El Jefe wrote:
The GMAN wrote:
BLeP wrote:
Here's my question, how is the NFL going to survive? Less and less kids are playing football now. The talent pool will continue to shrink.
The NFL won't survive. It's already a dead man walking. The killshot already happened. It's just going to take a long time (decades) before it bleeds out and dies.
The billion dollar lawsuits are coming, and they will be brutal as well as far as football's future, but it's a whole generation of kids that are not playing football as much (the current crop of youngsters) and the next generation that won't play at all that will ultimately kill the sport. Anyone who doesn't believe the NFL is eventually dead is an idiot. I recall someone chiming in on a similar thread who was an asst. college coach or something. He told those of us that said football was dead that we were wrong. He of course had a vested interest, and was an idiot.
My son also wanted to play and we told him no chance. He did play flag football for five years.
I think any parent that allows their kid to play football in this day and age with what we know is negligent in doing their main job as a parent which is to protect your kid as best you can.
Hi GMAN. I believe I'm the idiot you're referring to regarding the thread a while back where I stated my experience, and my opinion as a football recruitment coordinator at the college level. You seem to be spewing your own opinion and acting as if it is informed, as well as insults. Nice job.
The sport is only growing and the NFL is far from a 'dead man walking'. I say that not as a fan of the sport, only as one who works in the industry.
And as for your judging of parents who let their kids play football, I assume you feel the same about all sports. They all carry risk and have the same common factor: all it takes is one incident. As for protection being our "main job as a parent", I couldn't disagree more.
The sport is not growing. It's been at a constant level but, as Andrew pointed out above, we are only a few years removed from the public debate and mainstream exposure of the concussion and CTE problem. So the statistical shift among youth participation has yet to bear out. Let's have this conversation again in 5-10 years and you will not see a positive or even neutral trend. The sport is dying. It's going to be a long death but it's dying. You can stick your head in the sand all you want but it's not going to change anything. You'll likely be safe in your career because odds are that it's going to take decades for the sport, at least the sport in its current form, to die.
You have an obvious bias and vested interest but what's your opinion on the matter outside of thinking the sport is not dying? Do you think there's teeth to the concussion/CTE research and findings or are you going to play the industry denial card and say it's not a big deal? No offense, but your industry reeks of the 1950-1970's era tobacco industry that did everything imaginable to claim smoking wasn't bad. I'm not saying you're like that, just a generalization of your industry being a bunch of greedy, devious, selfish, and self-protecting assholes. The assholeness lessens at each level down from the NFL but let's not pretend college football isn't big business.
I do not feel like that about all sports, and frankly, that's a silly argument to make. Is there risk of injury in every sport? Absolutely there is. Let's not pretend each sport is like the other in regards to danger. A sport like football is at the pinnacle of dangerous because the whole point is to violently stop someone from advancing the ball. People are getting hit at all times, and at all positions. Hockey, and lacrosse (which I played in HS), are a step or three down the list from football because, even though there's checking involved, that isn't the same as tackling. Additionally, only the puck or ball carriers are getting checked, which is a far cry from football where many/most of the players are getting hit on every play, regardless of who actually carries the ball. Also the intention of checking isn't to bring the player down, it's to remove the ball or puck from the player. I would have trepidations about letting my son play hockey or lacrosse but nowhere near how I feel about football. I wouldn't want my kid to box or do MMA either.
Then there's other sports like baseball where you could certainly get beaned in the head but that's not part and parcel to the game. Basketball you could slip on the court and hit your head. Once again, not part and parcel to the sport. There's no expectation that you're going to get hit in the head while playing baseball, basketball, golf, track, cycling, running, volleyball, or whatever. Football is just inherently violent and there's a 100% expectation you're going to get hit in the head.
As to the parenting comment, what's more important than the safety and well being of your child? Beyond unconditional love, of course.
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