The only way to make that happen, Dr. Cantu says, "is to make the helmet much bigger and the padding much bigger."

Well, that would be outright hilarious.
A bunch of bobbleheads running around the field.. picture ole big neck Merton Hanks with a 35lb beach ball of a helmet..he could stand between the hash marks, lean over and have his head out of bounds.

I say no helmets, no pads... and no more gridirons -- go for the octagon!

Dr.Knockboots: The only way to make that happen, Dr. Cantu says, "is to make the helmet much bigger and the padding much bigger."


approves

Yeah, let's talk to the early 20th century and see how that works out.

Oh, lots of deaths, especially considering how much faster and stronger everyone is now? Well, so long as they're not getting head injuries, some deaths are ok.

as a mets fan even i must chuckle at David 'Lord Helmet' Wright.

Dr.Knockboots: The only way to make that happen, Dr. Cantu says, "is to make the helmet much bigger and the padding much bigger."

Well, that would be outright hilarious.
A bunch of bobbleheads running around the field.. picture ole big neck Merton Hanks with a 35lb beach ball of a helmet..he could stand between the hash marks, lean over and have his head out of bounds.



What said bobbleheads may look like.

Seriously though, America's appetite for vicious hitting and people being carted off on stretchers combined with the physical prowess even the most minimal NFL player must possess along with the oogles of advertising dollars funneled into the sport has set in motion a chain of events that can't be undone. Not until someone is actually laying dead on the field will there be a serious scrutiny of what the sport has become/is becoming.

/go Iggles :P

damn oversized images....ruining my punchlines.....



There you go, Knockboots

Wait, that wasn't an Onion article?

IAmRight 2009-11-11 06:41:35 PM Yeah, let's talk to the early 20th century and see how that works out. Oh, lots of deaths, especially considering how much faster and stronger everyone is now? Well, so long as they're not getting head injuries, some deaths are ok.
==========================================

Did you read the article AT ALL?

The idea is that helmets are designed to protect us but leading with the helmet will cause almost as much damage as if you didn't have helmets at all. Which makes sense.

If you take away helmets, the defender won't lead with his head to cause an injury because if he does, HE'LL be hurt like crazy rather than you. He'll never have head-to-head hits anymore.

On the other hand, we might have to worry about heads being accidentally sat on or stepped on during a fumble, so we probably want some kind of protection. Maybe the old leather ones? :)

PunchDrunkPanda: damn oversized images....ruining my punchlines.....



There you go, Knockboots

I think you may be the first person on Fark to link to a picture of Goldeneye with the massive heads cheat turned on.

Bravo.

I've been thinking this all season. When I played, we were coached to put your facemask into the person you're hitting, but these days, even that's illegal. If the NFL doesn't want guys to use their helmets to make hits, get rid of them. All of a sudden, leading with the shoulder pads rather than their heads would seem like a much better idea.

Pads are for women.

Football players wear pads

Football players are women

I think they could improve on the ProCap idea and develop a helmet with a soft layer outside the shell. No more cool reflections, but less opportunity to weaponize the equipment.

A. They're probably right.

B. It'll never happen.

C. Life is dangerous - pick your poison.

The fact is if you gave those meatheads a waiver to sign that said, "In exchange for the opportunity to make millions you'll probably have to trade 15 years of your life and have a greatly elevated chance of early dementia and arthritis" I'd wager 95% would say, 'give me the pen'.

asmodeus224: Pads are for women.

Football players wear pads

Football players are women

I imagine you did very poorly on that segment of the SAT.

Treygreen13: asmodeus224: Pads are for women.

Football players wear pads

Football players are women

I imagine you did very poorly on that segment of the SAT.

I imagine he was my instructor for that segment of the SAT :-/

jimpoz: The only way to make that happen, Dr. Cantu says, "is to make the helmet much bigger and the padding much bigger."


Also approves.

Huh. I posted this in a thread the other day.

I think it will do what it is designed to do, i.e. cutting down on guys leading with their helmets, but it will also obviously lower the overall protection they have.

So maybe a guy isn't running headfirst, but say he's trying to tackle a guy, and gets a knee in the head. That could be just as bad as what's happening now.

No.

I want to see big hits. I want to see bodies flying and people lying on the ground wondering what stadium they're in. Why else do we pay them millions of dollars?

jake3988: IAmRight 2009-11-11 06:41:35 PM Yeah, let's talk to the early 20th century and see how that works out. Oh, lots of deaths, especially considering how much faster and stronger everyone is now? Well, so long as they're not getting head injuries, some deaths are ok.
==========================================

Did you read the article AT ALL?

