-
Not Ready for Primetime Players
May 17, 2013 | 117 comments
-
Manny Pacquiao vs. The IRS
May 10, 2013 | 25 comments
-
Salt of the Earth?
May 3, 2013 | 44 comments
-
The Death of an Artist in Everybody’s Collection
April 26, 2013 | 6 comments
-
The Meaning of Patriots’ Day
April 19, 2013 | 88 comments
The Nation's Pulse
Football Is the New Smoking
Even George Will is on board, trying to haul America’s Game off the field.
This morning, fat kids across America ran wind sprints until they vomited, drove sleds like beasts until muscle collapse, and alternated between jogging in place and hitting the deck so frequently that it jarred even the insides of onlookers. And they do it all again this afternoon.
This isn’t a federal anti-obesity initiative. It’s football.
Two-a-days are good for you. Video-game addiction, blasting ear buds to “11,” and treating Skittles as one of the four food groups are not. Madly, it’s the fitness-inducing pastime of teenage boys that public health crusaders inveigh against as though an end-around were as dangerous as a pack of Marlboro Reds. They’re not called health nuts for nothing.
Football star Junior Seau’s autopsy released Monday by the San Diego County medical examiner revealed no brain damage. What cerebral malady caused so many otherwise sensible people to reflexively blame the linebacker’s suicide on decades of violent football collisions?
“Football’s in trouble for two reasons,” George Will explained in the wake of Seau’s suicide on ABC’s This Week. “First of all, the human body is not built for the violence that is inherent in football at the highest level. Second, people are going to watch football differently from now on, because they’re going to feel a little bit like the spectators in the Coliseum in Rome, watching people sacrificed for their entertainment, with a kind of violence that is unseemly — third suicide in 15 months.”
It may surprise the bow-tied baseball buff to learn that total suicides among Major League Baseball players greatly outnumber suicides among National Football League athletes. Should a numbskull baseball-hater have made a connection between Hideki Irabu’s recent self-inflicted death and, say, his 98 mph fastball, surely George Will would recognize the logical fallacy at work.
And certainly Will isn’t writing any columns about the dangers of baseball in the wake Wednesday’s $14.5 million settlement between defendants including Little League and a young pitcher left brain damaged after being struck in the heart by a batted ball. Like most intelligent people, the columnist recognizes that partaking in beneficial activities — travel, work, exercise, sex, eating — involves risk.
Why should football alone be judged by its risks but not its rewards?
There is a witch hunt quality to the Fourth Estate’s football fixation. The dubious connections made between on-field trauma and off-field drama — suicides, meltdowns, violence — ranks somewhere between shark-sighting sensationalism and SARS alarmism in the annals of journalistic irresponsibility. The facts don’t warrant the conclusions drawn.
Suicide-by-football fits too neatly into the narrative. And when the facts don’t fit, those seeking to sack football sack the facts. “For all players who play five or more years,” George Will reported in his column earlier this month, “life expectancy is less than 60; for linemen it is much less.” This isn’t true.
The study commissioned by the NFL Players Association and conducted by federal researchers found that athletes who lasted five or more years in the league between 1959 and 1993 lived longer than the average American male. As USA Today reported in May, “A records-based study of retired players conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) concludes that they have a much lower death rate than men in the general population, contrasting the notion that football players don’t live as long.”
Who would have believed that there are health benefits to running back-and-forth for four quarters on a hundred yard field?
“Facts are stubborn things,” John Adams reflected. More stubborn are prejudices.
Some people have a cultural aversion to football. Robert Maynard Hutchins, who jettisoned the original “Monsters of the Midway,” was one such man. Whenever I feel the urge to exercise, Hutchins famously quipped, I lie down until the feeling goes away. One grasps why the gridiron held no charms for such a man. The University of Chicago president found football a non sequitur for an academic institution, so in 1939 he killed off a program that once had been national champion. The Great Books devotee remarked, “Football has the same relation to education that bullfighting has to agriculture.” Perhaps so, but the analogy works for men’s gymnastics, too, which Hutchins spared from elimination.
The pigskin is as out of place in risk-averse America as it was at books-intense University of Chicago. In a nation where children socialize with other children in adult-surveilled play dates, where walking to school shows bad parenting, and where lawyers jump in on schoolyard fights, kids crashing into other kids at full speed seems so 20th century.
The anachronistic nature of football that makes it so off-putting to our overprotected culture is also what makes the game, and its players, so incredibly popular. We don’t admire the ordinary. Football has never appeared as extraordinary as it does right now.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America. He blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (154) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Daniel J. Flynn
More Articles From The Nation's Pulse
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/08/24/football-is-the-new-smoking
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- A President Loses His Power
- The Great Train Robbery
- Public Nuisances
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Jack in Wi| 8.24.12 @ 6:20AM
This is an intresting article. It dispells a lot of myths that seem to be popping up lately.
Jacob McCandles| 8.24.12 @ 8:16AM
It is a good article- and I agree that life has risks and we ought to be able to assume them as free citizens. Former Lions great Alex Karras believes he is owed something because he is developing dementia. It's impossible to demonstrate that football was the cause, and the brain injury data wasn't even around when he played. Lawyers and the threat of lawsuits is ruining this country. I can sum up my thoughts with two words: s--t happens.
It's not all myth, however. Microscopic examination of boxers' and NFL players with dementia do reveal a unique type of pathology in over half of those sampled. Correlation does not prove causation- but I would consider this information before deciding to engage in this great sport.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.24.12 @ 10:07AM
Will is a far better writer than Flynn, so this piece is trivial, nitpicking.
Otis, my man!| 8.24.12 @ 10:35AM
Excellent Liberal response! You unwittingly compliment the conservative George Will and illogically conflate his skill at writing with the substance of Flynn's article. Good job!
Libs don't like Football because it is a "conservative" sport. Demonizing it is as illogical as demonizing SUV's.
Seek| 8.24.12 @ 4:55PM
Almost every liberal I've known since college professes to like football.
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 6:56PM
That's because they're Gay, idiot.
TW in SC| 8.25.12 @ 1:07PM
Yup, hard work, dedication, study, discipline all factor into the winning of the game. So much so that an entire industry has grown up around it.
What about the "argument" that wanting to put the NFL out of business would put minorities out of work? Seems a legit point to me. After all, the NFL is heavily populated by talented minority athletes, no? Seems the pundits are practicing racism to me.
