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Post by coachd5085 on Feb 15, 2018 10:35:48 GMT -6
The problem is that there's no way of knowing if we forget things because of football or because of old age. Agreed. I believe there was a study recently comparing 60 (70?) year olds who played football and didn't in Iowa (?). Found no difference. My grandmother had dementia. She never played football. But wait, her four sons did. Maybe it isn't playing football that causes problems. I think it is watching it. And two of them played college football which is even rougher when you watch it. Sounds like a great lawsuit. I know you are being tongue in cheek here, but what if because of football, the chances that her 4 sons will also fall victim is greatly increased? I have seen research citing that smokers in their 50s have about a 15% chance of developing lung cancer within the next 10 years. So...that's an 85% probability that they can light up and enjoy right? Those are pretty good odds. Are you rushing out to get your son and daughter a pack of reds to celebrate? I 100% agree that there is no data currently suggesting that playing football from 4-18 will positively result in a terrible brain disease in the future. But unfortunately where the is smoke, there may be fire, and some of the evidence provided by the highly selective, non random studies isn't very encouraging.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Feb 15, 2018 12:43:26 GMT -6
I just don't think we know enough concrete information to draw a conclusion. Though I do think that anecdotally we would see this in our general older population if it was having a major impact, it's not like we just started playing youth and HS football in the last 20 years. But the bigger issue to me as coachd5085 alluded to is we don't know how much the kind of repeated blows you would receive in a typical HS football career (or youth, or college, or whatever the parameters are) actually increase your risk of dementia or some other brain function related issues later in life. Like, to put some totally fabricated numbers to it, if it increased the likelihood from 0.5% to 0.8% that's a different decision than if it increased the likelihood from 0.5% to 40%.
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Post by silkyice on Feb 15, 2018 16:07:01 GMT -6
We have had these discussions before.
Obviously football is not some national disaster. Just look at us, our friends, dads, coaches, teammates, etc. The media makes it sound like anyone who played football is now mentally disabled for life.
Football is now safer than ever.
Tremendously better helmets. Better and safer rules. Much improved techniques - heck, we were taught to use our heads, now it is not only don't use your head, don't even hit the other guy in the head. More awareness. Better safety protocols. All for the better.
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Post by fantom on Feb 15, 2018 17:26:42 GMT -6
We have had these discussions before. Obviously football is not some national disaster. Just look at us, our friends, dads, coaches, teammates, etc. The media makes sound like anyone who played football is now mentally disabled for life. Football is now safer than ever. Tremendously better helmets. Better and safer rules. Much improved techniques - heck, we were taught to use our heads, now it is not only don't use your head, don't even hit the other guy in the head. More awareness. Better safety protocols. All for the better. And I had a blast. Would I have traded in what I did for a safer life? I have no way of knowing but I do know that I wouldn't have traded in a minute.
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Post by coachklee on Feb 15, 2018 18:14:06 GMT -6
I picked up multiple concussions playing football and I still deal with migraines from them off and on. With that being said, we were taught to lead with our face masks when blocking and tackling when I was playing so it's no surprise that I was concussed. I was also an "aggressive" player that had no qualms putting his face-mask through people standing around piles or on unsuspecting LBs or DBs on the back-side. I don't have any ailments other than that. But, out of the twenty-two starters from my senior year, I'm the only one that has had any on-going issues due to football. I do have friends from high school that didn't play football that have dealt with some medical issues over the years. One is a former tennis player who has had repeated back and knee surgeries. He has is first knee surgery when he was a junior in high school as he blew out his ACL at practice. Another is an all-state wrestler who has had his right hand operated on three times as he broke it during a match. There were issues with the placement of the pin and that hand has become arthritic. edit: I'm 37 and used to compete in shot, discus and the Highland Games until I completely separated my shoulder playing kick-ball a few summers ago, lol.. I still lift heavy three-four days per week and I might be able to throw shot and discus this summer if my shoulder cooperates. Shot isn't too hard on it but tossing the disc lights it up. We need to know how you dislocated your shoulder playing kickball?!?
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Post by MICoach on Feb 16, 2018 7:52:26 GMT -6
I got a concussion in H.S. from a guy who today is a well known coach in California (thanks, Rocky), a dislocated thumb, a hip pointer that was a season ender. But, I also got banged up while cycling, swimming, gymnastics, competitive diving, and scraped some coral while surfing, not to mention baseball and a hyper extended knee in Track. When you're active as a kid, things happen. There's the occasional gouge that needs stitches...you learn to shake it off whenever you can. Or...you can be in the band and never get hurt...or laid. So I'm a lifelong football player and coach but played music in high school too. Turns out band kids get laid all the time...like, more so than most other social groups. I'm only speaking from observations, of course, as no band chicks wanted to bang the football player...
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Post by tothehouse on Feb 16, 2018 10:50:49 GMT -6
How much is all this the media? And social media?
I'm asking because when most of us played you were lucky to find out the score of a game in your local paper.
Now...there is so much information out there that anyone can read. And it seems like a lot of people becomes experts...when they are like you and me.
I'm not saying things aren't happening inside of noggins. My point is...now everyone has an instant reply to what they think is the issue.
BTW - played 6 years of football. Many years behind the plate as a catcher. Including a year and 1/2 of college ball. Rules were still in place where people could run over the catcher. I think I got at least 4 concussions in football. And about 3 times where the baseball hit me in the gibbles and bits and basically destroyed my manhood for a short time. I don't feel any lasting affects. Believe it or not my knees are fine from squatting all those years.
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Post by coachcb on Feb 19, 2018 8:58:26 GMT -6
I picked up multiple concussions playing football and I still deal with migraines from them off and on. With that being said, we were taught to lead with our face masks when blocking and tackling when I was playing so it's no surprise that I was concussed. I was also an "aggressive" player that had no qualms putting his face-mask through people standing around piles or on unsuspecting LBs or DBs on the back-side. I don't have any ailments other than that. But, out of the twenty-two starters from my senior year, I'm the only one that has had any on-going issues due to football. I do have friends from high school that didn't play football that have dealt with some medical issues over the years. One is a former tennis player who has had repeated back and knee surgeries. He has is first knee surgery when he was a junior in high school as he blew out his ACL at practice. Another is an all-state wrestler who has had his right hand operated on three times as he broke it during a match. There were issues with the placement of the pin and that hand has become arthritic. edit: I'm 37 and used to compete in shot, discus and the Highland Games until I completely separated my shoulder playing kick-ball a few summers ago, lol.. I still lift heavy three-four days per week and I might be able to throw shot and discus this summer if my shoulder cooperates. Shot isn't too hard on it but tossing the disc lights it up. We need to know how you dislocated your shoulder playing kickball?!? Lol.. I was working as a mental health counselor at a treatment center for teens and got drilled in the legs with a rubber ball while running bases. I landed right on the shoulder.. I couldn't believe it; I was involved in lot of violent situations (restraining angry teenage boys..) while working there and I screw myself up playing friggin' kickball.
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