Nearly All Donated NFL Player Brains Found To Have CTE

[C C]

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/25/539198429/...yer-brains

EXCERPT: An updated study on [gridiron] football players and the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy reveals a striking result among NFL players. The study examined the brains of deceased former football players (CTE can only be diagnosed after death) and found that 110 out of 111 brains of those who played in the NFL had CTE. CTE has been linked to repeated blows to the head — the 2015 movie Concussion chronicled the discovery of CTE's connection to football....

[Carol]

That is concerning to me because my son dealt with stress by banging his head. This contributed to his dismissal from military service. He has married a younger woman and had a child and it would really suck if in his later years he paid the price for banging his head because he will still have a family to care for when he is 60ty.

[Magical Realist]

How will America come to grips with this shattering news that their favorite pasttime is injurying beloved players for life? Time will tell. More than likely it will just be ignored. Like horses that are whipped to win the Kentucky Derby.

[C C]

How will America come to grips with this shattering news that their favorite pasttime is injurying beloved players for life? Time will tell. More than likely it will just be ignored. Like horses that are whipped to win the Kentucky Derby.

One thing they could do immediately is limit the weight of players -- reverse this trend of developing muscle-rippling giants that have marathon running speed, which has made it all the more like racing trucks crashing into each other. The ultimate extreme (and very unpopular for its fans) would be to eliminate tackling altogether and go to a flag or powderpuff version of North American football. A curious result of the latter would be that it would probably open the door to female athletes participating as something more than the current rare or limited occasions in school.

If concerned parents start deterring their offspring away from the game (which is already happening), then the NFL will have to bite the bullet and deal eventually with a massive reduction in the number of physically talented players. The earlier days of the game featured Slow White Guys well below the size of today's hulks, so it's not like an audience can't be satisfied with less. (Although it certainly won't be a return to said SWGs dominating -- their urban professional helicopter parents will be the ones most yanking them from the sport).

Nowadays there are scattered pockets of non-soccer "football" in other parts of the world. Perhaps even in poor countries, where desperation would compel them to accept any invitation and potential health consequences. The players wouldn't be remotely as skilled minus the years of training and playing games in an American school sports system. But if facing a severe deficit in domestic recruits, the NFL could be driven to go there for recruiting. Or go deep into ambassadorship and sponsor weeks-long North American football training camps for interested kids over in those places, covering multiple years of their growing-up.

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