In the Fall my television is always on so I can watch a game. It is NOT the Roman Coliseum and I don't feel guilty. I do feel bad when a player is injured but not because of a misplaced sense of right and wrong. It's a normal reaction to a person who, while giving his all, got hurt.
The next issue is that the salaries of the NFL for a typical player run around a million bucks a season. Good money, that. The average "career" is less than four years. So...four mil, used properly can go a long way. I've been working since I was 16 and have yet to make my first million.
Then, the next biggest problem for retired NFL players is not health, like you might think, but being BROKE.
TW in SC| 8.25.12 @ 1:13PM
Then there's the issue of winners and losers, which the socialists despise. Can't have a winner without having a loser, only the socialists prefer that the plebes become less aware of that notion by having "no-score" soccer games with their youngsters, thus eliminating the concept of winners and losers. But the kids have them beat, they keep score anyhow.
I'm going to submit that somehow, the socialists will start a meme of "unfair" competition. Watch for more intrusive doping testing by the USADA (a la Armstrong) so that they can put litigation ligatures on the league and tie them up in court in order to get the whole league to give up out of frustration, or to paint the league as inherently "evil". Watch for Sharpton, that bastion of physical prowess, to lay claim that the NFL is "enslaving" blacks to "do the bidding" of the white supremacists to "fight like gladiators" in the ring for the emperor.
Rush called it. He didn't think it would happen this fast, but...here we are.
loulou| 8.24.12 @ 11:00AM
Is Will a better writer than Flynn? I don't think so. Will just tries so very hard to be elegant.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.24.12 @ 11:13AM
"You unwittingly compliment the conservative George Will and illogically conflate his skill at writing with the substance of Flynn's article."
You would be right if I thought the topic of Flynn's piece is important. But:
i. since IMO the topic is not important
ii. and IMO Will is a better writer than Flynn
iii. and since Will and I think baseball, not football, is America's Game,
that is THAT.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.24.12 @ 10:33AM
"In a nation where children socialize with other children in adult-surveilled play dates..."
Isn't that what you want so the children don't hang out with Jerry Sanduskies?
Doctor Right| 8.24.12 @ 11:31AM
Not really.
What we'd prefer is a nation where the perverts and sickos lived in fear of prosecution - and for their lives - if they can't control their sick urges.
It used to be like that...before the advent of liberalism.
Nowadays, the California legislature actively works to protects pedophiles...
It's sick out there, and getting sicker.
Watch out for the back-lash. It's comin'...
Dodd2| 8.24.12 @ 11:57AM
Roger that, Doctor Right.
Let the perverts crawl back under the rocks and stay there among themselves.
C'mon Man!| 8.24.12 @ 1:52PM
Perverts led by Alan Brooks
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.24.12 @ 2:16PM
First someone says there should be no surveillance of playdates,
then they'll say perverts should be caught;
so how do you catch perverts without surveillance?
Doctor Right| 8.24.12 @ 3:23PM
You can just tell...
Occam's Tool| 8.24.12 @ 10:51AM
The quote is Mark Twain's, not Hutchins, and University of Chicago is doing alright for itself.
That being said, these boys knew beating the crap out of each other ain't healthy. As for Karras, To claim Dementia due to football when he had an active career as an actor, which DEPENDS ON MEMORIZING LINES, after football is questionable to me.
I honestly don't give 2 pieces of crap what happens to these former jocks. Life has tradeoffs.
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 11:24AM
The NFL can fix this problem in fifteen minutes if they want to. Just limit player weights. Say no more than 225# suited up.
Each team has to weigh in on game day - no 400# guys smashing into little, bitty ends and receivers.
It'd be obvious - yeah the game would change, it'd get a lot faster! But the NFL would be taking positive action that addresses the concerns-may not prevent all the problems but will certainly reduce them significantly.
Yeah and have the players sign releases - if they want to capture the NFL salary - they have to accept the risk of injury.
Oh, they do that already? Then this is just thieving lawyers abusing not-very-bright football players. And the NFL's not-very-bright attorneys not utilizing the signed contracts they have in hand.
Actually, it's just another indication of the failure of contracting and law in the USA. Mr. Obama! Mr. Holder! Dis-barred Bill Clinton!
Most major professional sports have limits on all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons.
The only reason there are not NASCAR cars going 300 mph is the limitations placed on the car designs.
Appleby| 8.24.12 @ 6:37AM
I see this as just another effort to remove anything that is uniquely American from America, and replace it with that practiced by Europeans, regardless of the facts. This goes right along with cramming people into tiny high-rise condos, forcing them into cars the size of baby coaches, if not bicycles, and the Mediterranean Diet.
Today's triumph over Lance Armstrong stands at the top of this determination to take the American out of America. Europe is dancing and singing today, though they know in their hearts that what they did was wrong and history will show it -- because the ultimate goal of their toxic envy was to delete from history the fact that an American beat Europeans at their own game not just once, but seven times.
P.S. I don't watch the NFL; it does seem to be true that this branch of the sport contains a larger than usual number of felons.
HALOMan58| 8.24.12 @ 8:45AM
Appleby,
Do you perchance watch any NBA games? While I don't know the exact numbers, the NBA doesn't lack for a significant number of felons as well.
scotchieguy| 8.24.12 @ 10:14AM
She is a Canuck. My guess is she watches hockey.
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 11:25AM
I'm thinking that she plays hockey,
with no helmet!
Sorry, honey, but you do say the darnedest things, sometimes!
Appleby| 8.24.12 @ 1:35PM
I'm not a "canuck"; I'm an American living in Canada.
I don't watch basketball (too easy to score); in the main I watch sports car racing and NCAA Football, particularly the Alabama Crimson Tide. In the Six Team Days, when I lived in New York, I watched hockey. In today's overexpanded field, it's a watered-down gaggle of overpaid foreigners playing shinny.
scotchieguy| 8.25.12 @ 6:03AM
I will drink to that. The NHL used to be a great game back in the '60's. I started following when the league expanded and the NHL came to MN in '67. Now, it is so watered down there are so many teams playing so many meaningless games since every team makes it to the playoffs which don't end until damn near July. BTW, the tickets are ridiculously expensive considering every game is meaningless (see above), and they have sold their soul with the pathetic "shoot-out" to settle ties. What? The LOSER gets a point too? No wonder Canada is nothing but a jealous sister to this once great republic. BTW, they can't even build their own cars, eh?
