OT: Insurance challenges for contact sports

[random soul]

http://www.espn.com.au/espn/story/_...ing-major-threat-nfl-pop-warner-colleges-espn

This paragraph was disturbing to say the least:

Butler [Pop Warner's Exec Dir] said he believes carriers are "starting to get a handle on it, just as they have with other risk management situations." In an effort to ease insurers' fears, Pop Warner's law firm has taken the unusual step of staging seminars in which some panelists raised doubts about the connection between football and neurodegenerative disease.

Pay the insurance or change the rules for kids. Seriously. Don't start muddying the water. One other feature of that seminar was Merril Hoge, CTE skeptic with a new book, throwing doubt on it all, which considering his former franchise's connection to the condition in particular, seems a bit jarring. I dunno. I DO know that the game is going to have to change some if it's going to survive.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

http://www.espn.com.au/espn/story/_...ing-major-threat-nfl-pop-warner-colleges-espn

This paragraph was disturbing to say the least:

Butler [Pop Warner's Exec Dir] said he believes carriers are "starting to get a handle on it, just as they have with other risk management situations." In an effort to ease insurers' fears, Pop Warner's law firm has taken the unusual step of staging seminars in which some panelists raised doubts about the connection between football and neurodegenerative disease.

Pay the insurance or change the rules for kids. Seriously. Don't start muddying the water. One other feature of that seminar was Merril Hoge, CTE skeptic with a new book, throwing doubt on it all, which considering his former franchise's connection to the condition in particular, seems a bit jarring. I dunno. I DO know that the game is going to have to change some if it's going to survive.

It's so hard to predict what will happen with football. Every time I think that football is doomed to irrelevance because of CTE concerns, I see an UFC or boxing match and realize that people are going to beat the crap out of one another for money for a long time. College football is a little trickier, but regardless of what anyone says, the college scholarships offered in football have significant value for anyone who chooses to actually benefit from them.

I figure that football will slowly decline over the next 100 years, but it will still be the top sport for the rest of my lifetime. The seldom mentioned dark truth is that headers in soccer can be just as damaging as hits in football, with soccer players showing higher than normal rates of Alzheimer's and CTE as well, so the notion of everyone switching to soccer isn't really a solution.

 

[random soul]

It's so hard to predict what will happen with football. Every time I think that football is doomed to irrelevance because of CTE concerns, I see an UFC or boxing match and realize that people are going to beat the crap out of one another for money for a long time. College football is a little trickier, but regardless of what anyone says, the college scholarships offered in football have significant value for anyone who chooses to actually benefit from them.

I figure that football will slowly decline over the next 100 years, but it will still be the top sport for the rest of my lifetime. The seldom mentioned dark truth is that headers in soccer can be just as damaging as hits in football, with soccer players showing higher than normal rates of Alzheimer's and CTE as well, so the notion of everyone switching to soccer isn't really a solution.

Yeah the article mentions soccer as one of the other sports in this predicament, but football has the biggest following and effects the most people so it got the focus

 

[BiggsCoug]

I dont believe there is a reason to have tackle football until the 9th grade.

If you want youth numbers to stop sliding downwards flag football may be the best route to go.

You can get hurt playing. Some kids will stay, some will go. The days of seeing huge teams are prob coming to a close.

 

[dgibbons]

http://www.espn.com.au/espn/story/_...ing-major-threat-nfl-pop-warner-colleges-espn

This paragraph was disturbing to say the least:

Butler [Pop Warner's Exec Dir] said he believes carriers are "starting to get a handle on it, just as they have with other risk management situations." In an effort to ease insurers' fears, Pop Warner's law firm has taken the unusual step of staging seminars in which some panelists raised doubts about the connection between football and neurodegenerative disease.

Pay the insurance or change the rules for kids. Seriously. Don't start muddying the water. One other feature of that seminar was Merril Hoge, CTE skeptic with a new book, throwing doubt on it all, which considering his former franchise's connection to the condition in particular, seems a bit jarring. I dunno. I DO know that the game is going to have to change some if it's going to survive.

It's difficult to conclude much from that sentence. If I say (as I have said on this forum in the past) that it appears CTE can affect different people in different ways and some people more severely than others, am I "raising doubt" about the connection between football and neurodegenerative disease?

 

[Flatlandcoug]

It's difficult to conclude much from that sentence. If I say (as I have said on this forum in the past) that it appears CTE can affect different people in different ways and some people more severely than others, am I "raising doubt" about the connection between football and neurodegenerative disease?

Oil companies "raised doubts" that fracking was causing all the earthquakes in Oklahoma. There are plenty of "experts" that are willing to make an argument when money is at stake.

 

[dgibbons]

I dont believe there is a reason to have tackle football until the 9th grade.

If you want youth numbers to stop sliding downwards flag football may be the best route to go.

You can get hurt playing. Some kids will stay, some will go. The days of seeing huge teams are prob coming to a close.

JMO- kids need to learn to tackle before high school. In Washington, and this is for all sports, you basically have two weeks of practice, then the games start. There is very little teaching. I've even heard coaches say they rely on the youth level for fundamentals.

 

[dgibbons]

Oil companies "raised doubts" that fracking was causing all the earthquakes in Oklahoma. There are plenty of "experts" that are willing to make an argument when money is at stake.

Without explaining in more detail what doubts are being raised, it sounds like a hit piece. The reader is not given any context or detail. That's the clear and obvious point.

Go ahead and jump to conclusions, that is your prerogative. Don't expect others to do the same.

 

[Coug95man2]

Yeah the article mentions soccer as one of the other sports in this predicament, but football has the biggest following and effects the most people so it got the focus

I can't find the date to this article, per se but the numbers here are from 2009... a while back. I've seen a lot of numbers regarding soccer and cheerleading. The thing about numbers:
1. It goes to reporting. Football is so scrutinized right now, for the most part all head injuries are being reported. So many other activities aren't under the same intense microscope so they most likely aren't reporting the same way.
2. Numbers are being cut up, formatted, arranged, compressed, blah blah. The article below is strictly "reported" numbers. So for instance, they have Cycling as the #1 culprit for head injuries. But this isn't a governed thing. So how many go unreported? Other numbers divide up reported injuries to the number of people involved... which is where soccer and cheerleading go way up, above football. It all goes to HOW they come up with numbers.

So saying all of that, don't know how old these numbers are. But they are raw.
https://www.aans.org/Patients/Neurosurgical-Conditions-and-Treatments/Sports-related-Head-Injury