The idea is that helmets are designed to protect us but leading with the helmet will cause almost as much damage as if you didn't have helmets at all. Which makes sense.

If you take away helmets, the defender won't lead with his head to cause an injury because if he does, HE'LL be hurt like crazy rather than you. He'll never have head-to-head hits anymore.

On the other hand, we might have to worry about heads being accidentally sat on or stepped on during a fumble, so we probably want some kind of protection. Maybe the old leather ones? :)

Accidentally stomp on someone's head? Yeah, accidentally... that's it.

bmfderek: When I played, we were coached to put your facemask into the person you're hitting

I grew up playing football in the 70's and 80's. If I had a dollar for every time some coach said, 'put your hat on somebody!' I'd be a wealthy man. We weren't just taught to hit with our heads, we were absolutely expected to do it as often as possible.

Orrrrr.... increase penalties on anyone going anywhere NEAR the head, and relax them for hits in safer places.

I was discussing this topic the other day re: Hockey with my brother: the Rangers' Captain Chris Drury was just given a grade 2 concussion, and the player who did it got a 3 game suspension. Ranger Sean Avery got a nearly 45 game suspension for a stupid comment to the media.

Jonny

i'm just glad mr.haynesworth is earning all that money in D.C.

saintstryfe: Orrrrr.... increase penalties on anyone going anywhere NEAR the head, and relax them for hits in safer places.

I was discussing this topic the other day re: Hockey with my brother: the Rangers' Captain Chris Drury was just given a grade 2 concussion, and the player who did it got a 3 game suspension. Ranger Sean Avery got a nearly 45 game suspension for a stupid comment to the media.

Well, to be fair nobody actually watches the hockey games, so nobody saw the concussion.

/kidding

Taking away helmets may reduce injuries among people who are trained in not leading with the head and in playing helmetless football. But what will happen if you take helmets away from pro players who all their lives have played with pads and gotten used to the corresponding level of violent hits?

kevinatilusa: Taking away helmets may reduce injuries among people who are trained in not leading with the head and in playing helmetless football. But what will happen if you take helmets away from pro players who all their lives have played with pads and gotten used to the corresponding level of violent hits?

Another 5 or 6 rounds for the draft every year?

Id say the problem, or one of the main problems, is that so much marketing in the nfl is surrounding the helmet. Watch a pregame show and what do you see? Two team helmets colliding. The helmet has become synonymous with football, and it would be a major marketing blow to be rid of it now.

The first time someone fumbles the ball and there's a mad dash for the recovery is when you'll want a helmet. People are already gouging, stomping, punching, scratching, just to get the ball from you. Take away the helmet and you'll see serious injuries.

Treygreen13: kevinatilusa: Taking away helmets may reduce injuries among people who are trained in not leading with the head and in playing helmetless football. But what will happen if you take helmets away from pro players who all their lives have played with pads and gotten used to the corresponding level of violent hits?

Another 5 or 6 rounds for the draft every year?

What you're really talking about is wealth distribution. Just spreaaading it around.
You dirty damned socialist.

KhanFusion: Treygreen13: kevinatilusa: Taking away helmets may reduce injuries among people who are trained in not leading with the head and in playing helmetless football. But what will happen if you take helmets away from pro players who all their lives have played with pads and gotten used to the corresponding level of violent hits?

Another 5 or 6 rounds for the draft every year?

What you're really talking about is wealth distribution. Just spreaaading it around.
You dirty damned socialist.

I... don't know what to say. I guess I'm a socialist.

One word: Mouthguards. They're like the airbag to the helmet's seat belt.

jake3988: Did you read the article AT ALL?

The idea is that helmets are designed to protect us but leading with the helmet will cause almost as much damage as if you didn't have helmets at all. Which makes sense.

If you take away helmets, the defender won't lead with his head to cause an injury because if he does, HE'LL be hurt like crazy rather than you. He'll never have head-to-head hits anymore.

On the other hand, we might have to worry about heads being accidentally sat on or stepped on during a fumble, so we probably want some kind of protection. Maybe the old leather ones? :)

There was show called sports science that tested hardest hits Rugby vs. football. In short, they found out that rugby players hit with a fraction of the force (I want to say like a 1/4 the force). They found that the football player's pads basically turned him into an indestructible human missile...which lead the player to hit harder because he felt a fraction of the pain during impact.

/Yes it will work, the question is whether Americans want to watch professional flag football?