83champ| 8.24.12 @ 10:39AM
I no longer watch NBA games because I feel think I'm contributing to the decline of civilization if I did watch them.
83champ| 8.24.12 @ 10:36AM
I don't watch the NFL because they allowed rappers to be part of ownership groups in spite of the things they have said, while denying Rush Limbaugh the same thing even thought it was proven he never said anything that was accused of against him. Same for ESPN studio shows, though I will watch the occasional live sporting event.
"This goes right along with cramming people into tiny high-rise condos,..." It's easier to keep an eye on everybody when they're all in the same place. Remember that.
With publicity whore Armstrong, it's the American's who were pressing charges against him, although it would be a mistake to not presume a pro=European bias in their zeal. Apparently they have a pretty good linkage to HGH, because they would've picked up steroids years ago.
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 11:31AM
So 83 champ, exactly why and how are you slandering, I presume, Lance Armstrong?
The French test the guy hundreds of times and come up with nothing, even though they would have moved heaven and earth to prove he was doping. The USADA people have NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE of anything amiss with Armstrong-but they catch Floyd Landis who then rolls over on his former team mate. And you believe the proven cheater's allegations over the hundreds of physical tests.
Wait til you piss off some arm of the federal government!
DTOM
83champ| 8.25.12 @ 1:43PM
Armstrong strikes me as someone trying to hard to be liked, and I'm always suspicious of those types.
You're right about the Feds making a target of Armstrong, but in the 24hours since I've posted, the USADA seems to have test of him the feel strongly about his ALLEGED doping. I just think Armstrong could set up a legal defense fund and have no trouble fighting it.
I am sympathitic to the thought about why the government is going after steriod abuse.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.24.12 @ 10:36AM
"Even George Will is on board, trying to haul America's Game off the field."
Of course, Danny-boy, Will thinks baseball is America's game.
Derek Leaberry| 8.24.12 @ 4:54PM
The reason for so many future and current felons on an NFL roster is that the "college" pipeline is filled with a massive amount of young men who don't in any way deserve to be enrolled in college. The stalwarts of LSU, Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, USC, Michigan, Virginia Tech, Clemson and Baylor belong on the backs of trash trucks and not on college campuses. These would-be felons are passed up the chain from college to professional at heart still future felons. Many commit crimes as pros, so many that the sports pages should install police blotters. Many footballers, once their careers are in tatters and their bling is spent, go on to careers as criminals.
spike59| 8.24.12 @ 6:41AM
i pretty much ignore anything George Will has to say about sports, given his hysterical adoration of baseball-
Bob K| 8.24.12 @ 9:16AM
I've been ignoring most everything Will has written for a while now. He was always humorless and self important even when he was a conservative.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.24.12 @ 6:44AM
Professional male oriented sports like basketball and the NFL, but in particular the NFL, are the few areas left in American society where females have not established a presence.
The game and perceptions must be changed so that women can find their way into the sport. Before you know it, it will resemble flag football.
Von Mises Jr| 8.24.12 @ 8:04AM
That was one of the reasons I thought, Bill, along with a few more. As you rightly point out, the girls with big hooters can't get the shoulder pads to fit.
But there is also a few other themes I take from this assault on football.
First, it is almost exclusively American. Canada has some weird adaptation with fewer players, running forward before the snap, and a tiny field to facilitate lots of scoring. Other nations kick a little round ball and they call that football. But overall, NFL football is the great past-time of Americans. And the left hates America.
Second, it is physical whereby little girls are excluded and big girls like the tough football players instead of the little fagots like Georgie Will. Isn't it only "FAIR" that everyone should be a dweeb and punk like Georgie?
Third is that "real men" Americans love football. If they can take away our Sunday football successfully, then it will be easier for Nanny Bloomberg to take your salt and sugary drink, and Obama to take you liberty and pay check.
Alan| 8.24.12 @ 8:17AM
"and a tiny field to facilitate lots of scoring"
One correction, CFL fields are bigger than NFL fields. You might be thinking arena ball.
Von Mises Jr| 8.24.12 @ 8:34AM
You are correct Alan. Now I recall the CFL is the one with the 20 yard end zone? So good for our Canadian friends.
I recall a few stars like Hershel Walker or other skilled players spent time in the CFL. It is like our baseball farm team, I guess.
83champ| 8.24.12 @ 10:44AM
I thought it was 25 yards. You could throw a 'bomb' from the 10 yard line. Also mid-field is the 55-yard=line, so even that part is bigger.
Is a football field the only thing in Canada not metric?
Alan| 8.24.12 @ 11:38AM
Its wider too.
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 9:54AM
"...Third is that "real men" Americans love football..."
--
Agreed, however, let's at least be intellectually honest when enjoying the sport and not sugar coat what we're watching.
We LIKE boxers delivering the punch that "puts the guy to sleep", we LIKE some guy getting his head slammed against plexiglass, we LIKE watching some guy getting his "bell rung" during football games.
I do.
Come on. Fess up.
Von Mises Jr| 8.24.12 @ 10:50AM
I would like it more if certain other people were the recipients. But Georgie Will is hiding behind his metal rim nerd glasses.
Occam's Tool| 8.24.12 @ 10:54AM
Fessed.
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 11:49AM
NOPE! NOT GONNA DRINK THAT KOOLAID!
I don't like watching guys legs get broken. I don't like guys getting strapped to back boards. I don't like guys getting taken off the field on golf carts.
I was watching the day that ABC sports broadcast the Mancini-Kim Duk Koo bout in 1982 that left Kim dead. My four year old son was watching with me. Mancini nailed Kim with two rights in the 14th round; Kim went down like a platter of mashed potatoes. When my son asked if Kim was going to be all right, I said "I hope so." I never did tell him the truth - I don't know if he remembers it now...It's not fun, funny, or entertaining.
I like watching well executed plays -
I like a good open field tackle,
I like an unexpected play call that catches the defense or once in a offense off guard. I like a QB scrambling and connecting amazingly with an end leaping through the defender's grasp.
SO, NO I DON'T WATCH FOOTBALL FOR THE BELL RINGING. IF YOU DO - THEN YOU SHOULD SEEK PSYCHIATRIC HELP.
