Thread: What Would the End of Football Look Like?

Wow, I've thought about this very issue before, but this is the first time I've ever seen it written about. I'll be honest with you guys, I played all four years of high school and would have loved to play college ball, and almost did at the D-III level (yea, about like played at a large High School, I know). However, I have a 15 year old son whom I allowed to play JFL up through the 7th grade, but I will no longer allow him to play. He's already had two classmates who suffered concussions and their grades dipped dramatically. We are in a small town, and my wife and I are not the only ones. Before long, our small school will be finding it difficult to field a team and they are already using Sophomores and some Freshman on the varsity squad. This trend WILL grow, and unless someone comes up with some specialized helmet that virtually eliminates (or dramatically decreases) concussions, I can easily see this ending in the next decade.

Well at my house it would look like this.


I acknowledge that there is a real danger of what may happen if these lawsuits were to prevail but I wonder about the seriousness of their motive. Most of these ex-players depend upon the league to fund pension and medical benefits. Wouldn't taking them down be like killing the patient to stop the illness? Are they looking for attention and change in present day equipment and some kind of tort settlement because of the nature of the injuries. An indemnity of some kind.

To me the solution is to design safer helmets that can better absorb the shock. Maybe the damn things would cost $1000 each but spending $100k or even $200k a year to keep players free from head injuries would seem like a small price to pay compared to the potential value of the present and future lawsuits.

I think part of the problem is that the league doesn't know how to move on this one. If they do something about the problem currently is that gonna be taken as an admission that they've known about these dangers all along and swept it under the rug. Sooner or later they're gonna need to move away from playing CYA and make every attempt to solve the problem. JMO.

Ok, they cost 1000 per helmet, how do H.S's and Small College's pay for those? Think parents, even middle class can afford to spend 1K every few years on a helmet to let their kids play FB?

This is more about the non professionals that create a free feeder system then the NFL themselves.

NFFL: National Flag Football League

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Ok, they cost 1000 per helmet, how do H.S's and Small College's pay for those? Think parents, even middle class can afford to spend 1K every few years on a helmet to let their kids play FB?

This is more about the non professionals that create a free feeder system then the NFL themselves.

I was thinking primarily of the pros and major colleges. Not that kids aren't important, I've have a few of my own, but the ones developed for that level of play needn't be so expensive.

I'm not an engineer but it would seem to me that the velocity at impact is not as great and the players are significantly smaller and lighter so the type of protection needed wouldn't be quite as sophisticated or expensive to manufacture since they'd be produced in far greater quantities than the pro or major college or even small college versions.

The degree of protection from a go kart helmet isn't as great as that of one for a NASCAR driver or Indy Racer.

The pros will probably use several more helmets for each player than small college teams or even major college teams and they can well afford that. If some company is gonna go to the trouble to produce them they're likely to manufacture several different models at different price points that way there will be more economical models where the degree of protection needed is not as great.

Yikes! That's some scary shit, guys. But then, if football is susceptible to this sort of backlash, what about other sports? People get concussed in other sports, too.

How will it look? Like the boiling frog story. Compare it's physicality every year to say rugby and notice when the flags come out.