@tour2ma said:

Great example Tour! And correct me if I am wrong here - but I think they go against some traditional teachings like when a defender has to tackle a ballcarrier running down the sidelines from his pursuit angle - the Seahawks are taught to keep the head up and hit with the shoulder while making sure their helmet slides to the backside of the ballcarrier, When you think about it, ballcarriers are supposed to be carrying the football in their arm closest to the sideline so Seattle gives their tacklers a better chance to get their helmet on the ball in these situations. They just have to make sure they wrap well while they are driving/hitting through the ballcarrier to the ground/sideline. I like the innovation and the safety of it all.

@unsympathetic said:

Precisely! It's a big reason tackling has seemed like a lost art over the years - especially in Cleveland.

@unsympathetic said:

As famously the Seattle Seahawks have...

@tour2ma said:

OSU and probably other colleges have now gone nearly exclusively to using rugby-style tackling in the open field to decrease missed tackles. When players go for kill shots at the highest levels they whiff more often than not.

@westside-steve said:

Well then it's time we Outlaw all of these activities.

WSS

Outlaw? By whom? Who will step up and say NO to any of them particularly elected officals....wait they are the only ones who really can do something about it.

Then what outlaw cigarettes with substantial penalties, alcohol wait tried that with disastrous results (basically created organized crime), cell phones, they are killers as bad as DUI.

And the big question what about the vast money influences here, jobs, careers and more.

Oh and the FANS! They'll beat you silly if you touch their sport!

@mjp28 said:

WHAT CAUSES CTE?

The best available evidence tells us that CTE is caused by repetitive hits to the head sustained over a period of years. This doesnt mean a handful of concussions: most people diagnosed with CTE suffered hundreds or thousands of head impacts over the course of many years playing contact sports or serving in the military. And its not just concussions: the best available evidence points towards sub-concussive impacts, or hits to the head that dont cause full-blown concussions, as the biggest factor....

CTE has been found in... Source of head impacts

Boxers Punches to the head

Tackle football players Hits to the helmet

Soccer players Headers and collisions

Ice hockey players Fighting, checking

Military veterans Blast injuries, combat

Victims of domestic abuse Repeated violence

Well then it's time we Outlaw all of these activities.

WSS

@orion said:

Heads up is more about spinal injury potential than it is concussion and is a key part of the "form tackle". Facemask in the sternum... arms wrapped around the waist pulling the base of the ball carrier's back to you. See what you hit was emphasized when I was taught to block and tackle... back in the stone age. Head down accounts for more missed blocks and tackles that the player was in position to make than any other single factor I can think of.

The helmet point is an interesting one. Agree that you max protect the head. Maybe you reduce the "safety" of the rest of the body armor that is today's padding. At the heart of the "grasp and drag down" tackling style that dominates rugby is the lack of shoulder pads.

Soccer players die young from CTE. CTE is an issue in all of soccer.

Also affected by CTE:

Wrestling

Rugby

Baseball

Basketball

Lacrosse is currently seen as much less violent than any of these.

@flugel said:

I dunno.

I think, as a football player, blocker or defender, you're stuck with your head on top of your shoulders. It's just kind of there. And wherever you go, as a football player, it seems to lead the way.

Players are being taught to play 'heads-up' football...but that sometimes puts you in a somewhat awkward position to make a good wrap-up tackle. Which could result in a missed tackle. - And that RB plowing through the LOS is not gonna be havin' his head up looking at the clouds. He's gonna want his head and shoulders low to plow you over....so what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Making the outside of the helmet softer sounds like an expensive proposition...with the exterior probably needing replacement(s). Perhaps there's something they could do in that area however. Every little bit helps (a little).

Although removing the helmet completely, in theory sounds good, it will just result in MANY MORE concussions from just the normal bumping (more like banging) into other players.

Anyone wanna be filthy rich?

Invent something to fix this problem.

Everyone. To your garages with velcro, duct tape and a hammer.

Helmets will never reduce the brain impacts of big hits significantly, where rapid deceleration produce the brain trauma... but I wonder if they can lessen the impact of the mini-hits that regularly occur in line play? Hits where relatively mild accelerations have an accumulative effect.

Trying to remember the really good OT that played with a foam rubber pad molded to the entire crown of his helmet... maybe Walter Jones?

@orion said:

While true, if the outer shell of the helmet was softer than it is today - it wouldn't be used nearly as much as a weapon for tackling people like it has been in the last 4-5 decades or so.

For example, Rugby has no head gear so there is far less temptation to tackle people head first.

@ghoolie said:

Perfect blend of the clinical definition of "projection" and Alt-Right demagoguery...

