In sharp contrast to all of the fear mongering, “I want parents to be equipped with facts so that they can form decisions about whether they want to allow their kid to play football or not,” Flynn tells me. “I think right now they’re being guilt-tripped out of signing their kid up for football because of this national hysteria.”
Eh, my distaste for football arises from the fact that it looks very much like the inevitable outcome from a collision between team sports and a Pride event. Blech.
Organized sport for kids is, in my humble opinion, completely nuts. If the kids want to play football, let them play in the back yard. Its more fun, there are a lot less injuries, and mum & dad don’t have to drive all over hell every day.
Seeing the NFL shrivel and die from lack of players would be ok too. Watching millionaires at play, I can do without it.
> “In 25 to 50 years, football still exists, but it’s marginalized the way boxing is”
Don’t know about that. Boxing isn’t *really* marginalized, so much as its mindshare has been taken away by MMA/UFC, which is hardly less violent. Boxing is still popular in many circles. Other sports or entertainments that involve repeated blows to the head, such as hockey or pro wrestling, still have large followings, and probably will continue to do so.
What will probably determine the fate of NFL (and CFL) football is three things:
1. The effectiveness of the current regime in limiting concussions and long-term brain damage. This won’t be known for a generation.
2. The effects of technology in enabling such sophisticated cheating schemes (gene doping, microscopic muscle enhancer bots, etc.) that sporting competition is rendered almost meaningless.
3. Whether match-fixing and corruption in sport reaches endemic levels — and whether it becomes public.
I’m not much of a football fan either, but, to campaign against it on the grounds that it constitutes an unacceptable risk for potential injury is nothing but a declaration of sissyhood.
I don’t know anything about American football, but I know several parents who have pulled their kids out of youth hockey not because the game is too dangerous, but because the coaches have turned it into a gladiator sport. One woman told me she pulled her fifteen-year-old son after he refused to follow the coach’s insistence that he injure an opposing team’s star forward so badly he’d be out of the whole game. There’s checking and then there’s blood sport.
What professional football needs is more Gays.
Along with Muslims with angry Hispanics. Creating an atmosphere of perfect “Inclusiveness”.
Let Women play with the big leagues.
Let it all hang out guys.
After all most of the coaches are already Bath house hot flowers.
Think of all the Media parties love in for you, when firing Christians from teams.
@Revnant Dream: Exactly my sentiments.
But on a more serious note, I’m not overly worried about anxious mothers protecting their darling sons. In spite of bicycle helmets and knee pads, airbags and backward facing baby seats, violent video games are still around and very popular. Boys and young men can still fulfill their biological roles of tribal protection while watching their ass fill the chair and their weight balloon 50 or 100 pounds. At least they won’t be injured. What’s next…. maybe we should outlaw testosterone because some one might get hurt?
“What’s next…. maybe we should outlaw testosterone because some one might get hurt?” Well, there are many in the feminist ranks who are trying their best.
Revnant, CBC’s wishlist.
Oh, you mean, soccer.