They started playing football as kids, began to suffer mentally and died before 30. Researchers found they had C.T.E., the brain disease linked to hits to the head. If their families could go back, would they still let them play?
    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      213·
      8 months ago

      Rugby is a good alternative that’s taking off lately.

      It sounds and looks a lot more dangerous than football. But when you don’t wrap people in a bunch of pads so they feel indestructible, they stop acting like they are.

      Plus there’s not the “every inch matters” mentality. It’s better to go down in a controlled manner to retain ball position, and people do t get a 30 second break for every 10 seconds of play. So people aren’t repeatedly going into contact at full speed, getting their bell ru g, and recovering just enough to do it again a minute later.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
      2·
      8 months ago

      Yet here in the south they spend millions on high-school football while all other education gets nothing.

  • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
    26·
    8 months ago

    I played high school football and received a few concussions. One year I received 4 and only missed 4 plays. Now I’m almost 40 and my memory is getting worse. I know I have CTE and if I had boys that wanted to play, I would drive them straight to soccer tryouts.

  • Damaskox@kbin.social
    12·
    8 months ago

    “Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated trauma to the head.”, according to Wikipedia