People who enjoy watching others' pain correlate positively with sociopaths. And if you use the excuse that everybody who watches football, autoracing, bike racing, basketball, baseball, whatever for the injuries and disasters, you are just rationalizing your mental illness!!!
DTOM
Butch| 8.24.12 @ 5:01PM
Nah, not me. Nobody who's been carried off the field (broke my leg and spent nine months on crutches) likes to see guys get hurt playing football. I like good plays, both individual and team. Some are really a thing of beauty.
Boxing: guilty. But that's the nature of the sport.
Seek| 8.24.12 @ 4:57PM
The Redneck Credo: If you can't refute the argument, question the masculinity.
Von Mises Jr| 8.25.12 @ 5:50AM
The Metrosexual Credo: If you are a sissy, find a butch chick or be some guy's "B" itch.
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 8:14AM
I love Football. I haven't watched a Baseball Game in Years. I hate Pro Basketball. I like College Hoop. Hockey's for Canadians, Bolshevicks and Eastern Europeans. While Soccer is for people who suffer from Insomnia, and should be played at night, when people are trying to sleep. I would rather walk around all day with a wet Turd in my pants, than watch a Game of Soccer.
Ola?
But, I love Football.
GO GIANTS!
That be it as it may.......Am I the only one who sees the "Bad Idea" aspect of LEADING WITH YOUR HEAD?
When you've got two coupla hundred pounds Guys, coming together at full speed, and leading with their heads? (as they have been taught) It's just a matter of time, before something Inevitable occurs.
It's a Numbers game, like Plane Crashes, Lightning Strikes, or the Cubs meeting the White Sox in the World Series. Sooner or later, things happen. Bad things.
We have a White Hating/Jew Hating/America Hating/ Black Muslim President, who's DNA runs RED, with the Gospel of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin.
Anybody see that one coming?
These guys need to get away from "Lead with your Head". If you can't come to grips with this via Football? Think Boxing. Think Joe Wepner - The Bayonne Bleeder.
We have to get back to "Lead with your Shoulder", and good Christian Presidents who Love this Country, and don't wanna Destroy it.
GO GIANTS!
scotchieguy| 8.24.12 @ 10:29AM
I agree 100%. There is only one guy who still tackles correctly in the NFL, and he plays up here in MN. Antoine Winfield. He is only 5-9, and about 185. I have NEVER seen him miss a tackle. Never. And he is about 34, is still great, and probably never gets concussions because he plays the game right.
I LOVE the NFL, but it is getting a little bit in sane. Watching a guy go 30 MPH like a missle and slamming head first into a defenseless WR who goes SLAM, down for the count for three minutes a bit much. And, this seems to happen 3 or 4 times per game. Out come about 10 medical guys who strap him into a gurney.
It is all for show and tell on the higlights reel on Sports Center on ESPN.
What is even worse is listening to Howie, Terry and the boys yuck it up in the slick studio:
"Ha ha ha!!! What a HIT!!!"
"Did you SEE his head slam on the turf, Jimmie? Ha ha ha. Man, WHAT a HIT!!!"
"Yeah, too bad he got a 15 yard penalty. It was a BAD call, ref, if I say so myself!! These guys are playing football, not bandmitten!!!"
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!"
scotchieguy| 8.24.12 @ 10:30AM
I mean badmitten. Now that is an Olympic sport!
scotchieguy| 8.24.12 @ 10:36AM
Badminton. F-ck it, I'm going back to bed.
Occam's Tool| 8.24.12 @ 10:56AM
Howie paid his dues to yuck it up---Hall of Famer Defenseman, in pain every single day.
Butch| 8.24.12 @ 5:04PM
Ole Brad took his share of good ones, too, Occam. Both of them earned their spurs. Don't you like the way Howie still looks like he wants to tear Terry in half when they put on demonstrations?
scotchieguy| 8.25.12 @ 6:08AM
And, Howie is the smart one. He should be on ESPN with Burman.
83champ| 8.24.12 @ 10:53AM
"While Soccer is for people who suffer from Insomnia, and should be played at night, when people are trying to sleep."
When a soccer team has the ball what they are trying to do is maintain possession while organizing some way to move the ball toward and into the goal. And it's done on the go, with no huddles or timeouts, very spontaneous and chaotic, but interesting in it's own way. It's not for everyone, but next time the only thing on is a soccer game, keep this in mind and see if it helps.
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 7:01PM
Final Score - 0 to o.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Get the picture?
Tom Kyba| 8.25.12 @ 11:40AM
What a silly condescending comment.
Occam's Tool| 8.24.12 @ 10:55AM
TLP: Don't forget Rugby, which is for people who are afraid of Football.
Even I, a complete wimp, was taught to tackle with my shoulder from my dad.
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 11:56AM
I have a lot of channels on my television system, a DVR with a couple of thousand hours of programming on it, and several hundred DVD's, two thousand books, a thousand LP's, twelve hundred CD's, a couple of dozen old cassette tapes, AM radio, FM radio, and some books on tape, JUST TO MAKE SURE THAT I NEVER FIND MYSELF IN THE POSITION OF HAVING NOTHING LEFT TO DO BUT WATCH SOCCER.
Isn't anyone upset by Government Motors agreeing to spend BILLIONS to advertise on UK Soccer programming, while cancelling their NFL SuperBowl(tm) spots? George Soros also just bought 8% of some UK soccer team.
Remember, 'a football has two points- and a soccer ball has NO point!'
DTOM
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 7:02PM
I am upset, and thank you for bringing that up.
Unfckingbelievable.
scotchieguy| 8.25.12 @ 6:12AM
I have about the same collection of LP's, CD's, etc. It is MY excuse for totally ignoring the Olympics. My friends all think I am some sort of traitor!
Maybe it is because we no longer have the evil commies in the USSR to jeer like the evil Yankees in MLB, or the robot-like dikes on the E. German squad.
But soccer? Yeah, right.
scotchieguy| 8.25.12 @ 6:14AM
I won't even comment about soccer other than it reminds me of being forced to learn the metric system in HS in the '70's. Remember how the Euro's were so superior in that regard. F-ckin' GAG ME!
Of course, that was when Jemmy Carter had us drive 55 MPH.
Bob James| 8.24.12 @ 5:50PM
Huzzah, Occam!
