If football was not a sport, it would be a crime.

I just read an article (linked below) that prompted this post.

Football is probably the most popular sport on this planet. As many football wives know, sex comes in a distant second, at best.

It's also one of the most lucrative games on this planet. And that does explain a lot.

This post is for monkeys who have children, grand children, or great grandchildren who are just now reaching (or have reached) the age of expendability.

The larger, stronger, and more intelligent they are, the harder, faster, and more often they will be trolled by football coaches, agents, school administrators, and--sadly--family members.

You will know they are at risk when the cockroaches come around asking the parents to give "written permission" for their children to "join the !Team! (Rah!). Those aren't permission slips. Those are waivers of liability.

The reason they want waivers is because waivers are their only protection against the liability claims that would otherwise arise from the near-certain injuries they fully anticipate.

That alone means they consider your children expendable.

The fundamental brutality of football is such that it destroys football players. And they don't have to be professionals, or semi-pro college players. Even the youngest children that get lured into this "sport" can get lifelong disabilities out of it.

They can also get dead.

Players die from heat stroke (old term) on a regular basis, usually during practice. Some also die from body hits that simply stop the heart. Others die from brain bleeds, usually in their sleep.

The litany of broken bones is endless, and include many players paralyzed for life by spinal trauma.

After "glorious careers" that almost no one remembers or cares about, many ex-professional footballers are unable to sit, stand, or sleep in any position for more than 15 minutes without unendurable pain.

The mental problems are, if anything, worse. Just like boxers that take too many head shots, many ex-footballers are subject to memory loss (both short and long term), bouts of depression and uncontrollable rage, substance abuse, spouse abuse, alcoholism, and gambling addiction.

That makes them prime candidates for failed marriages.

Football players are lured with promises of big money, endless sex, "glory" and (especially in high school) the most addictive drug of all: popularity.

Oh, and don't forget those "free rides" to big-name colleges. Of course, those free rides end if the player gets injured and is no longer able to play. And if he doesn't get injured, what good is a "pass him because he's on the Team" degree in anything worth to a person who can't reliably count his own fingers? He'll wind up like most ex-footballers: broke and unemployed.

An ex-family member pimped my grandson into playing football at the age of thirteen. He was big, strong, brave, and intelligent.

He still is.

He played four games, during which he watched a quarterback get his knee utterly destroyed, and a lineman get knocked unconscious and suffer a severe concussion.

At that point he decided football was a game for fools.

Yeah. He's smart. And he always will be.

He's in the Air Force now.

Read 'em & weep:

A Giant Laid Low by Too Many Blows to the Head

And yes, Virginia, it used to be even worse:

DATELINE 1905: Why Did Teddy Roosevelt want Football to be Banned? - BookTrib

 

I was happy not to play any serious sport...
..but I was tempted to become a professional farnarkler.....

 

I was more of a baseball type of kid,Even that ball hurts with a line drive to the old knoggin

 

For those of you that don't know ozzie, a farnarkler is one that carries on, on any subject, at any time, from a contrary point of view or pointing out the tiniest error in grammar, fact, opinion or assumption, and sometimes even idiom. (Saying "I agree" is antithetical to a farnarkler, too few words.) Sorta like an endless pilpul with little if any point. Just noise for the sake of noise between swallows of the local usquebaugh. (Yes, chelly, I know that's the Spanish spelling, not gaelic.)

 

I was glad to have played every seasonal sport as that at eighteen it made boot camp a breeze physically having said that I would not let my Grandsons play football if it were up to me there are plenty of other sports to play

 

The survival mentality takes various forms.

I played freshman year HS. Broke my leg in several places and was on crutches 4 months. Decided it was a stupid game not for me. Fast forward about 15 years and worked with a guy who was only 30 and after having both hips replaced at 25 could still hardly walk. Yep, due to HS football.

Now I consider myself lucky and glad I can scuba dive, hang glide, sky dive, rock climb, etc. Glad I only had daughters and didn’t have to say no to football.

 

Good thread. Stupidest sport ever. Keep in mind you’re nothing without PEDs as well. Don’t let them fool you. 99% of them are on something. The kicker included.

 

Ahhh American Football, where the Wife beaters, Rapist and Criminals find employment. Its actually a interesting love affair
America has with Football. As the people generally despise everything that Football represents, yet embrace it as the number #1 pass time.

