by GRIDIRON GURU » Thu Aug 25, 2011 3:36 pm
I did not get to see the whole thing on TV last night but I think everyone is going waay over the top in protecting the players but it sure is getting a lot of attention. I am all for player saftey and I have two multisport teenagers playing sports now but at times things get taken too far.
Technique, equipment and coaching have come a long way in 25 years I don't think concussions have increased in the last 10 years they are just doing a better job of recording and recognizing concussions, their symptoms and possible consequences. I would venture to guess that there are a lot less concussions today than 10 or more years ago. All the coaching techniques are all about taking the head out of the play now from youth through the pros.
When I played high school and College ball we thougt it was funny when somebody got their bell rung. We were taught to lead with our head, guys did not who they were or where they were at on game day and still practiced and played the next week, 25 plus years later those guys are not sitting around catching flys and crapping their pants.
I see kids at the skate park every day without helmets, a kid who cracks his head on the concrete and has a headache and dizzy spells never gets his skate board taken away.
I talked with Phil Hanson this summer and he said he is taking part in an NFL study of former players and possible symptoms later in life from years of contact in the NFL. I wonder if the study will find anything conclusive.
"One thing you have to remember Bobby, soccer was invented in europe by women, so they would have something to do while the men stayed home and did the dishes"
Hank Hill