Tag Archives: Football

Sports

Damar Hamlin and Football…

Yesterday’s Monday Night Football game involved the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals in a match that had big implications for the playoffs, at least in terms of who might have a higher place.

But the game was cut short. Very short.

Buffalo Bills Safety Damar Hamlin, on a play, tackled a Bengal player. The hit didn’t appear particularly vicious yet after Hamlin got up, he collapsed to the ground. Medics came over and it was revealed he went into cardiac arrest.

To say the least, the situation was extremely tense as those medics attended to Mr. Hamlin and administered CPR. Ultimately, he was transported off the field in an ambulance. As of today, the day after, it is reported Mr. Hamlin is sedated and in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

After some delay, the coaches and the NFL decided to suspend the game. Whether it will eventually be made up is to be determined, but given the grim circumstances involved in this situation, that seems like the thing people should be the very least worried about.

I love football. I find the sport exciting as hell. Paradoxically, I also feel the sport needs to be either changed considerably to make it safer or, if that’s not possible, done away with completely.

Why?

Because with each passing year, the athletes who play the game get stronger and faster and because of this the hits may get more and more vicious. At the rate things have been going, I have noted to friends that its only a matter of time before someone dies on the field.

This very nearly happened yesterday.

As I noted above and though the hit wasn’t particularly vicious, it caused Mr. Hamlin’s heart to effectively stop. Perhaps he has some kind of genetic predisposition or perhaps it was a one in a million hit, but the reality is that he very nearly died out there last night.

Yes, there have been vicious injuries which have occurred in football games over the years. There have been moments where medics have had to deal with players on the field. Earlier this year, Miami Dolphins Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a very scary concussion. It is at least the third concussion he’s suffered as he was out for this past Sunday’s game.

Again: I like football. I genuinely do.

But I wonder if it may be time to either look more intently at what can be done to improve player safety and reduce the possibility of such horrible injuries.

But… can this be done without changing what makes football such an exciting sport?

Therein lies the rub.

The alternative, though, is terrifying, especially if something like what happened yesterday happens again.

…and again.

Sports

Woo Hoo…!

After an unexpectedly stormy Labor Day weekend due to what became Tropical Storm Gordon (take care up there in the coast!), we turn our attention to what is for me the biggest love/hate relationship I have:

Football.

I like the game.  Quite a bit.  It’s emotional, draining, perplexing, and surprisingly strategic given it is also a show of force/speed.

On the other hand, a part of me notes that its a brutal game that is proving itself to be more than just something that wears and tears athlete’s bodies: It hurts their brain as well and, I do feel, in time this sport will face a reconning in this respect, and who knows if it will survive.

Having said all that, I first became a fan of the sport during Dan Marino’s first year with the Dolphins (don’t look that year up… I beg you, I’m that old!) and have been a Dolphin fan ever since.

Sadly, once coach Don Shula left and Marino retired (another very long time ago), the Dolphins have been stuck in a mediocre cycle.  They usually win just enough games to get a mid-first round pick, but are never quite awful enough (though there was that one year) to get some really good picks.  And when they do pick, it seems like the football Gods are against them and the people they pick may be OK or terrible, but rarely really, really great.  Of course, there are exceptions, but it is what it is.

So with Football season about to begin, one looks at the prognosticators and, if you’re a Dolphin fan, you check out the Dolphin’s place compared to all other teams for this year and, if you’re on CNN’s Bleacher Report you find…

Dolphins ranked 32 out of 32 teams coming into week 1

Yikes.

Over on ESPN, they fare a little better:

Dolphins are ranked 29 out of 32 teams coming into week 1

Woo… hoo…?

Welp, as they say, there’s nowhere to go but up.

Unless, of course, we stay right where we are.

How does the draft look?! 😉

Sports

Oh… NFL…

Mike Freeman offers the following article at BleacherReport.com regarding the new NFL policy regarding players kneeling during the National Anthem.  Based on the article’s title, I dare you to guess where he stands on this issue:

Scared NFL makes epic mistake with Anthem policy

The bottom line is this: After a year of Trump jawing about how players who kneel during the National Anthem are somehow “disrespecting” the American flag (they are not), the NFL, under fearless leader Roger Goodell (how does he keep his job?!) decided they would fine any team whose players kneel during the Anthem.

Yep.  That’ll solve everything.

Sigh.

I understand some people feel it is disrespectful to kneel during the Anthem.  Fine.  But if you can remove your angst about that visual for one second, consider why these people are doing this.  Perhaps, with just a little empathy, you may come to realize their actions are rooted in a very just cause and, further, their actions are the definition of benign and *gasp* peaceful.  I mean, I could understand the angst if the players dropped their pants and mooned the cameras or gave the ol’ “one gun salute” during the Anthem, but they are not doing that.

You are bothered by the actions because you’ve allowed yourself to be bothered by them.

I used to really, really love watching professional Football.  Nowadays, with article after article about the extent of damage playing this sport causes to player’s brains, the bizarre rules and rule changes, the way the league muffed domestic abuse, and now this…

…well, if the NFL fears losing viewers, they might want to look within.  From my perspective -and mine alone!- they’re already doing a great job at it all by their lonesome.

