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NFL Players With Long and Short Careers Have Similar Death Risk, Study Finds (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association compared 2,933 athletes who played in the National Football League for an average of five years to 879 "replacement players" who filled in for three games during a mid-1980s strike, finding no statistically significant difference in rates of death from all causes. Critics said the research had several flaws and pointed to a study released last year that found 99 percent of deceased former NFL players whose brains were analyzed post-mortem showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease linked to repeated hits to the head that can lead to aggression and dementia. The latest study found that the leading cause of death among the NFL career players was cardiometabolic disease, which entails greater risk of heart attack and stroke, followed by transportation injuries and unintentional injuries.
"This new study seems to support other previous studies that have not shown an increase in mortality among NFL players when compared to similar cohorts," an NFL spokeswoman said. "As with all new research on this topic, we will look at it closely to see what we can learn to better enhance the well-being of our current and former players," the spokeswoman said.
"This new study seems to support other previous studies that have not shown an increase in mortality among NFL players when compared to similar cohorts," an NFL spokeswoman said. "As with all new research on this topic, we will look at it closely to see what we can learn to better enhance the well-being of our current and former players," the spokeswoman said.
It's time we start ending school sponsored football programs. There are plenty of other sports that don't involve brain damage. I'm not saying outlaw it, just don't promote it at schools.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
100%
They start their competitive career in inducing brain damage in high school.
Why would it kill you any sooner? Headaches aren't lethal and you don't need to be a genius to get old. It's about quality of life, not duration. Of course for NFL millionaires it might all be worth it, it's the much larger number of players who don't get drafted but are still forced to live with migraines and other fun consequences of concussions who are the real losers.
We all die!
Football players are known for consuming massive quantities of food and (alcoholic) drink. Excessive glucose consumption is now thought to accelerate the aging of the brain, as well as the heart, even if much of the calories are "burned off" during practice and competition. And while athletes probably dial down the meal portion sizes after they retire, it would be surprising if most of them cut back to the level that their doctors might recommend.
One says lifespan is the same. The other says quality of life suffers. These are not mutually exclusive.
The league is perhaps being a bit deliberately obtuse given that they're sitting on a potential liability powder keg.
CTE is a terrible brain disease caused by football. For those who don't know, CTE was discovered by a BLACK AFRICAN scientist named Dr. William Smith, who was discriminated by the football association, for exposing CTE. The disease is caused by the helment, which was invented by white people, specifically designed to injure black football players.
The CTEs don't kill you (unless you count the suicides), but they will turn you into a drooling wreck like Jim McMahon.
The main thing that's been keeping the NFL afloat is gambling, and thanks to the much higher incidence of injury, the gamblers are finally starting to abandon it for more interesting games, like basketball, baseball, hockey. As a veteran fantasy football player, I can tell you that practically all of the skill has been taken out of it, making it much less fun. This year, I lost my stud, #1pick running back, David Johnson very early in the season, and I only made the playoffs because the other good players also lost their best picks as the season wore on.
And football continues to be a game of exploitation. Parents are putting their kids in football programs in the same numbers any more (except in the South, where brain damage is less noticeable) and I expect football to go the way of boxing. Another fine sport that just got to be too depressing to enjoy.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It's time we start ending school sponsored football programs. There are plenty of other sports that don't involve brain damage.
Soccer, too. That involves hitting the ball with your head, hard, repeatedly, and was shown to be causing brain damage even before (pigskin-style) football.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
How is this news for nerds...
This is not the place for viral superbowl advertising, even if I didn't dislike traitorous kneelers.
I think we're going to find that no amount of hitting is safe. Even at lower levels of football where the players are slower and smaller than in the NFL, the hits have a significant impact. Hockey has a similar issue to football, where a lot of players end up with CTE. The difference is that you can take the checking out of hockey and still have a very entertaining product that looks like hockey. In fact, checking is prohibited in women's hockey, and although the game is different, it's still a very good product.
