Tank McNamara by Bill Hinds for September 23, 2024

… and that’s a former player who is still capable of being upright, capable of speech, and capable of life.

This is my 35th year working with high school football. we take concussions SO much more seriously than we did when I started — and that’s a good thing!

The brutality is the biggest, or at least one of the biggest, attractions of football.

Now that there is a keener awareness let’s hope something can be done.

Well they are starting to wear those exterior padded helmets now. But that Miami QB will be a case study when he finally retires.

Y’all better get your heads out of that sand.

I can only think of one answer, hopefully there are some other ideas out there. I would suggest size and weight limits on the players. That addresses part of the issue, by reducing impact energy, and it should be effective on the line of scrimmage. But impact energy is even more affected by speed, so downfield impacts may not be helped as much.

Good post today Hinds. Certain players are so focused on their careers that they place their well-being on the back burner while they chase records, contracts and “immortality”. Tua might fall in the bracket if some of the stories coming out of Miami-Dade about him not wanting to retire are true….. Others have seen reason, take for example the Tampa guard Ali Marpet. The guy chose to retire at the young age of 28 after the 2021 season as he had amassed enough coin to live comfortably and won a Super Bowl. Some fans were a bit angry about his decision, some even calling the local Tampa sports radio shows to claim Marpet was “selfish” and left the Bucs in a lurch….. Currently he is pursuing a doctorate in psychology, the next chapter of his life. He did say in one interview, seeing what has happened to a local former Buc, Scot Brantley, helped him make his choice to hang up his cleats. Brantley was a bad@ss LB for the Gators and Bucs in the late ‘70s and ’80s and hit hard with his helmet. He amassed numerous concussions. By the time Scot was in his 40’s he was having memory loss issues which inevitably led to him losing radio gigs for the Gators, Bucs and sports talk. When he turned 60 a few years back, he was diagnosed with Alzheimers and was a guest on Real Sports on HBO with his wife where he could not accurately state his age (he thought he was 50, not 60). He has been boned by the NFLPA concerning getting disability benefits because he has had some part time work on sports talk radio from time to time. Brantley is not alone as many in his generation also have dementia like Jim McMahon, etc……. Sad, props to Ali Marpet for making a smart life decision. I hope Tua does the same.

Today’s NFL is just an echo of the roaring crowds from the acient Roman Coliseum .

Please pay attention!

NFL etc should start using the extra padded helmets and “rugby” style tackling. They have already lost tons of young kids to “football (soccer)”, lacrosse, baseball, golf because their parents don’t want to risk life changing accidents.

Kind of hard to walk away from the millions they make, and the billions that the teams and networks make. But remember the individuals have the right to do just that, WALK AWAY. Or are you folks suggesting the government should step in and outlaw the game?

if they used D3O to line the inside and outside, this would eliminate 95% of the impact force on the skull – they have known about this for years and don’t give a crap about the players

It’s not just the concussions. It’s also the accumulative effect of years of non-concussive jarring.

Football is a sport filled with intentional collisions. The only way to avoid brain damage is to not play it.

Apparently anybody who plays quarterback for the New York Jets—all they need to be successful is to get traded FROM the jets.

Or maybe you just need to dodge like heck, like a Hurts or a Jackson

That’s a very powerful statement today.

Burning your head in the sand will protect you from concussions as long as its buried, but your ears will fill with sand and you won’t hear the play.

Before I correctly parsed the image, I thought their heads were somewhere else.

It is beyond dispute that the owners care not a whit for the welfare of the players. If the players won’t stand up for themselves – which they never have – they’re doomed.