Sports

The end of the summer…

…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.

Sports

It was only a matter of time…

From CNN and written by Scott Polacek:

NFL Acknowledges Link Between Football and CTE

I’ve stated before that I’m a fan of Football (though my Miami Dolphins have been mediocre and far worse for an awful long time).

I’m also a realist.

Football is a wild, emotional, and fun sport to watch but its clear those participating in it are doing considerable damage to their bodies and, by extension, their future.

Because there is so much money involved in the sport now, we have players whose bodies are at near peak shape.  They couldn’t be much stronger or faster and they are involved in a sport that essentially takes these peak athletes and has them run at each other as fast as they can.

The collisions do damage to the bodies but padding can help.  Somewhat.

The problem is that as strong as you are, as built up as your body is, there is no way to further protect your brain.  It essentially floats within one’s head and even with the most high tech helmets out there, a hit can and will cause damage.  Damage that sometimes doesn’t manifest itself for years.

A few days back the whole sad, sordid O. J. Simpson saga made it to the headlines again when a knife reportedly found on the estate years before was turned in (you can read about that here).

I recall the entire sordid O. J. Simpson saga but now, with the benefit of hindsight, another element of the sordid affair comes to life.  Mr. Simpson, who was a famous running back for the Buffalo Bills before furthering his celebrity in movies, commercials, and sports commentary, may well also might be exhibiting symptoms of someone suffering from CTE.

This might explain -but certainly not forgive- the horrific abuse he inflicted on his wife which, in my and many others’ minds, ultimately led to her murder and that of Ron Goldman.

There is simply no happy ending to this story.  As repugnant as I find Mr. Simpson, I also know now versus back then how other ex-players for the NFL have been affected by CTE.  Some have withered away.  Some, like superstar linebacker Junior Seau might well have been driven to suicide.

As much as I enjoy watching professional football, someone far wiser than me noted the sports is today what the tobacco industry was in the 1980’s…a giant industry desperately trying to deny the undeniable, that their product is potentially deadly to those who actually participate in it.

General, Movies, Sports

Let’s see…what to talk about today…

Star Wars, again?  While Rotten Tomatoes has the film scoring an incredible 97% positive, I’m getting the feeling The positives reviews I’ve read (and I won’t even pretend to have read more than a handful) have been somewhat half-hearted.

Which in some ways is not all that different from your typical reaction to the works of J. J. Abrams.  I actually admire the man quite a bit: He knows how to create something that, while you’re watching it, is compelling and interesting.  But after the fact, when you stop to think about what you’ve just seen, doubts form and secondary opinions pop up.

Will this happen for Star Wars VII?  It happened, after all, with the “prequels”.  There was plenty of good cheer and great critical ratings until the warm glow of nostalgia lifted and people got a better look at the product.

By the way, I’m as prone to changing my mind as the next person.  I enjoyed Star Trek: Into Darkness when I caught it in the theaters but after thinking about it for a bit, realized the film was very flawed.

We’ll see what happens.

What else is there to talk about?

Politics?

Yesterday we had the 1,993,320,123,432th GOP debate and, like all the others, I dutifully avoided it as best I could.  Of course afterwards all those news stations (why, WHY!?!) had their anchors/analysts go over who did what and to whom and, like some morbid all enveloping black hole I couldn’t help but be sucked in.

It appears, at least to my eyes and based on what little was highlighted, that I didn’t miss all that much.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I wouldn’t vote for this version of the Republican Party if my life depended on it (check this chilling article by William Saletan which posits this question: Who would you elect President if your only choices are Trump, Cruz, or Carson?).  The latest debate -what little I saw of it- didn’t change my mind in that respect.

So forget Star Wars and forget Politics.  How about…

Football?

Bob Costas Says Football’s Biggest Problem Can’t Be Fixed

I’ve gone down this road before a few times but, like the self-driving car articles I so dearly love, this is rapidly becoming an issue I’m also intrigued with.

I’ve written about this before so excuse me while I (briefly) repeat myself:  When I was young, I had no interest in sports at all.  Let me be clear: AT ALL.

I was forced to play games I didn’t care to play (usually soccer…why the hell couldn’t you use your hands?!?).  TV was very limited back then and where I was there wasn’t a whole lot of sports aired on it.

Things changed back in/around 1984.  I started watching -and admiring- football, specifically the incredible talents of one Dan Marino.  He almost single handedly got me interested in football in general and the Dolphins specifically.

But I didn’t stop there and eventually became a full fledged sports fanatic.  I not only watched football, but also basketball, baseball, and hockey.  This all ended the year after I watched almost every single game of the 2003 World Series winning season the Marlins played.  I realized I was extremely lucky to see a team go from game one to winning the series and the likelihood of repeating this was very slim.

I also realized I had wasted waaaay too much time before the TV seeing this.

So I cut back dramatically.  In more recent times the most sports I’ve followed were probably the LeBron James Heat, but I only watched some of those games and more closely followed the playoffs.

