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JoePa didn't wear a facemask, and doesn't think today's player should either
JoePa didn't wear a facemask. He doesn't think today's players should, either.
By Matt Hinton
The NFL is upping the ante yet again on helmet-to-helmet hits and other vicious collisions, promising even more aggressive fines and suspensions in the wake of a particularly violent weekend. The NCAA has been concerned with the same problem lately, led by the Big Ten.
And if it's really serious about it, Joe Paterno has an idea from his own playing days at Brown, right after the war (Second World, that is, not Civil). If you want players to stop leading with their heads, Paterno told reporters during Tuesday's Big Ten conference call, lose the facemasks already:
"I've been saying for years, we should get rid of the facemask. ... It's a weapon, guys are fearless."
[Photos: See what football legend Joe Paterno looks like today]
Predictably, the whippersnappers in the ranks – namely 35-year-old Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, who opted for maximum coverage as an All-American linebacker in the mid-'90s – aren't so enthusiastic about the idea. But more than a few people who actually study head injuries aren't so dismissive: As the Wall Street Journal reported last year, the growing research on the long-term effects of repeated head shots, even when helmets are involved, have led some experts to conclude that the protection does more harm than good by making head-cracking too routine. Troy Aikman is down with that, and he knows from head injuries.
Of course, helmets were introduced largely to combat the "boy-killing, man-mutilating" violence that nearly got the game banned outright at the turn of the 20th Century. The facemask wasn't standard until the mid-'50s, well after the end of JoePa's career at Brown and into his tenure as a young assistant at Penn State. You can play football without a facemask.
Winston Churchill:
"Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak."
"If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain."
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Winston Churchill:
"Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak."
"If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain."
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My only argument would be the speed of the game is much faster and collisions much more severe.
I wear my Bear helmet everywhere I go, doctors orders. But I'm walking most of the time so speed isn't an issue.
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Mike Ditka, Joe Paterno think facemasks do more harm than good
Posted by Michael David Smith on October 21, 2010 11:55 AM ET
With everyone in the football world talking about helmet-to-helmet hits this week, a couple of old-school football guys are asking whether modern equipment designed to help players is actually promoting some of the most violent collisions.
Joe Paterno, the 83-year-old Penn State coach, is old enough to remember the days when some players didn't even wear helmets, and the helmets that did exist were more like leather hats, with no protection for the face. He wonders if football should return to those days.
"I've been saying for 15 years we ought to get rid of the facemask," Paterno said on his weekly conference call. "Then you go back to shoulder blocking, shoulder tackling, and you wouldn't have all those heroes out there."
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quotes Paterno as adding, "We used to have one single bar; now we have a weapon."
Mike Ditka played for the Bears while wearing a facemask that consisted of one single bar, and he'd be fine with eliminating the facemask altogether. And he points out that you can't have a helmet-to-helmet hit if no one is wearing a helmet.
"I don't think people would strike with the head as much," Dikta said. "You would learn to strike with the shoulder pads if you didn't have a helmet on your head."
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that players in Australian football, who don't wear helmets or much of any padding at all, suffer more injuries overall than NFL players, but fewer concussions. In Australia they tend to lead with their shoulders, not their heads.
It seems extraordinarily unlikely that we'll ever see an NFL game without helmets and facemasks. But last year John Madden said he and Roger Goodell had discussed the idea of helmet-free practices. There's some merit to the idea that helmets and facemasks just encourage players to run head-first and face-first into each other.
Winston Churchill:
"Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak."
"If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain."
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Not a bad idea..but I'm thinking that if the helmets go, wouldn't the shoulder pads be next? Or maybe they're made smaller?
As soon as a guy uses his pads to deliver a hit to the head, or someone gets injured by the shoulder pads....
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There is no sure fire anwser to this problem. The speed of the game and the fact that things just happen. I see the point of no face mask means that a person is not going to want to lead with their head. It will be rough transition if they do try it. expect broken noses and teeth getting knocked out.
Without weaponz it's just another airline!
I am here to chew bubble gum and kick butt and I am all out of bubble gum!
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Originally Posted by
go4bears 
There is no sure fire anwser to this problem. The speed of the game and the fact that things just happen. I see the point of no face mask means that a person is not going to want to lead with their head. It will be rough transition if they do try it. expect broken noses and teeth getting knocked out.
Just like the good ole days (or hockey).
Winston Churchill:
"Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak."
"If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain."
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Some already said it, but it's worth repeating...
Rugby players worldwide are laughing their asses off.
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Originally Posted by
loki520 Some already said it, but it's worth repeating...
Rugby players worldwide are laughing their asses off around the few teeth they have left.
Fixed 
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