The hitting is reduced in the Pro Bowl, but the product is generally considered inferior. Some of that has to do with restrictions on schemes and play calling, such as no stunts or blitzes. I'm just not sure football would adapt as well to reducing the hitting.
As for player health, football players are often addicted to painkillers from the injuries they sustain. It's also not healthy to have 300+ pound offensive linemen that are massive and continue to get larger. Being an offensive lineman pretty much requires not having a healthy body, and that carries over to some other positions as well, such as defensive tackles. That contributes to the cause of death cited in the summary.
Particularly damning is that the NFL, especially under Roger Goodell, has tried to cover up and suppress studies that demonstrate the dangers of playing football. The NFL operates a lot like the cigarette companies in this respect, pulling in increasing revenues and profits while trying to discredit studies that show their product is dangerous. The NFL has done an awful job caring for the health and well-being of retired players. Contracts often aren't guaranteed and players get cut very quickly when they're injured. Careers are shorter than in other major sports, and players lose that income when they're injured playing a violent sport. While some former players and coaches like Mike Ditka should be applauded for their concern for former players, the league as a whole has done a truly awful job on this respect. Players take one hell of a beating, and then get kicked to the curb when they retire.
I love sports, but the NFL in its current form needs to go away. I have no problem with leagues being successful and bringing in massive revenues. MLB has done a great job of monetizing their product online with streaming video like MLB.TV. It's not perfect, but they should be applauded for trying to innovate and produce a better product for fans. Meanwhile, the NFL is easily the most restrictive in allowing fans to view their product. And while MLB is putting up larger nets around their stadiums to protect fans from line drives, the NFL continues to deny the dangers of their product.
The NFL is the new Philip Morris. They're clinging to an outdated business model that involves a dangerous product. The NFL continues to cover up the dangers of their product. One can only hope the league will dramatically reform or cease to exist. I really do enjoy football, so I'm hoping for the former, significant reforms that include Roger Goodell no longer being commissioner.
Mostly because athletes get glorified in our society, encouraging mimicry by impressionable youth and idiots, while their celebrity insulates them from the consequences of their actions. That hits on two fronts.
First, you get a bunch of kids too young and stupid to know better inflicting brain damage for the chance at home-town celebrity and the perks that accompany it. And oft-times their parents aren't a whole lot better informed.
Second, that brain damage makes it much more likely that Joe McSportsball player is going to violently beat his girlfriend or that guy who looked at him funny at the bar, while his celebrity will get him off with a slap on the wrist and a lot of publicity. That sends a message to people everywhere that such violence is actually acceptable behavior.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Billions of dollars are at stake with the NFL. You think that is just going to evaporate?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Part of the problem is that the NFL has tried to cover up the dangers of their sport and suppress studies that report on the harmful effects of playing football. Just like to tobacco companies and big oil, they stand to lose out on much of their revenue and profit of the real harm of their product is exposed.
And not much different from, "I have friends who have coal mines," either.
NFL players don’t spend their time worrying about your problems. And if they did, wouldn’t you tell them to mind their own business?
These replacement players would have been playing and practising when not playing in the NFL. They probably received a similar number of head impacts. Why would anyone expect a different mortality rate?
It's not the NFL that's dangerous: it's the sport.
The NFL are scum: I recently heard an NFL doctor claim that head impacts are just as common in other sports such as soccer. Outright lying because they know that they are promoting a sport that is going to destroy the quality of life for many of its participants.
Note that recent research shows that concussions are not required for CTE. Lower-level head impacts over a long period will cause CTE.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
In part because the league spent years denying the damage and covering up the evidence. They made a choice, but it wasn't an informed choice.
Players don't play rough only in games. The practice sessions can also be rough. I don't know what % of total brain injuries come from practice sessions, but if it's a large %, then that would explain why men who played vs. didn't play in most games had the same number of injuries.
The Canadian Football League is trying to reduce injuries sustained during practice.
But clearly these were all still players with long football careers, certainly having played from high school through to going pro, so still likely to have similar issues due to many years of head smashing activity. This hardly redeems the NFL of responsibility, it just means that for the problems to occur doesn't require playing at the highest level.