 

Then you have all the rules about "amatuer football" and no pay while the schools make millions and the coaches get paid millions, draft picks and such limit signing pay, laws on anti trust and tv rights, etc. They have it figured out better than the Mafia and it is all legal.

 

It's almost like the IRS set all of this up!

 

See Merkun, you do have a sense of humor.

 

I Have a older fishing buddy with a teen age Quadriplegic grand son due to a series of bad decisions by his parents, they had him doing Jujitsu, wrestling, and foot ball from a early age! He took a few bad hits and got a really bad concussion, returned to the field the next year and got hit again BAD, this time crushing several vertebrata and compressing his spine, now he rides a motorized wheelchair and has no control of any bodily functions below his chest! Yup, good job parents! These sports are stupid, and the seriousness of what can happen shouldn't ever be allowed for kids! if adults wanna play, that's up to them, but Kids shouldn't be allowed to,PERIOD!
My own boys were not allowed to play any dangerous sports, baseball, swimming, track, basketball , and soccer were fine, but Football and wrestling were forbidden!

 

Average career in NFL is 3.3 years, backs and those hit a lot, less than 3. The average salary for the the 2010 -20011 season was 1.9 million. About 1 million high school students play football, about 6 % make it to college football, though many do not finish the 4 years, and the NFL draft for 2018 was 256 players. If the 1 million HS players were divided up to 250,000 for each school grade, that would mean each high school student has about 1 chance in a thousand of even getting into the draft. Not a real solid career choice in any case and since it also depend on some physical factors, speed, strength, etc, there is no real economic reason to even attempt to get into the NFL and a Colorado study indicated about 500,000 injuries per year at the HS level, about 50,000 requiring some medical treatment, 28% were face or head injuries, 14% were knees, 11% were ankles, and 10% were shoulders. All of us older people know HS and college players who in their 30's or so needed major surgery at their expense to correct problems that were at least started in HS football and basketball.

 

John Clarke, the supreme authority on Farnarkling...now commentating from the Farnarkling field in the sky....



Farnarkling - Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia

 

Track and field, foot ball , wrestling, pouring concrete, construction, demolition, moving cement blocks and rock , and more, ya foot ball was a big problem .
I barely understood the game , I played guard ,nose guard, and tackle . My mission was to get the guy with the ball . That is all I understood and that's all I did, (voted most valuable player) . Pulled my shoulder out several times , but I did that as well doing construction throwing debris, this all as a teen .
Kids do a lot of things that aren't safe , one brother was killed hit by a car walking in front of a moving vehicle ,
Some problems exist that don't show up till physical stress occurs.
and a great deal of young people are fat because they do nothing which is worse in many ways. heart disease and stroke and the inability to think and do things for them self, or think on their feet. I was probably not the most intelligent kid in school but I am still alive and reasonably healthy, which can't be said for most of them.

 

There is risk in everything we do (or don't do). Any action has the potential for death or permanent injury - there isthe potential,however slight, of choking or drowning at your very next meal. The consequences of living life to it's fullest are far better than failing to embrace life.

I would rather take risks and embrace this life than cower someplace covered in bubble wrap. I played and enjoyed football and was good enough that I started offense, defense, kicking, receiving, and special teams - meaning I was on the field the entire time. I also wrestled, did the field part of track and field, and played futbol AKA soccer. I did not go to college immediately after high school, but knew at that point I didn't have the size to compete at the positions I played had I continued.

IMO the dangers are when a kid, parent, or coach doesn't keep things in perspective. Play to win, but it isn't life or death. Had I ever done anything dangerous or disrespectful/unsportsmanlike any of my coaches would have immediately pulled and likely suspended me. There are parts of the country where that is not the culture and school ports are taken too seriously. The adults who coach and supervise children must always be held accountable as must those who supervise them. Parents must be engaged in the process and sadly that seems to be the exception these days.

A minor point about the OP - American style football is only the most popular sport in the US. It's worldwide popularity pales in comparison to the real king, futbol/soccer, followed by baseball, and basketball. I'd bet that worldwide cricket and rugby are more popular worldwide than American football. One day in1980 I watched a dozen teams in Kathmandu play cricket simultaneously, but never once saw an American style football.

 

My type of football today
Anything else is seconds best!