The past few weeks have put rivalries front and center. The fight of good versus evil. Which is good and which is evil all depends on the side you back.
Auburn-Alabama, Bengals-Steelers, and City-United in the Manchester Derby are more of the prominent ones that have taken place recently.
Only one of these rivalries truly matters for all the intricate details around the world. I mean, can you honestly imagine a world in which Manchester City ruled unabashed?
And that's exactly as it appears right now after City's 2-1 win at Old Trafford yesterday. Our livelihood is in danger to Pep Guardiola and his merry men in blue, which now lead the EPL table by an unfathomable 11 points.
Surely, many of you seem to not care much about The Beautiful Game, let alone the English Premier League. And for you, I am sorry. Your American football teams are either struggling with an injured quarterback or players are nearing death each week - like the Steelers-Bengals game from last Monday.
While yes, I love watching the NFL and college football, I've also started to numb on the sport.
Chronic Trauma Encephalopathy is a real problem, and when more than 100 brains of former professional players were analyzed, all but one showed CTE. If you don't know what CTE is, you really should.
CTE is caused by brain injuries (concussions). And the more concussions you have, even small, routine dings and "bell ringers," can lead to something much worse than just headaches or balance issues.
I love the sport, but the display put on in Cincinnati last week turned off many people. My fantasy football league that I've been a part of for about 10 years just had three guys give it up based on one game alone. It's not so much a guilty pleasure to watch the sport anymore, it's basically only guilt. It seems we are a matter of hits away from either a death or multiple paralysis cases.
The NFL lost a concussions lawsuit a short while back that cost nearly $1 billion.
What would happen if the NCAA, with more than 10 times the amount of former players, had the same class-action suit put against them? What changes would the NCAA or individual colleges make? I'm not talking about making it flag football, but would colleges have to finally pay players?
Even worse, what if a high school league gets sued? I guarantee that all it will take to end football as we know it would be for one state organization to have a successful class-action suit against them. These kids are minors. Unpaid minors. And while football is safer today than just 10 years ago, let alone 30 or 50 years ago, our knowledge of concussions and their after-effects is growing faster than the safety of the game.
One high school organization, be it the WIAA, the IHSA, California, New York or Pennsylvania - if one of those lost a lawsuit, football would be shuttered at the high school level. All other states would follow through in short order. Then the NCAA would have lost its feeder program. And if the NCAA somehow had to close down its football affiliation, the NFL would have lost its free-of-charge feeder program. It would take just 10-25 years at the most to all but end the sport once the first domino falls.
As someone who has dealt with the after-effects of multiple concussions (closer to 10 known concussions than five), I understand the concern. My balance has been off for almost 10 years. I drop things at random. My fingers tremor. My memory stinks (unless I'm retelling you about a random day on the golf course within the past 20 years). I've seen multiple doctors about my problems.
Kids today have more of a benefit with coaches, trainers and officials watching for their health, noticing bad hits and symptoms as they happen. That's a good thing. But it doesn't stop kids like me, who only wanted to play. Who faked being healthy, who would lie on a baseline test just to avoid coming out of the game. I was the smallest guy on practically every team of every sport I played, and I felt like each individual moment was my one chance and that to be hurt would put me at the back of the depth chart for good.
This wasn't true, but I played that way anyway. And now I'm paying for it. And as a teen, I didn't care about the rest of my life, I cared about playing the game.
And while soccer has its headers and falls, it is nothing like the football Americans watch each Saturday and Sunday.
As Edmund Burke once said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
What can football do?
- Adam Krebs is a reporter for the Monroe Times and can be reached at akrebs@themonroetimes.net.
Auburn-Alabama, Bengals-Steelers, and City-United in the Manchester Derby are more of the prominent ones that have taken place recently.
Only one of these rivalries truly matters for all the intricate details around the world. I mean, can you honestly imagine a world in which Manchester City ruled unabashed?
And that's exactly as it appears right now after City's 2-1 win at Old Trafford yesterday. Our livelihood is in danger to Pep Guardiola and his merry men in blue, which now lead the EPL table by an unfathomable 11 points.
Surely, many of you seem to not care much about The Beautiful Game, let alone the English Premier League. And for you, I am sorry. Your American football teams are either struggling with an injured quarterback or players are nearing death each week - like the Steelers-Bengals game from last Monday.
While yes, I love watching the NFL and college football, I've also started to numb on the sport.
Chronic Trauma Encephalopathy is a real problem, and when more than 100 brains of former professional players were analyzed, all but one showed CTE. If you don't know what CTE is, you really should.
CTE is caused by brain injuries (concussions). And the more concussions you have, even small, routine dings and "bell ringers," can lead to something much worse than just headaches or balance issues.
I love the sport, but the display put on in Cincinnati last week turned off many people. My fantasy football league that I've been a part of for about 10 years just had three guys give it up based on one game alone. It's not so much a guilty pleasure to watch the sport anymore, it's basically only guilt. It seems we are a matter of hits away from either a death or multiple paralysis cases.
The NFL lost a concussions lawsuit a short while back that cost nearly $1 billion.
What would happen if the NCAA, with more than 10 times the amount of former players, had the same class-action suit put against them? What changes would the NCAA or individual colleges make? I'm not talking about making it flag football, but would colleges have to finally pay players?
Even worse, what if a high school league gets sued? I guarantee that all it will take to end football as we know it would be for one state organization to have a successful class-action suit against them. These kids are minors. Unpaid minors. And while football is safer today than just 10 years ago, let alone 30 or 50 years ago, our knowledge of concussions and their after-effects is growing faster than the safety of the game.
One high school organization, be it the WIAA, the IHSA, California, New York or Pennsylvania - if one of those lost a lawsuit, football would be shuttered at the high school level. All other states would follow through in short order. Then the NCAA would have lost its feeder program. And if the NCAA somehow had to close down its football affiliation, the NFL would have lost its free-of-charge feeder program. It would take just 10-25 years at the most to all but end the sport once the first domino falls.
As someone who has dealt with the after-effects of multiple concussions (closer to 10 known concussions than five), I understand the concern. My balance has been off for almost 10 years. I drop things at random. My fingers tremor. My memory stinks (unless I'm retelling you about a random day on the golf course within the past 20 years). I've seen multiple doctors about my problems.
Kids today have more of a benefit with coaches, trainers and officials watching for their health, noticing bad hits and symptoms as they happen. That's a good thing. But it doesn't stop kids like me, who only wanted to play. Who faked being healthy, who would lie on a baseline test just to avoid coming out of the game. I was the smallest guy on practically every team of every sport I played, and I felt like each individual moment was my one chance and that to be hurt would put me at the back of the depth chart for good.
This wasn't true, but I played that way anyway. And now I'm paying for it. And as a teen, I didn't care about the rest of my life, I cared about playing the game.
And while soccer has its headers and falls, it is nothing like the football Americans watch each Saturday and Sunday.
As Edmund Burke once said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
What can football do?
- Adam Krebs is a reporter for the Monroe Times and can be reached at akrebs@themonroetimes.net.