I'm guessing 100%, just like everyone else?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
They made it a movie, it's so popular. And then, ooops! they did it again!
Billy Bob Ray
Redneck Rubbernecker
Did those replacement players only ever play 3 games, or did they only play 3 games at professional level?
Chances are those "replacement players" were just second rate players who weren't quite good enough to play for the major teams, but still played regularly as amateurs or for lower tier teams.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
under tobacco company rules?
Knew a fag rugby fan would show up
Where's the flaw?
Eh, I personally like rugby better because of the continuous action - ball changes possession, or one team scores, the game goes on until the period is up - none of this stopping or starting bullshit, plus it just feels easier to understand because it feels like it is one game tat was kept simpler. Easier to understand, for me, how the ball can or can't travel, how things like lineouts and rucks work is straight forward, and it feels like a game where everybody has to be deeply involved, and coordinated to succeed. (nothing against fans of American football of course, just personal preference). (and that's without mentioning things like the form used in the rugby tackle, vs what is commonly seen in American footbal, and how that has the potential to not outright eliminate the risk of injury by any means, but can seriously reduce the risk.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
Isn't everybody's death risk pretty similar? Something like 100%?
Hey dude, we go on and off the pitch without any padding at all, rain, sleet, or shine. "fag rugby fan" indeed.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
American football is as boring as shit.
I remember when they tried to introduce it in a big way to Australia in the 80's.
Lololol....we laughed it off. No self respecting man would be caught dead playing that boring pansy game.
It might have a future as a womans sport though maybe ?
I had to have surgery in my 30's because of this
It just makes you stupid and violent.
I just want to know who PAID for the "research" that was published?
Let's follow your logic a bit further, as all high school sports except chess seem to invite injury, so let's ban them all. In fact, we should put everyone in scooters to prevent slips and falls. We could all look like the fatties in Wall-E.
No, your bigotry is blatantly obvious. You don't like people who want to play football, and you want to marginalize them. Odds are pretty high that it's just bigotry, as you probably went to a very white high school with white football players beating you up for being a jerk (yes, a jerk, not just a nerd) and not that you're a racist piece of shit who thinks football is a black people's sport and despite it thus.
Even getting a small position in the NFL involves years of football before making it to the NFL. In my area we had a junior high football team as well as a senior high team and most players need college football as well to get into the NFL. So even stand in players in the NFL have surely had thousands of head impacts before being admitted to the NFL.. The fact is that football should be banned as a sport on both the school and college level as well as the pro level. Football has a higher injury and death rate than even pro boxing.
This could be interpreted as, "head hits don't cause CTE, or at least football doesn't cause CTE."
It could also be interpreted as, "the damage to the player's brains was mostly caused when they were younger and more vulnerable."
Headline: " found 99 percent of deceased former NFL players whose brains were analyzed post-mortem"
Actual: " found 99 percent of deceased former NFL players whose brains were analyzed post-mortem who were suspected of suffering from CTE"
It's just irresponsible reporting to distort that story. The story was literally about brains that were analyzed because CTE was suspected already. That is a significant difference from 99% of NFL player...period.
It's also important because at least 1 of the brains in that study was from a 23 year old who actually DIED FROM A MOTORCROSS ACCIDENT
Eh, I personally like rugby better because of the continuous action - ball changes possession, or one team scores, the game goes on until the period is up - none of this stopping or starting bullshit, plus it just feels easier to understand because it feels like it is one game tat was kept simpler.
None of the complications of downs, and all those extraneous rules that I just have difficulty following.Easier to understand, for me, how the ball can or can't travel, how things like lineouts and rucks work is straight forward, and it feels like a game where everybody has to be deeply involved, and coordinated to succeed. (nothing against fans of American football of course, just personal preference). (and that's without mentioning things like the form used in the rugby tackle, vs what is commonly seen in American footbal, and how that has the potential to not outright eliminate the risk of injury by any means, but can seriously reduce the risk.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot