Horns247 Board

Iike the designated hitter rule....

:-)

If a trend develops where former pro football players put shotguns to their chests and pull the trigger (it's happened at least twice now) so that their brains can be examined post mortem for damage caused by the game, there is bound to be a ruckus.

I love the game. It's great. And it's dangerous. And that's a big part of the appeal, honestly.

Anyone who follows the game closely should be aware of this undercurrent that clearly exists. I have little sympathy for professional players, who are men and make their own decisions, The problem comes in when those decisions are looked up to and emulated by kids. Myself included, when I was in high school.

I was never even a good high school football player, but I loved it. And when I tore my knee up and doctors told me that a small percentage of athletes can play with a torn ACL, that was good enough for me at the time. I rehabbed and gave it a shot, and then I tore that knee up worse. And here I am, not crippled but certainly affected for the rest of my life.

Sure, the injury could have happened in soccer or any other sport. But the brain injuries that these guys are complaining about and killing themselves over could not have.

I love the game and do not want to see it change. But change will come whether we like it or not if this sort of thing keeps happening. What will the change look like? Who knows, but it's hard to imagine that it will look like the sport as we know it today.

In many ways, this mirrors the steroid conversation that has been going on for a long time now. I don't really give a crap if pro football players use them. They are men and make their own decisions. But it trickles down to kids who typically don't make good decisions since they are living in the moment and think they are indestructible. And that's bad.

I think this game will change based on recent trends. Protective equipment cannot change the fact that the brain still gets rattled around inside wonderful helmets.

And before the downvotes commence, realize that I am not advocating change at all. Merely joining those harkening its arrival. This game as we know it has a limited lifespan.

Blake, I also tried to keep my post as free of politics as possible, but that's hard to do when the person in the article discussing changes to the game is the President. He may have only been answering a question, but I agree with everything you said.

Haha. Sorry about that. Good luck with the commitment you made at church. The first day's usually the hardest and now you only have 29 more to go. :)

Probably the worst thread topic and responses of my 2 years on this site.

A cheap way for a couple of jackasses to get political where it doesn't belong and take shots at Obama. How is he supposed to respond, that he couldn't care less about violence in football?

Like it or not, football is going to look a lot different in 10-20 years. If the brain injuries don't stop people aren't going to allow their kids to play.

Football will eventually go the way of boxing and be replaced by another sport in popularity, maybe some sort of murderball or terrordrome

A political hack? WTH? How in the heck did you come to a ridiculous conclusion like that? I tried to keep my strong personal political views out of this for the simple reason, I wanted to share the article and get thoughts and views on it with the hope it wouldn't be viewed as a political post. I agree with the last statement you made and with almost all of the comments posted. I hope my effort to keep it unbiased didn't make it appear to be coming from the left, and I don't see how it reflects strong views coming from the right. If I were a political hack as you put it, I should be fired because it doesn't come close to revealing my strong political thoughts! BTW...exactly which political party did you believe the original post to be inescapably supporting?

This thread is brought to you by Brawndo.

VaHorn, I'm sorry you feel that way. I saw the article and was curious to see how others felt about it. I know a lot's been made of the rule changes that have already been put in place and I wanted to hear what others thought about the possibility of more coming. I had reservations about sharing the article and posting any type of comments because of the passionate feelings people have when it comes to the president and how divisive we've become, but I was really hoping for the best and that a discussion with thoughts about safer equipment and additional rules could take place. You stated it's one of the worst threads as did Aristotle in the next post, again I'm sorry you guys feel that way, but I'd really like to hear why you think this thread topic is so bad. I look forward to your positive response. :)

I, for one, really like the gal on the bottom right(leftie ain't too shabby either) whenever you post!!!

How's that for positive?

Pretty much nails it imo.