"Hurdle the dead; trample the weak!"
Rugby is an outstanding game. I actually played on my wedding day - and got concussed! Afterwards, I was sitting on the sidelines pondering, "there's something really important I have to do today. . . wonder what it is?" I suppose that could be grounds for an annulment right there!
And yes, players are taught from Day One not to use their heads as battering rams. It isn't a difficult concept, and it extends one's longevity quite a bit.
Tommy Frisco| 8.24.12 @ 3:25PM
They wouldn't be so inclined to lead with their heads if their facemasks were removed. That's how the game used to be played. Sometimes, an added safety measure will result in a different type of injury.
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 8:36AM
Women already have a place in the Sport. On the Sidelines, waving Pom Poms, shaking Ta Tas, and bending over to give us all something to "think" about, when we're in the Shower at Halftime.
"Why are you in the Shower at Halftime?"
Mind your own business!
They're on Calenders. They're in Swimsuit Issues, all over the place. And, sometimes, when the wind blows just right?
They're in a Playboy Photo Shoot, that you would think, in 2012, there would be some kind of Waterproof Edition. Not that I would wanna take it in to the Shower with me, or anything. I wouldn't. That would be perverted. Right?
Actually.......Is there anything out there that is even considered PERVERTED, anymore, other than Traditional Marraige, Raising yor Kids, and going to Church on Sunday?
Anyway. I disagree with the whole Getting Women in to the Sport.
They're all over the place, in Football. You can't miss'em.
They're the Pretty ones on the field, who are Half Naked, most of the time, and All Way Naked, the rest of the time.
What more do they want?
God Bless America.
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 9:28AM
Wow. Just wow.
Doctor Right| 8.24.12 @ 11:33AM
Saying "Wow. Just wow" has become such a cliche'...
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 11:57AM
I believe "Wow" alone is a cliche' so I added "Just wow" so as to not appear using cliche's.
I guess I need a little work. My Bad. LOL!
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 11:57AM
Should it maybe be "W.JW" I'm just asking...
Tom Kyba| 8.25.12 @ 11:43AM
And TLP is correct, just correct.
THKrupp| 8.24.12 @ 2:19PM
What about the all womens league where they play in underwear ?
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 4:38PM
R U saying the NFL plays commando? OWW!
scotchieguy| 8.24.12 @ 10:16AM
Maybe you don't follow the game very closely. Ever noticed all of the babes posing as side-line reporters? Michelle, Suzy, Andrea, etc?
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 11:58AM
Trying to get into the locker room!
Virtue| 8.24.12 @ 7:31AM
Spot on. A males only sport and therefore it must be destroyed.
Joellen| 8.24.12 @ 7:47AM
The great Rush Limbaugh called this one at least 2 years ago. Anything to sissfie the American male is whats' going on. Just look at our current commander in chief and his male staff. Not a real MAN among them. (well some may think Hillary qualifies). Look at Hollywierd - when's the last time we had a John Wayne, my favorite Steve Mcqueen or Robert Mitchem? The men of America need to own up to this - and become true role models for their sons - not let anyone else take over this responsibility.
TinaB| 8.24.12 @ 9:17AM
Ok, Joellen, and here is my word to women who are mothers and grandmothers of boys:
Step up and praise those football greats who are also great sons, fathers, husbands, or spiritual role models, in your home town or not, and get their bios for reading in their spare time. There are several. Use the great game of football to teach boys that a real man on the field can also be a real man at home and in his community. Use the bad behaviors on the field during games to teach about good sportsmanship vs. bad. If you learn about football and the rules of fb, it is a fun and amazing game to watch. I found watching my son play was one of the great joys of my life. Seeing him co-captain and then make All-county after working so hard for four years was rewarding.
Over they years, I've watched my kids play many sports, but football was the most exciting for me.
Watching the arc of the storied career of Tim Tebow is my curiosity now.
Joellen| 8.24.12 @ 12:31PM
Amen Tina B.
fmm| 8.24.12 @ 9:48AM
Liam Neeson - of course he is from across the pond
Seek| 8.24.12 @ 5:00PM
Go see "The Expendables 2" and tell me we don't have beefcake male movie stars any more. And yes, I'll take Gary Oldman over Jimmy Stewart.
Doctor Right| 8.24.12 @ 7:48AM
Let's not forget that in addition to being an elitist, George Will is a die-hard baseball fanatic who likely resents football's usurpation of America's "National Pastime."
Baseball?? Meh. What a snooze-fest. It used to be fun, but in the age of $200 dollar tickets, $25 dollar hot-dogs, corporate sky-boxes, and seasons that last through to November, it's become a real drag.
Can these pointy-headed intellectuals and do-gooders please stop tormenting us? We like Football!
I'm willing to bet that the number of former NFL players who've committed suicide is a very small percentage of the total number of former NFL players, and probably less than society at large...
...but hey, let's not look at facts; we've got "reforms" to make!
Alan| 8.24.12 @ 8:11AM
"Let's not forget that in addition to being an elitist, George Will is a die-hard baseball fanatic who likely resents football's usurpation of America's "National Pastime."
Thats the flat out truth. Will has always resented the fact that football is king.
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 11:59AM
Don't let any of the NASCAR crowd hear you say that...
Skippy| 8.24.12 @ 3:28PM
NASCAR event ticket sales regulatly exceed those of the NBA, MLB, NHL and MLB combined.
Will would say that just points out how stupid flyover Americans are.
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 4:40PM
I knew all of that, even the part about what the whiney Will would say. If there ever was a poster boy for effete snob, it'd have to be Georgie.
And he's about as conservative as Daniel Patrick Moynihan...
squalis| 8.24.12 @ 10:17AM
It is much more expensive to go to a football game than baseball for comparable seats.
Alan| 8.24.12 @ 11:23AM
True, but ML baseball has to be more affordable due to the fact they have 82 home games to sell tickets for whereas NFL has 8. I don't count exibition games because they mean nothing in either sport.
Hardcard| 8.24.12 @ 8:02AM
mr. will is wrong. let's not get in a pissing contest
ala baseball vs. football.
Stephie| 8.24.12 @ 8:14AM
And now an "intellectual" from some liberal bastion called a university is saying that football is somehow related to pedophilia, (see the Sandusky case) This is insane.