Though it all, my favorite sport to watch remained football, in spite of the fact that since Marino retired the Dolphins haven’t done much of anything.

Having said that, I agree with Mr. Costa: Football is at heart a game that destroys not only the athlete’s body, but also, and more frighteningly, his mind.  Yes, some people come out of the game better but at this point I feel that even those who most want football to prosper cannot with a straight face say that it is a “safe” sport to play.

True, basketball, baseball, and hockey wear down athletes’ bodies as well, but the fact is that these sports don’t feature what is the staple of football: Athletes running at full speed into each other.

It happens now and again in basketball.  It happens now and again in baseball.  It may happen a little more frequently in hockey.

But the reality is that every play in football involves athletes running into each other at top speeds.  While a well-toned body may be able to absorb the hits, there is no training or helmet padding great enough to protect a person’s brain.

I’m not going to lie: I still love watching football.  But as each new study on brain trauma resulting from playing in the sport is released and the reality of what playing the game does to the athletes’ bodies is understood, I don’t know how much longer it can exist.

Sports

Football

I stumbled upon this article for Salon.com and by Steve Almond regarding the professional (and extremely popular) sport of football:

Let’s Have A War On Football: Greed, Brain Damage, Tax Breaks to Billionaires and the Debate We Need to Have About the NFL

The article follows some inflammatory statements ex-Quarterback Danny Kanell made in response to an editorial published in the New York Times by Dr. Bennett Omalu, a forensic pathologist who first identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in many ex-football players:

The war on football is real. Not sure source but concussion alarmists are loving it. Liberal media loves it. Doesn’t matter. It’s real.

“Concussion alarmists”.

It’s an interesting choice of words and echoes the same (to me) ridiculous arguments against the validity of climate change.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit it: I really like watching football.  I wish my team (the lackluster Miami Dolphins) were in contention.

Having said that, Mr. Omalu’s studies (which are the subject of the upcoming Will Smith movie Concussion), I believe, point out something that by now should be obvious to anyone: Football is an extremely violent sport that breaks down its participants’ brains and bodies and, in many cases, leaves them with a future of pain…and worse.

How could it not?

Running back Reggie Bush stated playing through a single professional football game was akin to experiencing several car crashes and the body (and mind) needed time to recover.

This point was driven home to me when a little over a year ago, while driving with my wife, younger daughter, and her friend, we slowed and stopped at a red light and the person behind us, going no faster than 15-20 miles an hour, didn’t realize we stopped and rear ended us.

The damage to our car was minimal (we needed to replace our car’s rear bumper).  The car that rear-ended us, however, had its front end crumpled and blew out its radiator.  Given the age of the car (it was an older model Civic, if memory serves), it was probably a total loss.  The couple that rear-ended us were fine.  My wife and I, as well as my daughter’s friend, were also fine.

My daughter, however, happened to be sitting with her back against her seat and looking to her right, at her friend, when the car hit us.  Because of this, she experienced whiplash and, in the days and weeks that followed, some at times very intense headaches.  We sent her to a doctor and then to physical therapy to help her.  Fortunately, after a while -and through the therapies, which were very effective- her symptoms faded and she recovered completely.

In light of that, think about the hits that professional football players receive in the course of a full game.  Not just one “hit” like what my daughter experienced, but potentially several dozen during the course of a game.

Remember, we’re talking players who are in peak physical shape running at full speed -and colliding!- with each other.  We’re talking about hits that make the relatively minor car accident my daughter experienced look like a walk in the park.

How does the human body cope with all that trauma, only to experience it again the very next week?

For that matter, think about the hits football playing high schoolers and college students receive as well.  At least the professional player is being paid for their participation in the game.  High Schoolers and University players?  Not so much.  And very, very few of them reach the pro’s and receive a paycheck.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love watching football but I think the sport will not survive in its present form for very long.

I believe that, contrary to Mr. Kanell’s pronouncements, the medical data will eventually prove overwhelming and, as popular as the game of football is, who will want to send their kids to participate in something that slowly but surely kills you?

General

Football’s Death Spiral

Fascinating article by the always readable Andrew O’Hehir for Salon.com regarding the possibility that Football, the King of Sports in the U.S.A. today, may be in trouble:

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/03/footballs_death_spiral/

I’m a big fan of the sport of Football but I totally agree with Mr. O’Hehir’s article.  In fact, I’ve even written about this before (you can read about it here).

The fact is that as the sport of Football has became more “professional” over time and athletes had the time and means to build their bodies to their absolute best, the subsequent hits between players became harder and harder.  And while their bodies may be at their peaks, there is simply no way to build one’s head and brain so that it too can take all those jarring hits.

The other scandals Mr. O’Hehir notes are worth mentioning as well, but I think Football’s eventual downfall will come because of the continuing revelations of just how much brain damage the players who participate in the game receive.

As I said before, I happen to love the sport.  But one has to be truly blind and uncaring about others to defend a sport which slowly kills a person’s mental -and physical- abilities.