You are a total moron Darryl. Seau doesn’t commit suicide if not for CTE… IDIOT.

It would change the game but maybe we should consider starting to change things, so this does not happen to players, by teaching at the kids’ level to leg tackle (i.e. as in Rugby, bring players down by throwing your arms around, preferebly, the ankles or knees.

The NFL has the deepest pockets….

1) Realize that nothing will ever completely eliminate concussions and repetitive hits to the head.

2) Fundamentals. Keep your head up. You’re more likely to make a better tackle.

3) Padding. I’d like to see the comparisons in head injuries/concussions between football and rugby, aussie rules and gaelic rules.

Does the fact they’re covered from head to toe (or at least waist) cause players to play with more abandon?

4) Enforcement. This may be the trickiest, because you already see players tanking baseline tests and limping off the field to set up the “I didn’t get my bell rung, it was ___.”

Obviously, well-informed players assume the risk, and I don’t want flag football in the least. I also don’t want to look back at the career and life of people for which I cheered with the tragic retrospect that it’s what directly led to their early death.

Sure it’s hard to find that right balance between better safety, tradition and entertainment, but it’s a billion-dollar business. I’d like to think it’s worth their while.

btw, thanks to the NFL for bringing good entertainment to the US of A.

So you’ve got two choices…

1) Players assume the liability when making the decision to play. It’s as simple as “is the money I’m being offered today, worth the health risks tomorrow?”

Or

2) Completely change the game in an effort to eliminate head-on collisions.

Option #1 being the path of least resistance, I think we know what’s going to happen. Nothing.

Not sure where you played football but I started in the 5th grade and played up to college and was never taught to lead with my head. Leading with your head ws a penalty even back then, it was called spearing. We were taught to put our facemask in a players chest, wrap up and run through them. NEVER were we ever taught to lead with our head.
What these kids need to be taught is to not hit head to head.

The networks and websites should start glorifying the clean blocks, the form tackles, and the smart plays… “StarDefender wrapped him up and parked StarBallCarrier on his butt – that’s the way you do it!”

With any job there are risks. Miners, firemen, loggers, etc. all know the risks of their job as it is part of their duty.

That being said these football players get paid millions of dollars to play a game. They know the risks. Helmet to helmet contact I agree should be illegal but some of the calls this year were straight up horrible and its hurting the game.

Bottom line is if you want to make millions playing a game then you pay the price. RIP Junior Seau.

How about blunt cones or half spheres that are shorter than the padding is thick? Hit hard enough and the padding compresses. The cones or spheres then hit the outside of your head where it hurts. It lets the players know they are hitting too hard.

You could do the same thing with sensors and have a beep go off on a helmet speaker but players would ignore that. Instead they would try to hit hard enough to make it beep. An ego thing.

But make it actually hurt and they will pay attention.

Or put dye capsules on the end of the cones or spheres. That way after each game team doctors would know who to examine.

Check out Boston University’s CTE center. They’re at the forefront of this stuff.

All these brain studies and diagnoses have just been coming up in recent years.

It’s true that we knew that hits to the body and brain over the years would lead to long term issues. But those were what we could see ad fully understand. I think for the past 50 years, players and the league knew the risks. Players take them and the NFL has worked to cover many post-retirement costs.

As for the depth of knowledge in what happens in the brain, that’s just coming out and is still being explored. To blame ANYONE for trying to foresee this is ridiculous.

If anything, I give credit to the NFL for trying to regulate hits, at the expense of many defensive players trying to feminize the circumstances.

This is a sad situation. But one that no one knew about even 15 years ago. No blame needed.

They need to go back to leather helmets.

Beyond that, there’s no point in finding rationality in an irrational act of suicide. Had he been able to think clearly he would still be here.

It’s time the NFL took a lead in breaking down the stigmas of mental illness that prevent so many – men in particular – from getting help.

3 times more people die by suicide each year than in drunk driving. More soldiers and veterans die by suicide than in combat. No one seems to know or care.

The NFL wears pink gloves and uniforms to draw attention to the 36,000 breast cancer deaths each year. They do nothing to draw attention to the 36,000 deaths by suicide – a growing number of which are their fellow players.

That’s OK, we’ll just suspend more Saints players.
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You should be banned from this site forever. You have no idea how offensive making a joke about this is for someone who may have lived thru a TBI or is close to someone who has experienced a TBI.

TBI is one of the most important issues that needs to be vocalized across our country today. The #1 cause if accidental falls which means it is something that doesn’t just have an effect on athletes, veterans, but everyone in the United State, with children/elderly being most likely to suffer a TBI.

I hope you think long and hard before posting something similar again, it is a lot more important than cheating/not cheating in football.