OP4| 8.24.12 @ 8:24AM
My kid is in the midst of PeeWee preseason training right now. I'm glad to see him getting fresh air and exercise and yelled at by somebody else.
They use the new-fangled helmets that are supposedly safer. I still think leather helmets would be safer. I played rugby and saw lots of other injuries but no concussions.
Hardcard| 8.24.12 @ 8:27AM
chuck wepner!!
Mick Lee| 8.24.12 @ 8:36AM
You "real" guys can have your football. But if you'd award one point instead of seven for every time the goal line is crossed, you'll find out how low scoring and boring it really is.
spike59| 8.24.12 @ 10:25AM
if you don't understand the game, or if it frightens you to watch, just say so and skip the BS
Skippy| 8.24.12 @ 3:29PM
For truly boring and low scoring, try soccer.
A sure cure for insomnia or arithmetic.
Butch| 8.24.12 @ 5:07PM
Amen. I don't see what all those furriners see in it.
cuban pete| 8.24.12 @ 8:45AM
Years ago I heard George Will say, "Football is symbolic of what is wrong with American society-Violence interuppted by committee meetings."
Funny but so what.
As far as baseball is concerned,George is a Cubs' fan. He's frustrated and unhappy so he projects that on football.
PS
As the HOF Notre Dame lineman George Connor once observed, "The worst thing that ever happened to football was the face mask because it encourages a player to put his head where it does not belong."
Have a great weekend.
scotchieguy| 8.24.12 @ 10:34AM
Yes, and you could say the same with Hockey.
Derek Leaberry| 8.24.12 @ 9:03AM
Football is in no danger as it is too vital to the fall and winter entertainment for vicarious-living white men. And colleges need football to placate alumni who demand successful football teams so that they can feel pride in their schools and in themselves. As for the black males who dominate the sport, they are expendable. Without football they are expendable as well. A football career allows these men a few years of bling. Why prevent them from a few years of high living? Bread and Circuses must go on!
PCPSmokerII| 8.24.12 @ 8:56PM
Are promoting some racial angle? Who says black men don't like football? Shit ass.
OKC08GT500| 8.24.12 @ 9:03AM
This is nothing more that the left's war on men and the continued feminization of America.
OKC08GT500| 8.24.12 @ 9:04AM
that = than
Louis Jenkins| 8.24.12 @ 9:04AM
Wepner was a bleeder, there is no doubt. Saw a presentation the other day about him on some channel, and particularly the lawsuit against Sly Stallone. If anyone deserves to have head trauma Wepner does. He just kept coming back for more punishment.
SCPOret| 8.24.12 @ 9:12AM
More of the feminization of America. The Liberals want to rip the testerone out of the American male. We'll replace Football with the kinder gentler sports like soccer, tennis, golf and badminton; maybe throw in G. Wills baseball if they'll just quit spitting.
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 9:44AM
Does anyone seriously believe repeated blows to the head, year after year, do not negatively impact the brain?
The average NFL player experiences 1,500 sub-concussive hits PER YEAR.
An excerpt from The Woman Who Would Save Football by Jane Leavy, Grantland/Boston Globe:
((While McKee and her staff dissect and preserve tissue, Stern, who oversees the CSTE registry, interviews family members to develop a case history: number of years and position played and in what decade, number of concussions suffered and symptoms noted. The most frightening finding is that "the biggest problem isn't the concussions, actually," McKee says. "It's the sub-concussive hits that mount up every single time these guys line up."
It's been estimated that there are 1,000 to 1,500 of those kinds of hits per season per person in the NFL. "A big job liability," she says.))
Read the article.
squalis| 8.24.12 @ 10:20AM
These guys are tax paying entertainers. Local economies benefit. Let the players and fans live thier dreams!
scotchieguy| 8.24.12 @ 10:40AM
Read the article on Kyle Turley. It will turn your stomach. It is in New Yorker Magazine Oct, 2009.
Although I agree that these guys aren't dying any sooner as author suggests, they are having a hard time finding their way out of their neighborhoods.
Houdini| 8.24.12 @ 11:04AM
Last time I checked, playing football is voluntary, I have yet to see roving football press gangs grabbing young men out of bars and other places and forcing them to play the game for paltry millions. My father in law play professional ball for years (and has a bust in Canton to prove it) and is 83 with all of his faculties still intact. Stop whining.
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 11:20AM
I'm not whining. I couldn't care less but science is science.
Heck, you don't even need to apply science, just common sense.
I like to apply both: Statistical Common Sense.
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 12:03PM
And HArry, your father in law did not make the current average NFL annual salary of $1,900,000.
You got your risks and you got your rewards. If a young man wants to make that trade off, shouldn't somebody be watching?
Houdini| 8.24.12 @ 3:30PM
My father in law told me that his highest paying season was his last spent with Detroit and paid $40k (he also said it was the best as he sat on the bench for most of the season)
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 4:47PM
Without trying to pry, I'd be guessing that your father-in-law played in the early- mid 1950's, ending sometime around 1960. And at that time, $40K would have bought about 25 VW bugs. Not a sharp stick in the eye at all. So it's gratifying that he appreciates his experiences with the NFL. Which at that time would have been the AFL or the NFL, I think...
So, it's 'Hats off to the old guy!'
Seek| 8.24.12 @ 5:02PM
Back when he was starting quarterback for the 49ers, Steve Young admitted that he went in for an MRI scan practically every week. One need not be a "sissy" to recognize that NFL Players take a woeful beating. I still love the game, but, yes, it has a downside.
PCPSmokerII| 8.24.12 @ 8:54PM
"The average NFL player experiences 1,500 sub-concussive hits PER YEAR"
This is typical liberal bullshit. These are the tactics used by the Left to create the panic. You are piece of shit.
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 9:51PM
I'm probably more conservative than you.
Why should this be a conservative/liberal issue?
Bob James| 8.24.12 @ 10:25PM
It's not, Bob. And true conservatives follow the facts and let them fall as they may. Only leftist frauds skew facts, queer the data, and lie to reach pre-ordained conclusions. Cf. dietary salt, dietary sugar, dietary caffeine, global cooling, global warming, the "hockey stick," East Anglia, ozone holes, DDT, and on and on and on.
