According to a news article Lem Barney the 67 year old hall of fame player from the Detroit Lions says He wouldn’t play football if he had to do all over again.
He’s entitled to take a look back and say that. He’s trying to discourage his sons which isn’t working.
He feels the game is now to fast and too many violent collisions. The risk outweighs the positives for playing football professionally.
Owners and the league (Goodell a puppet of the owners) who have made concussions the focus of the game. But is it just the nature of the collisions that has everyone in fear. For Goodell and his owners it’s all about lawsuit and trying to protect players that are investments and avoid being sued.
I’ve played football for a good portion of my life. I had some seeing star moments as well as the going to the wrong huddle. But I have a totally different view of the game.
Is it the equipment? Once you put on the helmet, shoulder pads you start to learn how to use whatever you wear as a tool to aid you in gaining an advantage against your opponent. When I played without the helmet there is no face to face contact without pads. Every once in a while you might see a few guys bump heads but purely on accident. No one I’ve played with tackled using there face without a helmet. But with the helmet I saw tons of guys use the face mask and lead with it. The shoulder pads as a contact point with someone as you launch yourself like a missile to hit them using your pads. But sometimes guys miss and come up with air and sometimes you could find yourself lying motionless on the field.
Then just think about when guys get hit. The bodies have to land. In the NFL the surface has been nothing good for knees and ankles but how come no one said it might be the surface that players land on that can cause the concussion not the initial hit.
I don’t want to see a 7 on 7 type professional football game. I don’t want to watch a flag or tag type game. But no one wants to see players hit each other to the point of later no being able to enjoy life.
So with all the technology someone has to come up with a solution. Fast in football for 40 yards has always been 4.2. It’s just that now so many people can run that. It’s just different now that the big guys are a lot faster.
So what happen to technology lightweight padding from the top of the head comfortable enough for the wearer but functional enough to absorb shock.
Then too maybe you take the guys out of the pads and helmets and let them play with a whole lot less. Guys aren’t so inclined to lower there head and get there face kicked by someone’s knees. It’s a different type game with everyone not wearing pads.
Someone has got to look at all that hard astroturf and hard fields and with all the variables come up with a solution so that the players can enjoy there life after football. The fans can enjoy the game we played as kids. And have some skillful smart people come up with solutions to the equipment and the field and just not tell players now you have to touch each other instead of tackling or you can tackle but just tackle nicely!