Walter Olson: NFL could 'go out of business' due to lawsuits. (deaths, Boxer)

[MJJersey]

"Tort Reform" is just code for big money interest trying to eliminate the constitutional right to a civil jury trial, something they have been trying to do for some time now. They have been successful in doing so in some states, and will eventually succeed in the rest.

[Gareththebboy]

Bball is gud anyway

[cometclear]

Originally Posted by michiganmoon

People have been calling for the doomsday of the world and many other things and usually are wrong. Boxing has a high rate of brain damage and believe it or not so does soccer.

Playing sports assumes an inherent risk to ones health.

Boxing has been dying for decades.

[cometclear]

Originally Posted by TrapperJohn

There were fewer injuries before helmets....

Brilliant logic, because the speed of the game and the size of the players is the same now as it was in pre-1950s, correct?

[gmagoo]

Originally Posted by cometclear

Brilliant logic, because the speed of the game and the size of the players is the same now as it was in pre-1950s, correct?

I think the point he`s trying to make is that players didn`t always use their noggins as battering rams.I still wouldn`t blame the helmets.The players are giving the fans what they want to see and that`s a poor reflection on the fans IMO.

[skoro]

Good.

Then maybe a football league will emerge to take its place. The NFL was a football league once upon a time. But in recent years they've become an advertising agency. In the 4 hours they need to televise a 60 minute game, we're subjected to 3 hours of commercials for viagra and various lousy light beers.

I like football.

I dislike 3 hours of dumb commercals for products I'll never buy.

[cometclear]

Originally Posted by skoro

Good.

Then maybe a football league will emerge to take its place. The NFL was a football league once upon a time. But in recent years they've become an advertising agency. In the 4 hours they need to televise a 60 minute game, we're subjected to 3 hours of commercials for viagra and various lousy light beers.

I like football.

I dislike 3 hours of dumb commercals for products I'll never buy.

Pro sports suck. You describe the NFL very well and it applies to all the pro leagues, at this point. If I wanted get back into watching pro football, I'd watch the CFL.

[burdell]

Originally Posted by cometclear

Pro sports suck. You describe the NFL very well and it applies to all the pro leagues, at this point. If I wanted get back into watching pro football, I'd watch the CFL.

Exactly why I'd rather go to a AAA baseball game than a Major League one or a Saturday Night 'bull-ring' race than a major NASCAR race.

[EdwardA]

They'd settle before any precedent or ruling is set.

[wutitiz]

Originally Posted by michiganmoon

.
P.S. Tobacco is still making $$$

This is a good point to remember. Walter Olson also wrote about the tobacco litigation of the late 1990's. Even though 'Big Tobacco' paid out $206 billion, they also got some rules worked into the 'Master Settlement Agreement' (MSA) that were very beneficial to them in quashing competition.
Puff, the Magic Settlement - Reason.com

They came out of the deal in fine shape, Phillip Morris just had to change its name as a PR move. This was all ingeniously worked out by the big tobacco lawyers and the state AGs. It was really a big shell game, and the moves were to clever for the MSM to follow, so the masses of the public never heard about it. Tim Carney has a very good chapter on how it all worked in his book The Big Ripoff.

I'm not sure what kind of similar scheme the NFL could engineer to escape their troubles. The tobacco MSA was predicated on the involvement of 46 state attys gen. and their ability to push thru state-level legislation to augment the MSA.