We already tried football with no helmets and people died. Since then we've invented the forward pass and put on about a hundred pounds of muscle. This will end badly.

make em play in sumo suits. You'll put mittens on the OL and you can negate a lot of pesky holding calls.

Just make the helmets entirely out of Tempurpedic^TM. It doesn't transfer motion. It says so on the commercial.

Honestly? There really isn't a shortage of muscleheaded young men. Who really cares if they get hurt? I'd happily trade a decent chance of being severely hurt to earn a lifetimes wages in a couple of years. shiat, I've done it for minimum wage plenty of times in my life...

mrtoadswildride: jake3988: Did you read the article AT ALL?

The idea is that helmets are designed to protect us but leading with the helmet will cause almost as much damage as if you didn't have helmets at all. Which makes sense.

If you take away helmets, the defender won't lead with his head to cause an injury because if he does, HE'LL be hurt like crazy rather than you. He'll never have head-to-head hits anymore.

On the other hand, we might have to worry about heads being accidentally sat on or stepped on during a fumble, so we probably want some kind of protection. Maybe the old leather ones? :)

There was show called sports science that tested hardest hits Rugby vs. football. In short, they found out that rugby players hit with a fraction of the force (I want to say like a 1/4 the force). They found that the football player's pads basically turned him into an indestructible human missile...which lead the player to hit harder because he felt a fraction of the pain during impact.

/Yes it will work, the question is whether Americans want to watch professional flag football?

As a rugby league fan I believe that. We don't have as massive hits as NFl, but we have shoulder charges and better open field tackles because nobody wants a knee to the head.

drewogatory: Honestly? There really isn't a shortage of muscleheaded young men. Who really cares if they get hurt? I'd happily trade a decent chance of being severely hurt to earn a lifetimes wages in a couple of years. shiat, I've done it for minimum wage plenty of times in my life...

Bah! The first thing you will do is buy Mama a new house, buy yourself one, along with expensive cars, get yourself plenty of bling, and blow thousands of dollars in one night to go out partying. Then when you get injured because you were not wearing a helmet you and Mama are back where you started from.

I don't follow the NFL nearly as closely as I follow college football, so I am not sure as to the rules the NFL has for helmet to helmet contact. However, I think the NCAA rules are a little strict. Even accidental and incidental contact results in a massive penalty.

they signed their contracts, they knew what they were getting into.

i say, let 'em concuss.

The best plan is not to get rid of helmets, but to replace them with helmets that protect against cuts but not turn the head itself in to a potential weapon. People forget that the modern helmet is not at all designed to protect the brain, but is designed to protect the skull.

Then what would Hines Ward spear block with?

/I keed, I keed
//No, not really

Maybe some NY Ranger fans remember Ron Duguay. He started his career without a helmet. He was talked into it and wore a helmet for a few games. In one of them, he suffered a concussion when he was checked into a stantion. He took the helmet off and never suffered another head injury.

/true story

Hey you know what else would make football a good game?

Get rid of all the pads, the system of downs, the grid iron, the end zone, change the goal posts so that they're on the ground but keep the net, make the ball round, ban the use of hands, and fall down whenever the opposing team's star player is near you!

This troll has been brought to you by soccer.

Treygreen13: PunchDrunkPanda: damn oversized images....ruining my punchlines.....



There you go, Knockboots

I think you may be the first person on Fark to link to a picture of Goldeneye with the massive heads cheat turned on.

Bravo.

+1 took me a second to recognize that

I remember watching on ESPN a couple weeks ago, and I want to say they had Malcolm Gladwell on, and if I remember correctly, he doesn't think that in 5 or 10 years, American football will be played the same way it is today. He even questioned whether the sport can survive the evidence that repeatedly bashing your head into solid, nearly immobile objects farks you up pretty good later in life. No source, that's just what I recall while half-paying attention.

I can't but help to wonder if these constant cranial impacts that build up and damage the player over the long term do more or less damage than the mind-numbing tasks and creativity-squelching corporate system most of us are forced to endure for decades in our "work lives".

As to the article, if helmets are giving players a false sense of invulnerability, then couldn't you discourage such hits by installing some sort of electric shock system that triggers if a player's helmet suffers too great of an impact? Nothing that would hurt them so much -- just give them a reason to consider another way to tackle. If the shock is too great, make their helmet emit an unpleasant aroma inside the helmet. Basically, anything unpleasant that makes them think twice about which body part they're leading the tackle with.

Head-butters. Meh.

No helmets in football? My wife works on a hospital rehab unit with brain-injured patients, so I'm all for it. Those retards are helping pay my mortgage.