On Sports Welfare

[Jack]

Not totally sure where this belongs. I could make a case for including it on the mainboard in the ongoing discussion of conference realignment, which I am just a bit too depressed/uninformed to contribute to right now, but it definitely touches on some of the factors driving that mess. I could also post on Blue and Gray, given the political discussion that serves as the backdrop. I could even post to 37th and 0, given that it was written by a former Hoya columnist.

Wherever it ends up, I do hope people will take a moment to read this very thoughtful and well-researched piece by Patrick Hruby that shows how absurd the subsidies and exemptions we provide to college and professional sports have become. Patrick was always a bit of a cynic even in his days at The Hoya, but lately he has become almost the anti-sports columnist, with pieces like this one and several others about the moral quandaries of supporting football given our increasing awareness of head trauma (he claims to have quit watching altogether).

I have become increasingly cynical about sports myself recently, especially as they are connected to universities like our alma mater, and yet I am unable to completely divorce myself after 35 years of often fanatical support for those same institutions. Days like today (with the death of the Big East, which essentially grew up alongside me, impending) and articles like Hruby's do push me closer to the edge, though.

Alles hat ein ende, nur die wurst hat zwei.

[DFW HOYA]

Issues of head injuries in the NFL are directly related to the decision a number of years ago to reengineer helmets to avoid what, at that time, was considered the more pressing health issue: limit skull fractures. Now, literally no skull fractures, lots more trauma.

[jgalt]

I read that article yesterday, it was great. The bond issues that local and state governments issue for stadiums are terrible. The situation in miami is almost criminal. I really wish that government would get out of the business of supporting businesses.

And I too have become more cynical about sports, as Jack has.

And to DFW's point, I totally agree. They should be trying to eliminate the hard surfaces of the helmets and pads. I wonder if a helmet that was modeled after a bike helmet would be better. Bike helmets are designed to break and crack after contact. The breaking is the evidence that the helmet took the energy.

Of course you would be replacing helmets after almost every play, but its not like the NFL is lacking money (also scale could bring down the cost to be affordable for HS level teams).

Id also like to see the NFL limit the weight that players can be (to say like 300lbs). It would help reduce all manor of injuries and health problems later in life. But thats for a different thread.

[RusskyHoya]

Yea, not much I can do but co-sign what has been written above. I love football as a sport. Played it in middle/high school, watch it, love it. Am watching it right now, in fact. But the head trauma issue - and it's not just concussions, but the cumulative effect of repeated impacts - eats at me. It is something that has to be addressed, immediately. Otherwise, the entire sport will go the way of boxing, extant only in the crevices where macho and no-strings-attached dollars still reign.

I find myself in sympathy with Jack. Not quite to the same extent as Hruby: smokescreen though it is, those commercials ring true when they say that most NCAA athletes major in something other than sports, and the vast majority of the ~10% of varsity athletes at Georgetown leave well-adjusted and unexploited (I don't think the rowers, golfers, swimmers, and sailors have much to complain about, ya know?).

It is undeniable, though, that our priorities are out of whack as a society, with sports as with many other things. We've got some thinking to do. We're living in a context, though, that despises introspection, so I have no idea where it will lead, or how long it will take.