this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
155 points (98.7% liked)

News

25006 readers
3032 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Ryan Craddock had seen his share of tragedy during two decades as a coal miner and firefighter.

Then came the toughest heartbreak of all: his own.

Craddock and his family are mourning the loss of his 13-year-old son, Cohen, who died from brain trauma last month after making a tackle during football practice at his middle school.

Cohen’s death, and the death of a 16-year-old Alabama high school player from a brain injury on the same day, have sparked renewed debate about whether the safety risks of youths playing football outweigh the benefits that the sport brings to a community.

all 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 64 points 5 months ago (3 children)

SAFETY? I'm a Pro Life Republican trying to Protect The Children and I don't need you LIBERAL PUSSIES Changing my kid's Football! If he dies he dies but at least he won't die a PUSSY!

[–] austinfloyd@ttrpg.network 25 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure if this is sarcastic, since I have neighbors just like this. (I hope it is sarcastic)

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

In Texas, it's often not sarcasm

[–] themadcodger@kbin.earth 13 points 5 months ago

Protect the kids from books and tampons in the bathroom. Not traumatic brain injury or being shot dead in the classroom. That's the pro-life way.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 46 points 5 months ago

Between every yard mattering and giving the kids 30-60 seconds to rest between each 5-20 sec play, there's just not much that can be done.

It's inheiritantly unsafe for multiple reasons.

  1. It's worse to stop, recover, and continue after a hit to the head just to take more.

  2. Ever play is 100% full speed.

  3. Every hit is maximum effort.

  4. Illusion of safety from pads.

You couldn't design a sport to maximize head trauma and do much better than football.

Ironically rugby alleviates all those issues, and as a result is much safer despite obviously still have some dangers.

Like, I saw a guy get his tooth broken off and stuck in another teammates head. I touched it, it was fucking stuck. But we were in the middle of a tournament and were already going to be down two people. So the guy who lost the tooth drove the guy with his tooth in his head to the ER. We couldn't spare a healthy person to drive them.

No sport is going to be 100% safe. But to make football safe, it's not going to resemble modern football in any meaningful way.

[–] casmael@lemm.ee 31 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Oh right american football. Fucking hell. :(

[–] ScruffyDucky@lemmy.world 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] casmael@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

‘Youth football debate’ so like sprained ankles, knee problems I suppose, and the occasional fractured metatarsal? I knew a bloke whose son got some hip issues from whacking the ball too hard hey ho.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 16 points 5 months ago (3 children)

“I don’t think we need to do away with football,” Craddock said. “A lot of people enjoy football, including myself. I just think we need to maybe put more safety measures out there to protect our kids.”

The problem with implementing more safety measures - especially more padding or tougher gear - is that leagues, coaches and even some players start believing they can hit harder because they're safer now ... and that's not the reality of it.

Take hockey for example. I grew up watching hockey when goalie masks were just that, a mask; there were zero plexi plates surrounding the rink and not one player wore a helmet. Yes there were fights and hard hits, but the players understood that being injured would do nothing for the player and game. So they took it easy on each other (mostly).

Same goes with mountainous highways, where back in the 60's/70's there were 2 lanes with a rock face on one side and a 100'-200' drop on the other. People took care while they were driving because they recognised the danger. Now there's concrete barriers on the slope side, 4 lanes with concret barriers between direction of travel, and people (especially young ones) speeding like there's no tomorrow.

Better gear and more rules doesn't always stop injuries. A change in mindset (like flag football instead of tackle) is a better way to deal with things.

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 21 points 5 months ago (1 children)

source

Cars are not a good example of what you are talking about. Deaths are much much lower than they used to be.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 months ago

I talked about speeding, not death rates for MV.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I worked with a few sports medicine doctors, one who was a NFL team doctor and the other was a neurologist with the NFL's head trauma research.

I asked them about the gear and it was basically what you said. I wondered aloud if going back to leather helmets and minimal plastic gear would help and they both agreed it would greatly reduce the damage but the power of money and culture make it impossible to make the sport safe in a realistic way

[–] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's a bankrupt culture that sends its youth into danger for entertainment and profit. It's sick.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 5 months ago

Funny enough, it was a sport conceived on making boys ready for war ...

[–] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 10 points 5 months ago

"We never thought it could happen to us."