OT: I-AA Player had Brain Trauma

Football is a collision sport, it will always be dangerous and these sort of tragic events will sadly never go away.  As the technology gets better, the better protection offered to the players, but nothing will ever change the way the game is played.  Football at the highest levels is brutal.  RIP to anyone who has died or taken their own lives because of brain damage associated with football.

Did they test for "performance enhancers"?  These are known to also make for wild mood swings and deep depressions...

Either way, a tragedy for the football community.  I will keep his family in my thoughts.

there really just HAS to be some sort of material or design for these helmets that limit things like concussions and other cases.

I was watching real sports with Bryant Gumble on HBO and there was a piece that correlated concussions to A.L.S. (lou gehrigs disease). It was a fascinating piece that hopefully leads to better care. 

My god you present a compelling dilemma.  The problem is not the sport itself but in the way it is played.  Fortunately, more coaches seem more aware of the dangers of concussions, but there has to be more emphasis on prevention rather than treatment.  While helmets may need better cushioning with better distribution of impact, there has to be better understanding of the helmet is more of a last-resort safety device rather than a tool.  From what I understand, leading with the helmet has become too much part of the game based on some unstated idea that the head will be safe no matter how hard the hit.  This needs to change.

You can cushion all you want, but it can only help so much. Your head is moving x feet per second and a defender or the ground reduces that to 0 feet per second quickly. Cushioning can help like a seatbelt helps: slowing that rate of acceleration, and since acceleration is related to time squared, every little bit helps. At some point though, you can't drag the process out any longer without putting all the players in gigantic bubblewrap suits. It sucks that it's dangerous, but it's a calculated risk on the part of each and every player.

Complete with this disturbing quote from a very ironic source:

“It’s pretty hard to make a jump with one case,” said Dr. James Moriarity, the University of Notre Dame’s head physician, who oversees the athletic department’s medical care. “But if it’s true that that happened, it would kill the sport. As a parent, it’s going to be hard to justify kids going out and doing that.”

Abstracting away rivalry resentment, the decision to put Crist back in the game seems very questionable.

As someone who played, and will always love, football, I think it's time to tackle this issue head on. Like Teddy Roosevelt did a century ago, I would not mind the government getting involved in this  - let's do all the necessary research, get as much data as possible, and then aggressively implement solutions to keep the game safe so parents don't worry about their kids playing it. Let's adapt our game so that it continues to grow. It worked great with Teddy Roosevelt, it can work again.

Gregg Easterbrook has been on this for a long time.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/080923

"But the NFL has not mandated use of anti-concussion helmets, the Riddell Revolution or Schutt DNA. Research suggests they are efficacious; this University of Pittsburgh study found anti-concussion helmets reduce the likelihood of suffering a concussion by about one-third among high school players."

My son is a junior in high school and started the season as the #1 QB for his football team.  He lasted until midway through the third quarter of the first game when he was blind sided by a kid that outweighs him by 40 or pounds.  The impact of the kid "steam rolling" my son (who is 6'2" 150lbs) to the turf created a jarring impact with the ground.  My son laid there for 20+minutes and could not sit up (although he had movement in his extremities).  The call was made for an ambulance and he was transported to a hospital for xrays and cat scans (all negative, thank God).

It's been almost 3 weeks since that happened.  Today, he went to a sports medicine doctor for some cognitive testing.  My son is a 4.4 student and has gotten all As his entire academic career.  He scored in the 38th percentile today.  Needless to say, I was stunned.  I have always been skeptical of doctors when it comes to football because I feel they are overly cautious when it comes to clearing kids to play.  But how can I, in good conscience, let this kid go back out onto the field and risk further injury or his future?   On the surface, it's a gut wrenching decision, but in the long run, it's very very simple.

I'm not sure you can manufacture a helmet that will sufficiently protect these kids from the impact that these bigger, faster, stronger players are capable of producing. 

I watched the Lions/Bears and Packers/Eagles games yesterday and was more than a little disturbed by the violent nature the pro game has taken on over the last few years.  I commented to myself that someone is going to die soon.  There's just no way the human body can sustain the amount of force being absorbed in some of these hits.