Ruin Your Own F*cking Thread You Bastards

[Dirty]

If no fans paid to watch men bashing about on the field, do you think American football as a profession would exist? If men didn't receive money to spend huge chunks of time in their life training and playing, do you think they'd be willing to run the risks they do to the extent they do?

I disagree with you that the risk of serious injury is small in American football, although I realize one person may view as reasonable a risk level that another views as too great:

Quote:
From a Time Magazine 2010 article:

Repeated blows to the head, which are routine in football, can have lifelong repercussions. A study commissioned by the NFL found that ex–pro players over age 50 were five times as likely as the national population to receive a memory-related-disease diagnosis. Players 30 to 49 were 19 times as likely to be debilitated.

Some scientists now fear that the thousands of lower-impact, or "subconcussive," blows these players receive, even if they don't result in documented concussions, can be just as damaging as — if not more so than — the dramatic head injuries that tend to receive more attention and intensive treatment."

If zero people paid, then true there would be no profession of NFL player... But what I am saying is that each individual person has that choice as a player whether to play or not. If everyone put their health risks above money and love of the game, then there also wouldn't be professional football. So I don't think fans are responsible for injuries at all. There is no reward without risk.

The part in bold is just showing exactly what I am trying to say here. It's not always the helmet to helmet or gigantic hits that lead to life-affecting injuries. Most of the hits that have resulted in paralysis and broken necks are not gigantic head on collisions. So in that article they are saying that smaller hits are dangerous too. EVERY HIT IS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS. In your perfect world, there is apparently no touching of another player. It might as well be flag football out there. It's physical, just accept it. No, player's safety is NOT always the number 1 priority. Because if it was, no professional sports would even exist.

About Channing Crowder's comments.. Like I said, he is a frustrated defensive player. You're idea that the NFL is only out to protect offensive players just reflects that you don't watch/aren't very knowledgable about football. How on earth do you want the NFL to *protect* defensive players more? Not allowing anyone to block? I don't even know what you are talking about. Also, let's make the seperation of 'chop' blocks and 'cut' blocks. They are different. A chop block is where a defensive guy is being blocked and another player comes in and takes out his legs. A cut block is where the defensive player is not already being blocked and someone goes low and cuts out their legs. These are allowed because it's not realistic or reasonable to think that a running back is going to be able to block a 250 pound linebacker running at full speed by hitting him high everytime. The linebacker would run him over. Cut blocks can result in knee or leg injury, but again, EVERY play can result in injury. You can't just take EVERYTHING out of the game of football.

That's the question for you, Dirty...why DID the NFL ignore the issue of concussions before these past few years. I've given you my answer: the NFL did not care about player safety as much as they could have because the NFL wants wins and viewers, which equal MONEY. The NFL put money in front of human lives. That's the opinion of Hall of Famer Jim Brown, as well. Did you read his quote I posted earlier?

I disagree with you when you say players "don't need to be explained the risk of playing their sport." NFL players are employees, and ALL EMPLOYEES deserve to be informed fully by their employers of the risks faced in their job.

First off, I don't know why the NFL *ignored* these problems... Exactly what are they supposed to do? They've started fining more heavily for hits deemed unnecessary to defenseless receivers, but it's not like concussions are going to stop. It all comes back to this being a violent game, and you just have to accept that as reality.

Now YOU'RE reasoning is seriously flawed and make no sense... The NFL is going to have the same amount of wins every year, you know. So let's disregard that part of what you said.. Now to the viewers. Obviously the NFL wants as many viewers as possible. Now, how in the hell would the NFL gain viewers by making the game more dangerous, which leads to more injuries to star players? How do they gain viewers from the marquee players being injured and not playing? If Peyton Manning gets hurt for the Colts, there is a 100% chance that less viewers would watch their games. So you should re-think you're reasoning because it MAKES NO SENSE.

As for players being informed.. This isn't a normal job by any means. You honestly think that there are many NFL players who don't understand that any play on any given day could end their career? These guys have been playing the game their whole lives, they've had injuries before... They know the potential risks.