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Happiegrrrl2
Trad climber
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Saw the film "Concussion" a few weeks ago. Horrible thing, to have your brain damaged like that. So sad, that a person would suffer those bouts of rage, pain and confusion and their loved ones not knowing from whence it originated.
Last Monday I fell on the ice and slammed the back of my head very hard on pavement. Ten days later I still feel woozy and unstable at times. If I am laying down and turn to one side or get up, I get that disoriented "wooooo-oooo" sensation.
I cannot imagine feeling what I felt, when I hit my head and the next 15 minutes, and then this last week, and going back for more.
Yesterday in the grocery I had "trouble" with sliding my card in the debit slot(because unbeknownst to me I had another card along with it). When I realized what was wrong, I told the clerk I blamed it on having fallen and hit my head. She said her mom died from a fall very similar. Her mom was 78 and used a walker, and she was done with "walking" and the caretaker had removed the walker(from what I understood) and she went flat backwards. She had been on an incline so she fell even further back, and within 3 hours, she was dead.
With what we now know about the head injury risk, I just can't see not making a concerted effort to move away from football as a team sport and towards football(soccer). I understand there has been some changes in the hitting aspect of American football and hopefully that will help. But if not - I cannot imagine how a parent could ignore the risk factor.
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Cancer Boy
Trad climber
Freedonia
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My son just signed on to play D1A college ball. Tight end. At least he's bigger than most. Wish us luck. Ain't turning back now.
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Moof
Big Wall climber
Orygun
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My boy will never play football. It is a lousy "sport", boring as hell to watch, especially with the excessively inane commentators, and has too much risk of major injury. No thanks.
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TradEddie
Trad climber
Philadelphia, PA
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My two kids were skiing and climbing at the Gunks before they could ride a bike, so it's not as if I'm an over-protective parent, but while I wouldn't prevent either from playing football, I certainly won't ever encourage it.
The key difference for me is that in climbing, skiing, or any number of other "dangerous" sports, it's generally only mistakes that will get you permanently injured. Those risks can be mitigated by education, training and the choice of an appropriate level of participation and responsible teammates. In Football, no amount of care can appreciably reduce the risk, only in Football is there an risk of permanent disability when nobody made a mistake or even committed a foul.
Other field sports are dangerous too, but the health benefits better balance those dangers, and the physical attributes required to participate in Soccer or Basketball should translate into lifelong health and fitness more than the juvenile obesity expected of many footballers.
Climb on!
TE
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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I've read reports that although the rate of concussions is higher in football the severity of concussions in soccer are often greater. I guess this is because football players wear helmets while soccer concussions are often skull to skull.
There's also concussions from single hard impacts (e.g. football) and from repeated minor impacts (e.g. heading the ball in soccer). I don't think they know enough to really compare the two.
And again there's big difference in football positions. Linesmen I'm sure are encouraged to get as big as possible, but for the skill positions speed is encouraged.
And then there's boxing. Seems like you are pretty much guaranteed concussions there.
When I was a kid we played full contact tackle backyard football with no pads or helmets. I have no idea how none of us were ever seriously hurt.
I think the only concussion I ever got was ski jumping wearing a helmet. At least that's the only time I got my bell rung that hard.
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GuapoVino
climber
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I played football 9 years through high school. Of course there's always the chance of freak accidents and injuries but the chances of getting CTE from playing football in elementary school (when you weight 75 pounds), in middle school and high school is no where near as high as continuing on through five years of college and then 10 years or more in the pros. In the pros is where people's bodies get beat down. They're bigger, stronger, faster, more aggressive and play 20 games or more per year.
Having said that, a couple years after HS I spent some time in the military and was surprised that they had a lot more interest in our health and well being during our training than my coaches did in high school football. It actually kind of made me mad at the time thinking about some of the crappy things our coaches did and lack of concern for injuries that should have been taken seriously, rather than just yelling and calling a kid a pussy. My two youngest kids play football now and I have noticed that the attitudes of coaches and the equipment are much better than they were 30 years ago.
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zBrown
Ice climber
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When I was a kid we played full contact tackle backyard football with no pads or helmets. I have no idea how none of us were ever seriously hurt.
When did your kidom end? I never got hurt either, but I took up basketball by high school.
The football players that I talk to (only through high school or possibly college) are a wreck. All other sports not so much.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Shetville , North of Los Angeles
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I knew this football player in high school...Big Samoan named Terry Tautolo...Lost track of him after HS but saw him on TV in a CTE documentary recently...He played at UCLA and ended up playing pro ball for the 49ers and Lions..Now he's homeless and messed up in the cabeza...
