<<So evenutally, the more affluent and thus "pussies" of the USA will no long allow their children to play football. Football will only be relegated to the poor and underpriveledged who have grown up in with violence all around them. Then, the affluent pussies will be the only ones who can afford to pay the ticket price and go watch the poor kids beat the shit out of each other on the football field. They will cheer and cheer for harder hits at the football game, while little johnny is playing soccer the next day. Sound familiar? Maybe Adrian Peterson had the whole slave mentality thing correct.>>

What do you mean "so eventually"? It's already happening. Why do you think LAX is so popular?

KSK made a good point. Hideki Irabu and Mike Flanagan committed suicide and no one is blaming baseball. Arguably the one suicide that IS sport-related was Donnie Moore because he never got over Dave Henderson. (But of course, that's on him, because Bill Buckner has adjusted.)

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Yes. Whatever my son wants to do, I'll support him. He could get hurt, maimed, paralyzed or killed playing football. Same could happen if he drives a car and there's a helluva lot more percentage of people having car accidents every single year than severe football injuries.

When I played, I emulated the Eric Dickerson model and wore every piece of equipment available, even down to the forearm pads. Now you see so many guys going without for the sake of appearance. That's completely stupid.

I got less injured playing football than I have in basketball, volleyball, track, and martial arts. If I had ever learned how to skate, I'd have played hockey and you can get hurt pretty bad playing that too. I'd almost encourage my son to play hockey because I love the culture and the teamwork aspects of that sport.

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The only things that matter to me are: Wins, Losses, Rings - FC

Since the start of the 2008 season, the Steelers percentage of designed rush plays has declined from a high of 46.4 percent of their plays in 2010 to 39.6 last season. - Chris Mortensen

I kinda did the opposite, Jax....but had nothing to do with appearance, but rather to play as light as possible......no hip pads, took the foam off of the thigh pads.

I've never been injured doing anything but playing football...all knee injuries, but I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything

Swiss, would you feel differently if you were robbed of your ability to write instead of dealing with knee injuries? What if you were unable to write the Manifesto or make coherent posts on SteelerFury? Or have meaningful conversations with your wife and children?

A line needs to be drawn when it comes to physical toughness and brain injury. The two are not interlinked.

Maybe I've been watching too many reruns of Friday Night Lights on Netflix lately, but I firmly believe that football builds/reveals character. And if my son wanted to play football, I would support him 100%. I think he would learn a lot of hard life lessons, how to overcome adversity, show leadership, teamwork, etc.

I've broken at least 10 bones in my life, and am dealing with a debilitating spinal cord injury now. None of it ever came from playing football (I played for 10 years up to high school) Why rob my son of the many good things that could come from being part of a football team?

Plus it gives me a chance to relive the old glory days.nothing wrong with that.

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I was a RB/LB at first, so I loaded up because I knew I was getting hit and hitting. I did drop a couple when I moved to CB on defense, so I understand the light and fast aspect.

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The only things that matter to me are: Wins, Losses, Rings - FC

Since the start of the 2008 season, the Steelers percentage of designed rush plays has declined from a high of 46.4 percent of their plays in 2010 to 39.6 last season. - Chris Mortensen

Still Missing Teeth hit the nail on the head here.

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http://www.gofundme.com/2vpa9o

Senior year of HS, one of our best athletes ran track and was a budding baseball star with a big future. During a game that spring, he slid head first into third base, it all went wrong somehow and he ended up paralyzed. I don't see a lot of concern about the potential for people losing their ability to write or function due to other sports related injuries.

Part of life is learning to deal with risk and the potential for injury.

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The only things that matter to me are: Wins, Losses, Rings - FC

Since the start of the 2008 season, the Steelers percentage of designed rush plays has declined from a high of 46.4 percent of their plays in 2010 to 39.6 last season. - Chris Mortensen

I agree

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The only things that matter to me are: Wins, Losses, Rings - FC

Since the start of the 2008 season, the Steelers percentage of designed rush plays has declined from a high of 46.4 percent of their plays in 2010 to 39.6 last season. - Chris Mortensen

The distinction I see is this:

Freak accidents involving heads colliding with something occur in all sports. Kids die playing golf. Football is the only major sport I know of where head to head contact is an inherent part of the game (aside from boxing and MMA).

Sure, devastating injuries can happen in any sport. They're much more likely to happen in football. I don't think you would argue that the number of concussions in baseball are anywhere near the amount that occur in football.