NFL to become NTFL

[rcjordan]

BTW, I have had 'NFL' filtered out on my reader since I started filtering. All of this is coming through Gnews (where I have also deleted the Sports section since forever).  In the US, I don't think a person can avoid the media blitz this is getting.

participation in tackle football by boys ages 6 to 12 has fallen by nearly 20 percent since 2009, though it rose 1.2 percent, to 1.23 million, in 2015, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. Schools in several states — including Maine, Missouri and New Jersey — have shut their tackle football programs because of safety concerns and a shortage of players.
_{https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/sports/youth-football-wants-to-save-the-game-by-shrinking-it.html}

NYTimes article from today's Gnews 'Spotlight' section goes in for the kill.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/sports/football/nfl-cte.html

[ergophobe]

In the US, I don't think a person can avoid the media blitz this is getting

Agreed. I don't read sports news at all and am trying to stay on a general reduced-news diet. But today there was an article about a player who said "It's not worth dying for this shit. LOL" on Twitter. And the article mentioned the wave of early retirements. A quick Google search found

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/only-23-another-nfl-player-is-retiring-early-because-of-concussions/
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/photos/nfl-retirements-early-surprising-shocking-2017-concussions/1ozskhpg4jtq81lfshcqy9h5bx/slide/574028

Some are looking at alternative careers... like PhDs in math (the sportingnews.com article above said Urschel retired the day after the big CTE report came out)
http://www.businessinsider.com/offensive-lineman-john-urschel-starting-phd-at-mit-2016-5

[CaboWabo]

There is a great book from the Raiders old surgeon Dr. Rob Huizenga, "You're okay, it's just a bruise" where players were cleared to play who had obvious concussions. TL;DR: Player safety was overlooked EVERY SINGLE TIME to get them on the field so the team would win. There was a report a few days ago that Jim Plunkett is having to take 13 pills a day to deal with the pain during his post football playing days.

[littleman]

>Someone mentioned boxing, and he used to like to argue that the reason so many great boxers were Irish and Italian and that's not true anymore is not because Irish and Italians don't have the genetics to compete against Hispanics and African-Americans in boxing, but they don't have the need to get punched in the face to make a living.

I think that this is basically true and the rise of Russian and other ex-Soviet state boxers fits with the pattern.

"Sometimes you don't choose boxing, it chooses you. It's the only sport that lets you escape violence and poverty through the act of violence itself. "
--Mike Tyson

[ergophobe]

There was a report a few days ago that Jim Plunkett is having to take 13 pills a day to deal with the pain during his post football playing days.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/04/jim-plunketts-painful-journey-my-life-sucks/

[rcjordan]

Football's decline has some high schools disbanding teams

https://apnews.com/66e699491a3b478293620c1e5069dc9e/Football's-decline-has-some-high-schools-disbanding-teams

[rcjordan]

Whoa!! Bob Costas roasts the sport on USA Today

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2017/11/08/bob-costas-future-football-nfl-this-game-destroys-peoples-brains/842904001/

[DrCool]

Just saw this on Twitter:

NFL ratings through nine weeks is down 5.5% versus first 9 weeks of last year.

Perspective: Drop is in line with the rest of television.

[rcjordan]

>Twitter

Viewership fell 18 percent year over year in Week 10, with lower ratings in all six game-time windows, according to JPMorgan.

That puts the NFL's season-to-date audience decline at roughly 7 percent.

While that compares well with the NFL's 12 percent decline at this point in 2016, much last year's decline was written off as a one-time effect from the presidential election.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/nfl-worries-climb-with-tough-weeks-ahead.html

<added>
Somewhere in here or the earlier Core, there's a post of NC hunting licenses declining at a 7% annual rate.  Within 5 years, the difference was noticeable to anyone even vaguely interested. Within 10 years the hunters are all but gone.

First CTE Diagnosis in Living Patient Confirmed

http://www.newser.com/story/251677/doctors-thought-he-had-cte-his-death-gave-confirmation.html

Once sports medicine progresses enough to be able to scan at-risk high school players, it's all over.  Even football-loving parents in strong denial will have to come to terms.

[littleman]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/sports/football/canadian-footballs-big-steps-to-reduce-hits-a-contrast-to-the-nfl.html

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — On a bone-chilling day this month, as the hometown Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League practiced for a playoff game against the Edmonton Eskimos, something was noticeably missing: the unmistakable crack of plastic hitting plastic.

In September, the league barred players from deliberately slamming into one another during regular-season practices, and while they still wear helmets, they no longer wear shoulder pads and other protective gear in practices.

By most standards, the league's decision, aimed at reducing injuries like concussions, was a bold one. To date, the Ivy League is the only college conference to end full-contact football practices in the regular season. The C.F.L., which will crown its champion on Sunday in the Grey Cup, also added a third bye week to its 18-game calendar so there would be more time between games for players to recover.

The moves were not entirely welcomed by coaches and general managers, coming in the middle of the season. But the league commissioner has stood by them.

"This is a way for us to improve our game and keep it at the forefront and be progressive," said Randy Ambrosie, who played nine seasons in the C.F.L. and became commissioner of the nine-team league in July. "I know change is hard, and sometimes you have to make the bold decision in order to move things forward. That's the way the world works."

[littleman]

https://www.vox.com/2017/2/4/14500454/super-bowl-linemen-huge

This video/article is examining how the changes in the rules in the NFL has caused the size of linemen to get bigger.  It doesn't really address the head injury issue, but a reversal of some of this may be part of the solution to lower brain damage.