…the start of Football season.

I’ve always viewed the two as part and parcel of the changing of the seasons, particularly since where I live we don’t have any noticeable fall.

Thursday the 2016 Football season officially started with the game between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos and…it wasn’t pretty.

Mainly this was due to the fact that it appeared the Denver Bronco defense went well above and beyond in their attempts to take Carolina quarterback Cam Newton out of the game by targeting his head.  The refs, in this case, seemed to see nothing strange going on and didn’t make any calls for what appeared to most people’s eyes to be particularly egregious head hunting tactics.

Afterwards, when of course there was an uproar over this, the NFL and NFLPA announced they would investigate concussion protocol compliance for Cam Newton.

I’ve stated this before and I’ll state it again: I like watching football.  It is an exciting sport and when you see really talented players playing (I wish I could say that about my home team!) you’re in for some genuine excitement.

However, with each passing year and with more and more evidence available, it is clear Football is a sport which damages not only a player physically but also mentally.  Which makes what happened in the opening game of the season all that much more egregious.

As popular as Football is in the United States, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day the various reports on concussions and physical injuries turn people off the sport and it loses its incredible appeal.

Then again, it is certainly possible new technologies allow for better protection of players.

Perhaps then, and only then, the unease I feel at seeing some of the more savage blows will fade away.