Is American football morally defensible?

[EgonSpengler]

CNN, 24 Sept. 2024 - Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre says he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease

Age 54.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Any time the brain bashes against the inside of the skull, that can't be good.
There is just no way to protect the brain 100% in an impact.

Legendary fighter Ronda Rousey had to quit MMA because her brain got so damaged from repetitive injuries that a single blow to the head would give her a fresh concussion.

Ronda Rousey Reveals That Years of Concerning Concussions Led to Her Abrupt Retirement from Fighting

Ronda Rousey said in an Instagram Live on Thursday that she retired from fighting in 2016 because of years of concussions, marking the first time she addressed the reason for her retirement in the 8 years since she left MMA

people.com

“So much had to do with having so many concussions when I was in judo before I even got into MMA, I couldn’t talk about it at all when I was doing MMA because it would literally put a target on my head, and I might not have been allowed to compete any further."

If high schools ban football for safety reasons, what will the colleges and the NFL do to recruit money-makers?

No one will miss boxing or MMA if they vanish for safety.

 

[Voidwalkin]

If high schools ban football for safety reasons, what will the colleges and the NFL do to recruit money-makers

College football would be history.

The NFL would probably switch to Euro style youth academies. That they haven't already suggests to me that there must be an unspoken gentleman's agreement amongst the owners to maintain college ball as a minor league development pipeline, free of cost.

Any team running a youth academy would create much higher caliber players. A 22 year old can be Peyton Manning on day one if he's already had 15 years of professional study. That they haven't gone this route yet is probably the result of a determination college ball drums up enough general football interest to keep it, maybe?

I don't think it would be the end of the NFL. Might get shady, though.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Legendary fighter Ronda Rousey had to quit MMA because her brain got so damaged from repetitive injuries that a single blow to the head would give her a fresh concussion.

Which just goes to show that the contact sports without deliberate hitting (punching, kicking) can still rattle you. And I think the compounding effect of repetitive impacts is becoming more and more alarming, the more its effects are scrutinized. I think there's also some realization about how much of this happens during practices. Someone like Rousey had probably been thrown to the mat tens of thousands of times by the time she was 18 years old. She could have hit the mat hard enough to "ring her bell" hundreds of times by the time she went to college. One of things you learn in contact sports is to stay in action when you're briefly stunned. In MMA, you'll often see a fighter who's been KO'd wrap his arms around the leg of the referee who's just stepped in to call an end to the fight - grabbing hold when they're 'out of it' just becomes second-nature. And that's not learned from the handful of times a year that they compete, that's learned in the gym, while practicing.

Any team running a youth academy would create much higher caliber players. A 22 year old can be Peyton Manning on day one if he's already had 15 years of professional study. That they haven't gone this route yet is probably the result of a determination college ball drums up enough general football interest to keep it, maybe?

Definitely. NCAA football is waaaaaaaaay more popular than any minor league in any other sport. The NFL's annual Draft Day is one of the biggest days in sports.

 

[Kyriakos]

I can understand the (somewhat twisted) allure of violent sports, and american football appears to be a team sport which covertly links to the same emotional pool. There's also the stereotype of being in the highschool team (again not really there in most other countries, regarding team sports).
As for MMA, isn't it just people beating the [] out of each other, for richer people to profit and gradually allow a few fighters to get some money? Same with boxing.