Joe Kapp, the late Cal and NFL quarterback, was posthumously diagnosed with the most advanced form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), his family told the Chronicle. https://t.co/WsJZux5HFs
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) April 3, 2024
Not surprised to hear this. He was struggling in his later years. A great competitor and bear.okaydo said:Joe Kapp, the late Cal and NFL quarterback, was posthumously diagnosed with the most advanced form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), his family told the Chronicle. https://t.co/WsJZux5HFs
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) April 3, 2024
The biggest danger from heading is the head-to-head and head-to-elbow collisions that result from multiple players trying to play the ball in the air at the same time. (Watch a game some time and you'll see at least a couple of those.) They won't want to do it, but there's a relatively easy rule change: Make heading a violation in the same way that playing the ball with your hand or arm is a violation, resulting in a stoppage and a restart with the opposing team putting the ball back in play. It would be a significant change in the game, but doable.socaltownie said:
One of the reasons that I am pretty skeptical about huge investments in college football is that I would be stunned that we won't, within a decade or 2, have brain imaging/marker tests for CTE. That will get us beyond the one offs and post-mortem analysis that likely hinder Large N studies.
But once we can test for CTE prior to death watch out - it is likely going to be very clear that the human brain/skull system is not set up for these repeated concussive blows. NFL is likely to be able to get away with it. Legally (I will defer to all the lawyers on the board) it feels like entities like universities (or high schools?) would be under signifiant exposure to be sponsoring sports with taht risk.
Frankly even scarrier to think about the global scene if Euro football shows similar results - likely requiring massive changes in the rules to remove headers from the game.
BearSD said:The biggest danger from heading is the head-to-head and head-to-elbow collisions that result from multiple players trying to play the ball in the air at the same time. (Watch a game some time and you'll see at least a couple of those.) They won't want to do it, but there's a relatively easy rule change: Make heading a violation in the same way that playing the ball with your hand or arm is a violation, resulting in a stoppage and a restart with the opposing team putting the ball back in play. It would be a significant change in the game, but doable.socaltownie said:
One of the reasons that I am pretty skeptical about huge investments in college football is that I would be stunned that we won't, within a decade or 2, have brain imaging/marker tests for CTE. That will get us beyond the one offs and post-mortem analysis that likely hinder Large N studies.
But once we can test for CTE prior to death watch out - it is likely going to be very clear that the human brain/skull system is not set up for these repeated concussive blows. NFL is likely to be able to get away with it. Legally (I will defer to all the lawyers on the board) it feels like entities like universities (or high schools?) would be under signifiant exposure to be sponsoring sports with taht risk.
Frankly even scarrier to think about the global scene if Euro football shows similar results - likely requiring massive changes in the rules to remove headers from the game.
That is far less than what would have to be done in American football if there is ever a serious effort in that sport to minimize concussions.
goldenokiebear said:
While that may be an "easy rule change", it certainly would be hugely significant - in typical recent years, an average of about 17.5% of goals in English Premier League games are scored by heading the ball. Would completely change the game and likely reduce scoring significantly if that's not an option - and that reduction is not very desirable.
Corner kicks would become much less valuable without headers, it's true.socaltownie said:I figure that will result in wider nets or modified rules about offsides. Even if not direct headers so much of corner kicks relies upon air gamegoldenokiebear said:
While that may be an "easy rule change", it certainly would be hugely significant - in typical recent years, an average of about 17.5% of goals in English Premier League games are scored by heading the ball. Would completely change the game and likely reduce scoring significantly if that's not an option - and that reduction is not very desirable.
