Malcolm Gladwell: Why College Football Should Be Outlawed

For being a dumbass columnist!

Well, looks like Maclolm Gladwell just made my shit list.

I'm going to sue my college because I kill all of my brain cells from drinking. Same logic, basically.

The real concern in terms of the long-term health of football is that High Schools may stop having it.  If  High Schools decide it is too dangerous to field teams, where do all the kids learn how to play?

Maybe a bunch of AAU teams would spring up or something, I'm not sure.  Whatever happened, the quality of teh college games would be severly diminished.

He's definitely right as far as football being dangerous but what propels college football is not the talent that comes out of high school. It's the atmosphere that surrounds college towns and universities. Their will always be kids that have a dream of playing professional football. Regardless of their talent level, the university will support the kids that choose to play football at their school. The alumni will always support their school. The region will still have a geographical connection, so they will continue to support the school. College football is built on loyalty and pride. The only way college football will stuggle would be a collapse of the United States education system. I think we are safe.

You are taught from the very beginning of youth football that you never tackle with your head down and you never lead with your head to initiate contack because YOU COULD BREAK YOUR NECK OR SUFFER A CONCUSSION. That is football 101.

Let us assume, just for purposes of argument, that Malcolm Gladwell is correct, and that football is excessively risky, for brain injury.

And let us further assume, that the risks of brain injury go up exponentially with higher-level football (with the NFL being the most extreme risk).

If we assume all of that to be true, what is the interest in "paying" collegiate football players?  Doesn't that just raise the stakes for all concerned?  It increases the motivation for 18 year-olds to decide to play college football.  As we know in the recruiting process, it imposes itself on 16 and 17 year olds, many of whom are from poor backgrounds. 

Paying athletes also raises the stakes for the institutions; to bring in more revenue; and to produce a more professionalized entertainment product.  The players will need, and will get, lawyers and agents and financial planners.

Finally, a cadre of paid professional athletes within a university further separates them from the rest of the student body.  If you want to really drive a wedge between the main student body and a class of athletes, the surest way to do it is to pay the athletes to focus on athletics away from the rest of the university.

I honestly wouldn't mind it, if we de-emphasized college football, away from being a farm system for the NFL.  If the Ivy League became the model for all of the rest of collegiate sports, I would much prefer that, to paying players.

Malcolm Gladwell's proposal to pay players does nothing to address his concerns about head injuries; I expect that it would make whatever problems that now exist much worse.

This just pisses me off.  This guy sounds jealous of people that have fun in life.  Sorry pal, 114,000 people are not going to ever watch college track meets on a regular basis.  As a former college lacrosse player I also have news for you, 114,000 people will never watch a lacrosse game every saturday in the spring.

Football players are naturally aggressive human beings.  Aggressive human beings bang their head on a lot of shit when they are kids growing up.  They jump their BMX bikes and land on their head.  They climb up tree houses, jump off for the thrill, and bump their head.  They headbutted the wall, floor, the dog and dad's leg when they were toddlers and upset.  They play dodgeball with their friends and get hit in the head.  They play hockey and get hit in the dead.

I could go on and on but the argument of a thousand little hits leading to the end of College Football is shit.  When pop warner, middle school, and high school football are extinct, I'll believe it.  When kids don't like to participate in violent contact sports I'll believe it.  When people don't like watching violent contact sports, I'll believe it.  Otherwise I'll still be at the big house every saturday in the fall or on my couch for at least 5 hours watching one of the greatest teams in one of the greatest sports in history.  

Hail to and suck our collective BALLS Malcom.

Should the outlaw college hockey, club rugby? Should all college soccer players wear ultra padded helmets?

Why just football?

Concussions part of most sports.

Speaking as a football player who has sustained several concussions in my last three years, I can say that my brain still works fine. I still have a 3.5 gpa, and plan on playing football till no one wants me anymore

Key questions to ask:

1.  While it's been established that some ex-NFL players have suffered brain damage, has the same been found for players who quit football after college?  The NFL is a dangerous cocktail of factors: older players, who may have suffered head trauma over an extended period of time, who experience the fastest, most violent collisions.  College players are younger, less experienced and on the whole, less talented (leading to fewer vicious hits).

2.  If so, what is the rate of significant brain damage, and does this rate justify outlawing the sport? 

Say it turns out that 1% of players whose careers end at college suffer long-term brain damage.  Is that a sufficiently high rate to outlaw the sport?  I guess Gladwell would say yes, but I'm not sure.

...are repeating this same debate.

Malcolm Gladwell really is a genius.  (It will be interesting to see how many clicks Slate gets out of the deal.)

Players know there is a possibility to get injured, but they still play the game. They get enjoyment of the sport, and the possibility to become a pro athlete and make a whole bunch of money playing it. For me this is like the lottery. People know the odds, and they know they aren't good. People play the lottery regardless because of what could happen if they won. 

For one thing, they already tried banning the sport(See Teddy Roosevelt)If they could not ban the sport in its nascent stages why would they do it now?

His reason for banning is dubious. If as he claims lawsuits will bring about the sport's fall then why haven't cars/planes/trains been banned? These modes of travel have killed far more people and caused far more damage then football. Using his logic lawsuits long ago would have rendered these objects economically unviable. This also applies to every sport because people do get injured ine very sport. Very questionable logic in my point of view.

Secondly, how is football any worse than NASCAR or Skiing? In both sports you place yourself in mortal danger.(e.g: Sarah Burke and Dale Earnhardt) The last football player to die on the field that I know of was Chuck Hughes and that from a condition unrelated to the sport.

On the ethics of watching the game.Is the viewing of horror movies an ethical act? While what you are viewing in a horror film is fake the simple act of taking pleasure in viewing humans being eviscervated, shot, lynched,  and impaled in gruesome detail is far more disturbing than watching two men in pads smack into each other.

Malcolm Gladwell lives in a genteel world where everything is latte and scones. He represents the effete America. The side that refuses to acknowledge that brutality and physical prowess are every bit the part of the human condition as creative and intellectual genius. For One Percenters like Gladwell, fooball is an anarchonism from a bygone era where men were sweat-stained dullards who never read Jonson or debated Hegel.To Gladwell it is clear that football is not the the Sport of Kings, but the Sport of Uncivilized Brutes. 

I haven't taken the time to read his "Outliers' so I'll refrain from judging the man. But this interview indicates to me a level of elitism that ought to be noted. If anyone had any doubts that much of the intelligentsia is filled with provincial snobs than this article should put that to rest.