According to this study collegiate rugby has far higher injury rates than collegiate American football. The concussion rate is over twice as high, which is really saying something.
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I was somewhat hyperbolically taught, in school and religious education, that football and the other team sports were taught in schools at least partially in order to prepare the boys to become soldiers, and that it grew from there. Now, I’m not finding anything official or cite-worthy online about this, but I do see that the first football games were played between colleges in the late 19th century mostly to allow for less-violent competition than some of the more drunken brawls that plagued such interactions, and the sports team meme seems to have moved down to the secondary and middle schools with more-or-less tacit acknowledgement that it was at least partially for military preparedness. Every major war saw more and more schools, colleges, and universities starting up teams, with the fastest acceleration of growth happening during the Cold War era. Of course there were a number of other factors at play, but I wonder how many parents today encourage their kids to play team sports so they’ll be better soldiers, or would even allow it if they found out that the military is trying to actively recruit such kids. And that I do have a cite for.
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Yeah, rugby is really the worst of both worlds: all the brain injuries with none of the protection that might prevent things like busted noses or lost teeth.
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and worse
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In the modern US military, you’d think they would recruit for E-sports over physical sports.
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Honestly, any Steelers fan, or football fan in general, who saw the dramatic personality change and self-immolation of Antonio Brown’s career after he was very nearly beheaded in a game is just not paying attention. I played football, I really do love the sport, but what it does to young men’s brains is just unacceptable and needs to end. Yesterday. Every study I have seen cites very near 100% incidence of CTE in NFL players, not far off that in college players, and the few HS players whose brains have been studied also had it. It’s not OK, and it must stop. I did not let any of my kids play it, despite loving the game. I council parents to find something else to get their kids to play. It’s not OK to keep doing this to our children.
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That’s ridiculous. If that were true we would do things like ritualistically sing national anthems, have military displays, and exhibit war machinery at sporting events.
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… when the ship’s reactor is overheating it’s the nerds who are going to save everybody’s lives
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I never thought of myself as a CTE candidate, but reading this topic reminds me that between the domestic violence when I was a kid and the “martial arts” training when I was a kid …
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“Shouldn’t we tell the rest of the crew to evacuate before this thing melts down!?”
“Naw, they’re all jocks.”
/s
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Oh, America is so very far from being alone in that regard…
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Yeah. Like other French Phil Ossifers of his time, he was indeed prone to provocative overstatement.
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Well that’s good news. But it’s taken so long. I recall around 1980 there were a group of Dutch doctors calling for their national football (soccer) body to ban heading. That was after a study of professional soccer players found a measurable decline in cognitive function over time. Apparently it wasn’t found in goalies, who didn’t head because they could use their hands.
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Tbf, it took radical change in the structure of society, increased political instability, outside threats and a change in the state religion to one that condemned the sport. The US isn’t there quite yet.
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All are in play though…
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I think the religion that condemns the sport will be the biggest hurdle there, and the one that was most influential in banning gladiator games. It seems American evangelism (and American catholicism as well) trends towards greater bloodthirst and cruelty.
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And like a lot of the rest of the little islands we inhabit on the edge of Europe, there are plenty of people practicing solo ‘hurling’ in the wee hours of the weekend.
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I know… What I say is… I can understand what is happening on a Cricket field (Wickets, 4s, 6s), but not on an american football field
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