I'm not qualified to speak to the medical evidence in this case. But we shouldn't shrink from it, either. Screw the government, the league and the NFLPA should make whatever rule or equipment changes are necessary to keep the game interesting, vibrant, and non-lethal!
fmm| 8.24.12 @ 9:53AM
I would rather take a concussive hit or 1500 subconcussive hits in football than have to listen to one more slobbering liberal.
Anthony| 8.24.12 @ 9:55AM
Die hard baseball fan that I am, and not a particularily big fan of football, nonetheless, Will is an O-fer on football. Big wiff, ole George.
Perhaps strong muscular men in tight pants are not quite George's forte... on the other hand.... perhaps they are.
squalis| 8.24.12 @ 10:25AM
While I do like football, I much prefer baseball. One of the big differences is that you can't run out the clock in BB. That said, there are plenty of injuries in baseball, too. Soon hockey will come under attack. Then darts (you could put someone's eye out).
scotchieguy| 8.24.12 @ 10:43AM
It IS up here in MN, where a guy got slammed into the boards really hard during a high school game and is now paralyzed. The refs call EVERYTHING now for fear of having another disaster on the ice. It is amzaing how the game has changed since that one tragedy.
Who Knows?| 8.24.12 @ 10:32AM
Consider what sports are played where.
England has rugby. England once ruled the waves, the sun never setting on her empire.
And, where’s soccer the major sport? There aren’t too many world powers that don’t play contact sports---that’s my point.
Also, it’s good to recognize that sport is civilized war.
Instead of guys shooting real bullets at one another, say in a “civilized” duel, they can opt to compete by shooting at the bulls eye of a target. In place of grappling to the death, wrestlers can have rules to keep them alive to fight another day.
American football is misnamed, though. Not a lot of “foot” in this ball.
Why not call it headball?
Or bodyball?
Or body-mind-ball?
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 10:56AM
Baseball is about accumulating bases, therefore, football should be renamed Territory Ball, because it's about accumulating territory.
It would be worth it just watching most of the players struggle to pronounce it correctly.
But don't get me started with THAT problem with the sport.
Who Knows?| 8.24.12 @ 11:13AM
How about earthball, or landball?
Bob James| 8.24.12 @ 5:40PM
And a fine game rugby is! All the violent contact of football with none of the pads (some of the forwards may wear a soft helmet called a "scrum cap"). Continuously-flowing play, without all the stopping and standing around of football. Ball possession changes by the hundreds. You play both offense and defense, without the constant shuttling in of whole squads and specialist players. Fairly straightforward rules, once you get the hang of them.
I really think if more Americans were exposed to rugby they'd really take a shine to it. I sure did all those years ago.
Say, if I develop dementia, maybe I can sue the International Rugby Board for damages!
Cpm| 8.24.12 @ 11:57AM
Will is a baseball fan and still considers it the national pastime. Concussions occur fairly frequently there, too. Just ask Justin Morneau.
scotchieguy| 8.25.12 @ 6:23AM
He used to be a HOCKEY player. That is why he has the concussion problems. Same thing with Corey Koskie who preceeded him at third. Nice try.
Petronius| 8.24.12 @ 1:34PM
Sports has always been the only way of advancement for the sons of blue collar Americans before Powerball. It still goes. And guys wouldn't make the effort if a fat contract wasn't at the end of the rainbow. With the coming tax increases, there will be no sports at all. I'm sure the metrosexuals will watch All Star Hackeysack.
The only blood sport the Liberals will never control is Martial Arts Fighting. The leagues are closed shops running air tight operations. There is no NCAA involvement. But it is having an ancillary effect liberals like. Professional boxing has been relegated to the extent that it's becoming a non entity.
SeymourGlass| 8.24.12 @ 1:47PM
If there IS a higher suicide rate among NFL players (or MLB, etc) it's likely due to the "risky lifestyle" these individuals can afford to pursue. I'd be curious as to the suicide rate of other men and women who push themselves toward success in their field.
Fortunately, our current president is on top of this. By eliminating avenues for individual success, thereby eliminating the ability to pursue a reckless lifestyle, he's doing us all a favor.
All hail our president. He KNOWS what's best for us. He's hard on us - but we need it!
Cool Hand Luke| 8.24.12 @ 2:55PM
G. Will has alway had an aversion to football. He's
a baseball man all the way. Baseball does have its
athletic merits. My favorite sport.
Football ain't going anywhere anytime soon. It's
far more than just line 'em up and crunch and
Will would know that if he had an open mind to
the game.
Cut my teeth on Alabama football with the Bear
winning SEC and National Championships.
Besides, where else can these guys go and get paid
the money they make? They know the risk/reward
equation...
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 3:52PM
" They know the risk/reward
equation..."
That's the problem. Players don't.
The more scientists understand the damage involved in repeatedly slamming one's brain against hard, dense objects, and that there's no real protection from those damages, the more organizations are liable for facilitating such activities, especially if the organization is for-profit; like the NFL.
That's the problem: The more they understand the catastrophic damages to the brain caused by football head collisions, the more liable the facilitators become...
...The more liable they become, the more protections they incorporate to prevent from being sued...
...The more protections they incorporate, the less it becomes unwatchable/entertaining...
Do you guys REALLY want MORE stops in play than what occurs NOW? ...more scenes of a guy laid flat out on the field with 20 medics hovering around him for 10 minutes, only to have him pop back up and run to the sideline?
The precautions they take NOW make the game unwatchable!!!! Wait till the lawyers REALLY get involved.
$450 for a family of 4 to watch a game? Yea right, try $900 a game that will take 4+ hours to complete.
Football will be unrecognizable in 10 years. Book it!
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 3:53PM
that would be MORE unwatchable. Sorry.
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 4:55PM
The solution is to limit individual player weight. It'd be simple and effective... 400# guys running 100 yards in 10 seconds and diving ontop of a 190# wide out is just too much kinetic energy to absorb.
If the max weight were about 250 or 240, those guys would have to be in far better shape to be competitive, and being in better shape would also make them less injury prone...
I am NOT saying those guys are not in shape - it's just that without any limit, they can just keep getting bigger and bigger, heavier and heavier, and the bones do not get stronger, nor do the connective tissues,et al.
Give them a wieght limit and save the sport.
I predict there will be an NFL player weight limit in four years!
Is anybody else suggesting this?
DTOM
DTOM| 8.24.12 @ 4:57PM
And that would be more watchable, not less...
