Malcolm Gladwell

[Gountiss]

Supposedly their is some roundtable debate with this Malcolm Gladwell guy pleading for college football to be banned in the United States. Has anyone read into this extensively and does this guy know how powerful college football is. hahha

And I will post a link

Malcolm Gladwell, Jason Whitlock and Buzz Bissinger to Debate Banning College Football | The Big Lead

[miggy4vols]

Yea I heard about that. Good luck in trying to get that accomplished.

[Yankee_Vol]

Ain't ever gonna happen

[Vercingetorix]

Gladwell wrote what is thus far the definitive article about football and head injuries. You don't have to agree with any of his conclusions, but it should be required reading for anybody who's interested in the sport of football.

It will never be banned outright. But unfortunately it's going to change radically. Time to get used to offense-first, high-scoring "pussy football," because in 15 or 20 years that's all there's going to be.

[VeryBest]

He's one of my favorite authors, but I cannot agree with him here.

[CountVolcula]

Wimps taking over everything

Next, baseballs are too hard

[Vercingetorix]

Originally Posted by CountVolcula

Wimps taking over everything

Next, baseballs are too hard

Yeah, Mike Webster was a wimp. He ended up living on the floor in a train station.

[whocaresgobobcats]

Originally Posted by CountVolcula

Wimps taking over everything

Next, baseballs are too hard

So having serious brain injuries and severely declining health after a career is being a whimp now?


We just had a class long discussion on concussions in sport, mainly football, and we all agreed there would be some big changes.

Also, an interesting point that was brought up is that in soccer, there are a ton of concussive events that take place when heading the ball. That could be eliminated some day.

[Escape Goat]

Hahahaha

[therealUT]

Unfortunately, Gladwell may end up achieving his goal. There are other articles that speak to the increase in diagnosed concussions in football and the increasing insurance costs associated with high school football. Major universities can deal with the rising insurance costs for their football programs, as their football programs are revenue generators. For most high schools, specifically most public high schools, football does not generate revenue and when it does it usually is not enough to cover the forecasted costs of insurance. Football might end up being dropped by many public high schools less for concern for their student-athletes than for financial reason; but, dropping football is dropping football. The result might be that less and less American kids will play and understand football; the talent pool will drop; college football will become less interesting for many and, as a result, revenue from college football will drop.

This is of course a worst-case hypothetical scenario; however, as kids get bigger, stronger, and faster and as the protective equipment fails to keep pace, then the likelihood of this scenario increases. The sport of football definitely has major issues that it must deal with right now; and, if they connect the Seau suicide with previous head trauma, then it only makes it worse.

[CountVolcula]

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

Yeah, Mike Webster was a wimp. He ended up living on the floor in a train station.

So they didnt know running full speed and hitting another object running at full speed might be detrimental to the body?

As far as wimps, it wasnt aimed at the players, but the people influencing the players. The ones behind the scenes

[CountVolcula]

Originally Posted by #1ArencibiaFan

So having serious brain injuries and severely declining health after a career is being a whimp now?


We just had a class long discussion on concussions in sport, mainly football, and we all agreed there would be some big changes.

Also, an interesting point that was brought up is that in soccer, there are a ton of concussive events that take place when heading the ball. That could be eliminated some day.

Again, not aimed at all the players

Its just like everything else in America, we have created a culture that will not do anything unless they are completely assured that they wont be hurt in the slightest.

Every job you do, there is a chance of serious injury. You get up in the morning, you get in your car, and you head for work, school, etc. At that moment, you are looking at the possibility of serious injury

Are we going to get to a point where we do nothing because we are afraid we might get hurt?

Also, no one makes these guys play? Some do it because they love it. Most play for the millions they make. Others, because they couldnt do anything else

America has become one big litigation. Everyone wants something for nothing

[n_huffhines]

Stick to spaghetti, Gladwell!

[Gountiss]

If Boxing can survive, nobody can make a case for football to not be played. IMO

[MSCE09]

Football won't be banned. But when High Schools start losing million dollar lawsuits in the next few years I could see HS programs slowly disappearing.