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Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
11,974 posts, read 25,480,204 times
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I think American football needs to start taking the problem of lineman having to be 100 pounds overweight to play their position and the host of injuries and deaths related to it.
Since 1995 33 football players have died from heat stroke - most of them only teenagers. Most recently a 17 yr old died in Louisville KY - his coach is now facing capital murder charges. In 2001 Minnesota Vikings lineman Korey Stringer died of heat stroke at practice. He had previously questioned his team's requirements.
As recently as the 1980s the largest NFL players rarely exceeded 250 pounds - is forcing young men to weight 300+ necessary to maintain the quality of the game?
Is it time for the NFL to treat super obesity among its players as a serious problem?
I think players should have a cardiac stress test. Also, those high school and college coaches who act all bada$$ should either workout with the players with his own rules or get some brains into his head for the safety of his players. Have someone come out and do a wetbulb heat stress analysis and have plenty of fluids and electrolites avaliable during and after practice. Heck, turn on the sprinklers during practice. Otherwise let larda$$ coach run laps in full gear without water twice a day and see how long before he's in the hospital.
Hey great idea! Let's take one of the most physically demanding sports in the world and start excluding people who are out of shape. How dare those kids be physically active?!? They'd be much safer at home, playing video games.
According to the stats posted, we're averaging under 2 and a half deaths a year. As tragic as their deaths are, it's an extremely small number. Pardon me if I don't join the uproar.
I think American football needs to start taking the problem of lineman having to be 100 pounds overweight to play their position and the host of injuries and deaths related to it.
As recently as the 1980s the largest NFL players rarely exceeded 250 pounds - is forcing young men to weight 300+ necessary to maintain the quality of the game?
Is it time for the NFL to treat super obesity among its players as a serious problem?
Personally, I am not all that concerned about heat stroke nor about NFL players. The first is preventable; the latter are ADULT men who have a choice to weigh what they want to weigh.
When I played HS football in Cincinnati, two out of sixty kids weighed 200 pounds or more. Of course, we did not have access to all the weight equipment. That put us a a serious disadvantage. Now, MOST kids playing football weigh over 200 lbs.
Personally, I am concerned about the kid who is a decent athlete and has NO real chance of making it to the NFL. The kid plays well and heads off to a Division I-AA team. The first day of training camp, a coach comes up to him and says "if you want to play for State at linebacker, you will have to add 50# to 250-265#." The kid redshirts for a year, gains the weight and starter for 2-3 years.
After graduation, the kid drops all of the heavy training and add 30 more pounds. Now the young man is 25 and is starting to show the first stages of pre-diabetes and the start of cardiovascular disease. In my opinion, that is the big problem with college football and the reason for the premature deaths of a number of the participants.
Come on everyone....the OP didn't mean to take cars off the market or place a limit on height for basketball players. A valid point has been brought up.....take it seriously. At what point do we say fat is just fat and not an aspect of the game and player? I think the cardiac stress test is a good idea. But I hate to be a cynic BUT.....what good does it do to implement a test.....if there are plenty of football staff/doctors out there who will "bend" the test results to make it what is needed for the player to play. Sad....but oh sooooo true!
Come on everyone....the OP didn't mean to take cars off the market or place a limit on height for basketball players. A valid point has been brought up.....take it seriously. At what point do we say fat is just fat and not an aspect of the game and player? I think the cardiac stress test is a good idea. But I hate to be a cynic BUT.....what good does it do to implement a test.....if there are plenty of football staff/doctors out there who will "bend" the test results to make it what is needed for the player to play. Sad....but oh sooooo true!
There are risks with just about any occupation. What about taxi drivers, mine workers etc. Nobody is forcing these people to play football. That being said, I think pitchers in baseball should throw underhand as to not hurt players with inside pitches.
I think pitchers in baseball should throw underhand as to not hurt players with inside pitches.
Then it wouldn't be baseball anymore. It'd be softball.
I agree with the rest of your post though. I'm not trying to down play these kid's deaths or make them sound unimportant, but when an average of 2 kids a year die playing football...well that's just not sufficient reason to start making wide sweeping changes.
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