@mjp28 said:

CTE has been found in... Source of head impacts

Boxers Punches to the head

Tackle football players Hits to the helmet

Soccer players Headers and collisions

Ice hockey players Fighting, checking

Military veterans Blast injuries, combat

Victims of domestic abuse Repeated violence

And the most susceptible of the football players? OL...

Also someone mentioned the "other football" earlier. Limiting the practicing of "headers" has been a popular response to the studies.

@mjp28 said:

LEGACY DONORS

The evidence is becoming overwhelming.

Stats on the nature of the donation would be interesting. Not hard to imagine that when a former player shows symptoms that either the player or his family is more likely to make the donation.

@ghoolie said:

Soccer players giving each other head. Yep....... Homos.

Actually soccer balls kicked by upper level players travel up to 30 mph and the repeated impact on an unprotected skull can be devastating over time.

But soccer is still boring as hell to watch....but the USA women aren't bad.

@orion said:

Soccer players giving each other head. Yep....... Homos.

LEGACY DONORS

We are forever thankful to the families that continue to put their trust in the Concussion Legacy Foundation and the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank. Without their selfless contributions, we would have never made progress toward discovery. Donor families often choose to stay involved with the Foundation and the BU CTE Center research through the Family Advisory Board.

*The Legacy Donors below are listed regardless of results of their brain analysis, and many cases are pending. All have been listed with the permission of their family......SEE NAMES AND PICTURES.....

The evidence is becoming overwhelming.

What's happened to Iron Mike Webster, Junior Seau, Ken Stabler and others is horrific just ask their surviving family members.

Ken Stabler missed his induction into the HOF, he was dead. It was amazing to see his family up on the stage.

The best available evidence tells us that CTE is caused by repetitive hits to the head sustained over a period of years. This doesn’t mean a handful of concussions: most people diagnosed with CTE suffered hundreds or thousands of head impacts over the course of many years playing contact sports or serving in the military. And it’s not just concussions: the best available evidence points towards sub-concussive impacts, or hits to the head that don’t cause full-blown concussions, as the biggest factor....

CTE has been found in... Source of head impacts

Boxers Punches to the head

Tackle football players Hits to the helmet

Soccer players Headers and collisions

Ice hockey players Fighting, checking

Military veterans Blast injuries, combat

Victims of domestic abuse Repeated violence

The Gipper, on 27 Jul 2017 - 3:00 PM, said:

You might find the same results if you dissected 110 non football players.

Bingo.

READ.....

Concussion Legacy Foundation

https://concussionfoundation.org/CTE-resources/what-is-CTE

WHAT IS CTE?

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. In CTE, a protein called Tau forms clumps that slowly spread throughout the brain, killing brain cells. CTE has been seen in people as young as 17, but symptoms do not generally begin appearing until years after the onset of head impacts.

Early symptoms of CTE usually appear in a patient's late 20s or 30s, and affect a patient's mood and behavior. Some common changes seen include impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and paranoia.

As the disease progresses, some patients may experience problems with thinking and memory, including memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, and eventually progressive dementia. Cognitive symptoms tend to appear later than mood and behavioral symptoms, and generally first appear in a patient’s 40s or 50s. Patients may exhibit one or both symptom clusters. In some cases, symptoms worsen with time (even if the patient suffers no additional head impacts). In other cases, symptoms may be stable for years before worsening......

@ghoolie said:

Umm....soccer is NOT all that good for the brain inside the skull either.

I would assume that heading a soccer ball is not recommended by the American Medical Association. Especially when two guys are trying to head it and they head each other.

Que up Cream, Anyone For Tennis

Males under 30 today are largely despicable. Most are politically correct, and if not openly homosexual, largely lantently homosexual. Today's young men don't stand for much other than saying and believing that " it's all good". Today's young men are a bunch of cunts, and if the nation had another call-to-arms, would have a hard time filling the bill to defend our nation.

Young women on the other hand, have become fucking dildo-wearing men wannabe assholes.

Anything that suggests self-determination, personal responsibility, sacrifice and hard work, is viewed by these young dumb cunts as anti American. This is how cancer like T-Ball got started. Young men are cunts, Young women (real cunts) thing they are men. As a result, you ill find increasingly less Mothers allowing their son's to play football. The pool of talent is evaporating, and so too, will the NFL.

Times are changing.

PS - This is how a faggot, tippy toe, ballet dance like Soccer grew to be a popular "sport". Faggot sport. liberals will emasculate anything that dares to threaten their idiotic view of world harmony. The NFL is just beginning it's demise.

@the-gipper said:

Bingo.