They'd have to use better technique, better strategy, and better player fundamentals.
I'm likin' it.
scotchieguy| 8.25.12 @ 6:37AM
Bob Grant, you make excellent points.
There is something really insidious about the NFL making so much money and yet just laughing at the old farts like Butkus who MADE the sport what it is struggling in life after football. Those giants played for peanuts (they had to WORK during the off season at real jobs), and are the really guinnea pigs.
We never learn.
I am the biggest NFL fan out there.
But I literally could not watch the game without my DVR. How can intelligent people really stomach all these ads? Not to mention the numerous "delays" due to another player flattened and down for the count while a dozen medics come onto the field...
The worst invitation I get every year is an invite to a Super Bowl party. You are kidding me! You neanderthals still sit through these mindless, obnoxious commercials??
How 20th Century of you!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have this update from Suzy!
"Right, Jim...we have a report that Tom Brady has suffered another concussion and will be out for the rest of the game. His replacement is Bill Smith, an untested rookie from North Southwest Nebraska State University, Eastern Campus. We will keep you posted on further developments. Back to you, Jim."
scotchieguy| 8.25.12 @ 6:42AM
One other thing, Bob. Wait until they incorporate the asinine overtime nonsense college football uses. I don't know who the fools are who waste 5 hours watching no-names playing a billion college football games each Saturday. They ALL go to some stupid Bowlgame anyway, and there is no real champion, so what is the point? Another shot at the Doritos/Car-X/Walmart/Nascar Bowlgame to be played on March 14th sponsored by none other than Alan Jackson!!
Seek| 8.24.12 @ 5:04PM
George Will actually is a great admirer of Bear Bryant. You can look it up.
sbark| 8.24.12 @ 5:07PM
Well, we at least know now how Bob Beckle got his brain damage----football.
Could it be, just maybe---that the left wants yet another avenue out of the ghetto closed off?
They will live with the NBA and its thug and rap culture that its become, but the NFL....nope
Kingofthenet| 8.24.12 @ 5:15PM
I LOVE Football, and Boxing even more, but as Dirty Harry said, ' A man has got to know his limits', if you are starting to get your 'Bell Rung' too many times, time to hang it up BEFORE you become a blithering idiot, or you can just run on a 'bagger platform for Congress.
PCPSmokerII| 8.24.12 @ 8:46PM
"to know his LIMITATIONS." There is no excuse for this type of error. You are on the internet dude. Open another tab in your browser and look it up.
Bob Grant| 8.24.12 @ 6:02PM
Blithering idiot? ...Knowing one's Limits? ...
You prove that point with each posting.
PCPSmokerII| 8.24.12 @ 8:44PM
Good piece. I bet those old NFL players, whom likely blew right through their small piles of cash back in the day, are salivating at the prospective cash they think its coming to them. Can't wait for the Obamaites to accelerate this little redistributionist scheme.
To hell with football. I'm an NL Central fan; Reds, Pirates, and Cards battling it out. Baseball is King, forever.
scotchieguy| 8.25.12 @ 6:45AM
How 'convenient' of you to neglect to mention the Cubs!
Kingofthenet| 8.26.12 @ 12:27AM
Losers ALL, move to a BLUE state if you wanna win.
Stick| 8.27.12 @ 12:31PM
Watch out when your Reds meet the Nationals.
Parker| 8.24.12 @ 9:00PM
George Will is a Republocrat Fascist. Of course he wants the government to intervene in the NFL.
Good grief...
Dean V| 8.24.12 @ 11:19PM
When Douglas MacArthur was Superintendent at West Point in the early 1920s, he had the following words carved over the entrance of the fieldhouse:
Upon the fields of friendly strife
Are sown the seeds
That, on other fields, on other days,
Will bear the fruits of victory
Bob S| 8.25.12 @ 1:25AM
It's like Rush said, it's the chickification of America.
scotchieguy| 8.25.12 @ 6:52AM
I disagree. I don't always agree with Rush. It is not the chickification of America, rather, it is brain-dead naricissists who think about one thing and one thing only--go 80 MPH like a missle and knock that poor defenseless WR( who went for a slant in the middle) to the next county. BLAM!! The payback? SPORTSCENTER higlight for a no good, non-tackling thug from the ghetto playing on a last place team.
Even Rush said football is nothing more than organized gang warfare..or something close to that.
What a game! What a country!
Alej| 8.25.12 @ 10:08AM
"England's battles were won on the playing fields of Eton."
_ Wellington
Kingofthenet| 8.25.12 @ 4:44PM
http://www.sadlyno.com/wordpre.....iamson.jpg
Edward Cropper | 8.25.12 @ 7:58PM
Good article, but football violence puts it in a more critical category than almost any other "sport".
jlrlee| 8.26.12 @ 2:43PM
The Supreme Court has given the federal government total control of our health care. Obamacare gives total control to the Secretary of HHS. Football in public schools can and will eventually be stopped legally by bureaucrats in the name of reducing healthcare costs. No high school football, of course, will cause the end of college and professional football. Mark it down. It will happen.
Rhoetus| 8.27.12 @ 12:39AM
Leftist progressives destroyed intellectual freedom in academia which as a metaphor replaces book-burning with suffocation, sports entices the ignorant masses to support this destruction of the future of Western Civilization.
Rhoetus| 8.27.12 @ 12:32AM
Who died to make George Will? 1. A founding father, 2. the Pope, 3. The last word in anything.
Stick| 8.27.12 @ 12:30PM
Let me clear up one consistent fallacy. Football is America's sport while Baseball is America's past time. Two different things. I like Will, but he wears a bow tie. Surprised he is not into male field hockey. Football is a spectator's sport. Baseball is a sport suitable for radio. In baseball the plays always remain the same but the players change. In football the plays are continually changing.
Mike Daly | 8.27.12 @ 3:16PM
Football's masculine nature makes it better than just about anything else, and that masculinity is what has been attacked - thanks largely to the cowardice and utter ignorance of the game of Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL. The fact Junior Seau had NO brain damage - it needs to be emphasized again - NO BRAIN DAMAGE - undercuts the premise of the case against football.
Mike Daly | 1.10.13 @ 1:23PM
The media didn't report this at the time, and now it's claiming Seau suffered from CTE even when the medical examiner said he had no brain damage.