Just another reason that I'm glad I gave up watching football. The injuries took the enjoyment out of the game for me. I get nauseous when I see a hit that gives someone a concussion.

Maybe it's my own sports injuries that contribute to my difficulty watching the game now. Whenever someone's leg gets the wrong way I remember the feeling I felt when my arm got bent the wrong way.

The NFL feels like pro wrestling to me now. All the cheering the league does for the military and knowing that the league is a not for profit and doesn't pay taxes to support the troops makes me sick. The domestic violence and corresponding punishment over the last couple years also makes me sick. One day my entire commute home was sports talk guys reading off players that didn't get punished for strangling children, knocking out wives, etc. Then I open up the paper and it's football players rapes someone and doesn't get investigated. High school football players sexual torture freshmen. Ugh.

I think they could do much more for players to help them.

- Weight limits in the NFL. I know linemen need to get big but the average weight of linemen is way too high.

- The padding is almost too good, concussions will go up as they have with better equipment. Players feel too safe to unleash a hit. There needs to be more alerting/warning systems on collisions. i.e. if a player is about to get blindsided, alert them inside the helmet. Give them eyes all around.

- All linemen should use knee braces all the time or improved support. Players remove padding because others do to stay competitive. There needs to be more support for knees/ankles that is required. (smaller linemen will help this)

- Testing for HGH is finally in, this will help some.

- Allow players to use marijuana, for pain and for calming rather than DUIs. They treat players like children so they end up lashing out.

- Provide drivers free of charge for all NFL players for all activities. Require that they use the drivers (they can personally hire them) if they are having fun but DUIs should not be allowed.

I've been thinking lately if it would be possible to create a variant of football that was just as exciting without the collisions and violence.

Most of what makes me like football more than other sports can be summed up into the following:

* Effort matters more than talent - talented teams that are not focused can be upset by less talented teams that are playing harder

* Team game - since it's 11v11 and not 5v5, with a few rare exceptions, no one player can make a team. Everyone has to be working together to win.

* Drama - every game is just a game. no best of 3, best of 5, etc. This combines with the first point to make every game worth watching.

* Strategy - The chess match of how an offense matches up against a defense, how coordinators will use their players' distinct skills to exploit the other team's weaknesses, etc, is fascinating.

* Variety of athletes - I was an offensive lineman when I played football in my younger years, and to put it nicely, I have an offensive lineman's build. So I've always enjoyed that football utilizes a variety of athletes that are skilled in more ways than just speed.

So would it be possible to put all of these, except maybe the last, into a new game that didn't cause brain damage? I think so, I'm just not sure what that game would look like. I sure hope football can get this figured out, because for all of the bad attention it's been getting lately, it is still a sport that brings a lot of happiness to a lot of people.

I think fufilling a lifelong dream to play pro football and the minimum salary of $420,000 explains why there are thousands of people lined up to take these jobs despite the well known health risks.

BTW - The incidence of alcohol related arrest for NFL players mentioned, while in my opinion excessive, is probably below average for young US males which is prob over 2% per year for DUI alone. What's amazing is how common this is in general - 1 in 139 licensed drivers each year are arrested for DUI.

http://www.duifoundation.org/research/facts/

What's sad to me is to read that the writer is happy to have a permanently damaged knee in exchange for a few years of playing football. Personally I can't see how it would be worth it. I need to walk, run and cycle every day for the rest of my life. I don't need to play football.

They're measuring all of the head issues at Stanford: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/8311371/significant-a...

This is revealing, but really unsure how this relates to Hacker News

I really don't these kind of articles because in actuality NFL players live longer and are less like to commit crime then the average male. On paper there's no story here and usually that's enough for HN.

Writers and journalists can easily pick on these athletes because they generally don't have the literary facilities to defend the choices they've made in the same Op-Ed fashion and I'll be frank and say jealousy is playing a large role here. All jobs take a mental and physical toll. Most jobs aren't fulfilling or notable in any way and the existential terror of living like that is a much great strain on the psyche then getting a few concussions. The average overweight, underemployed American likes to believe he's better off then someone who has unflinchingly been same thing since freshman year of high-school, maybe he is, maybe he isn't, either way it's a consoling thought while distractedly surfing the net.

When it comes down to it these players are responsible for their own safety and unless you're willing to submit to the same diet and exercise regime as they do, don't criticize them they don't deserve it.