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 4, 2016 - 09:05pm PT
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Good luck to your son cancer boy. I hope he stays healthy and strong.
Tell him to be smart with his money immediately, not later.
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dirtbag
climber
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Yep, after a backyard game you still wanted to remain friends with your opponents. Also, the guys canning you probably weren't 220 lbs.
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WBraun
climber
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As usual the hypocrisy is thru the roof.
The US war machine destroying bodies and lives world wide for years and years based on stoopid lies and greed and still doing it.
Mean while they cry foul only about football .....
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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All my adult life, to this very day, I've been glad that I chose to pass on hs football. I definitely had concerns even at 16 - 18 about my body machine's wellbeing. I can still remember 40 years later intuitively feeling and deciding that there were just too many unknown and uncontrollable variables in the gameplay re knees, neck?, etc). I'm sure it helped at the time I was really into body mechanics and also body building and also a dozen other things.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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I will say that BITD we did not use our helmets as weapons like they do now. Of course, those
helmets were a joke - they mainly served to amplify the ringing in yer ears. I suspect that
the cushy things they use now have given them a false sense of security, especially having
more than the single bar I relied on to stay pretty.
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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High School football, possibly saved my life. I was a 300 lb ball of fat, as I worked in Dominos Pizza to afford clothes and stuff through my first few years in High School. When I joined the team, it was hell for a while and I decided to quit a few weeks into the summer camp.
To my luck, a lineman coach called me and asked me to return. Just do your best, he said. I was so out of shape, I couldn't run a mile. By the end of the season I lost 40 lbs, learned that I can make changes when it comes to my body and in school. My GPA went up from about 1.8 to 3.6. We won the San Francisco AAA championship. I went on to losing another 50 lbs the following year and had close to 4.0 GPA through college and nursing school. If not for football, that phone call and other factors that I am sure played a big role, I don't know if I would be into climbing today. Don't think I would be a Register Nurse. Honestly, I would likely be behind bars as part of a gang or dead, like many of the people I knew back in the day.
If I was to choose a sport today, I think something less harsh would be fine. It is not football in particular that can make changes, but kind coaches and things such as dedication that a kid can pick up from participating in organized sports.
Goddamn son.
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2016 - 09:17am PT
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I'm sure some as#@&%es still roam the fields and courts of our schools athletic programs.
Ummm, yes Coach Hocking, you would be correct. I just got to watch one a few nights ago.
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Where's cheerleading on that list? Those girls are constantly hurting themselves.
I played football and lacrosse. Loved it and give team sports a lot of credit for making me less of a bozo.
EDIT - though getting repeatedly freight-trained in HS lacrosse ruined my shoulders. Still, no regrets.
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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That sucks. I quit soccer over a shitty coach, and it was a very hard decision since I was good, on a good team, and loved the game. Always a risk with any sport, and sadly there are a lot of them out there.
T Hocking - thanks. Didn't see that it was hiding down towards the bottom.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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The operative phrase I used was "like they do now". And I vaguely recall a fairly competitive
atmosphere in the Chicago and SoCal stadiums I played in. First time I ran onto the
Husky Stadium field was pretty intense, too. Glad I'd only had a light lunch.
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John M
climber
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Good thread.. coupled with this one.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2762448/Bob-Carmichael-in-the-NY-Times-on-Superbowl-L
Got me to thinking.
I have hypocritical thinking about football. I sure loved hitting and being in the middle of that mayhem. Mostly I played outside organized football. I was too small in high school having lived in a farm town where they grew them big. So I saw no point in trying to play and just being a practice object. But after high school I played on a number of different teams. I even helped organize a league. We played the highway patrols team. The Sheriffs, and some of the local colleges, giving the local colleges a warmup game before the season. It was a blast. But I hated anyone who was a head hunter or was out to hurt someone. We frowned heavily on that and I got in a few fights over that. But still I loved being out there. I can't catch a ball to save my soul, but I usually knew where the play was going and loved being a missile to break up the play. And juking some guy out of his shoes to get to the quarterback was a blast. I would even laugh when the running back would leave me flopped on the ground after getting me to go for a head fake or a double or triple move. For me it was always about finding a way to beat the other guy through talent, skill, intelligence and strength of will.
I have more concussions from surfing then from football, but as I said, I did not play organized ball. And about an equal number from skiing. Yep.. I was a crappy skier. haha..
its a hard thing to rectify. Loving something and realizing its hurting you.
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