensated are the ones that survived high school and probably college football, where they weren't really compensated that much at all. In high school, the football coaches would nag me at the beginning of the football season to join the team -- understandable since I was an example of the kind of wall of muscle and flesh you wanted in your defensive lines. I never joined because it didn't seem like much fun to me to be constantly slamming into other guys of that size. More recently, I ran into one of the guys who did join the team, played defensive tackle, and went on to also play in college. Having also relatively recently seen up-close the effects of TBI, alzheimers, dementia -- even a short interaction made it obvious he was suffering heavily from hitting his head so much; the sad part is that he's the same age as me, and that by the time I hit middle age, he's probably going to be dead. Well, that's one of the sad parts, the other big one is that his reward for all that is two jobs in retail to try to make ends meet because he never got paid much for playing, and the TBIs made it hard to find a high-paying career.
- amy214 2y ago
  Also a long known phenomena ... I believe it was Bill Gates who said, "He's a nice guy, but played a bit too much of the football with his helmet off"