[ExI] former deceased nfl players...

[William Flynn Wallace]

Go ahead, I am prepared to have my ass kicked, and I probably deserve it.
But football wrecks brains, and our society causes football.  So where is
the collective guilt?  Spike


I used to be a total fanatic, in a rage when Bama was losing, esp. to Notre
Dame.  Now I no longer watch, even Bama.


It is totally amazing to me, growing up and living around the South,
Louisiana, MS, Tennessee, Alabama, that college football is more popular
than ever and the big majority of the players are black.  They'd still not
be welcome to marry one's daughter, it goes without saying, but totally
accepted on the football field.  That tells us something important, I
think, but I am not sure just what.


You can't find a better us versus them than football.  Soccer just won't do
for us what it seems to do for much of the rest of the world - and they can
be just as crazy and violent about their sport as we can be.  (Now imagine
pages of Freudian theories here about identifying with the aggressor etc.)


I tried like hell to keep my grandson off the field and succeeded by
getting him into baseball (he just went to college on scholarship as a
pitcher).  So concussions, not to mention permanent joint damage, are a big
issue with me.  The new rule about targeting (for foreigners, that means
going helmet to helmet in a tackle, the 'best' way to produce concussions -
penalty get the player tossed from the game) is going to be truly a
lifesaver.  It will help, but some brain damage will occur anyway.  Even
without concussions brain damage occurs little by little and the brain
cannot repair itself too well.


Sorry about this length.  As a libertarian I cannot say that I would banish
it if I were king; same for boxing and these other violent pay for view
'sports' I see.  People want to see hard hits, they want to see car wrecks
at the races, they want to see blood, many would pay to see death if that
were available but they have to make do with cockfights, dogfights,
etc.....


So, it's human nature, and it's been far worse in the past.  Ancient Greeks
had some sports that ended in death for the loser.


I for one am not guilty - I don't buy tickets, I don't watch pay per view.


I am very interested to read what others think.  bill w



On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 8:12 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

>
>
>
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> *From:* extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] *On
> Behalf Of *William Flynn Wallace
> *…*
>
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> ​>…Yeah, I like the 'former deceased'.  FYI - the name of the condition
> used to be called 'encephalopathy of pugilists'
> What Ali has, but they won't call it that.  bill w​
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> The popularity of boxing has been diminishing for years (or so it seems, I
> could be wrong.)  But football, which has many times more participants, and
> offers more scholarships and other enticements, is going strong.
>
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> spike
>
> _______________________________________________
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> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
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>
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