NFL meltdown thread: the slow two-minute drill to disaster

wrecks · Post by **wrecks** » Mon Mar 18, 2013 7:29 pm

Guess the lawsuits aren't going so well, the league wants to ban running backs from lowering their helmets:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... ing-heads/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

rass · Post by **rass** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:07 am

Fucking Koopa Tissue Committee is going to ruin the game.

howard · Post by **howard** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 8:48 am

a mind is a terrible thing to waste

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:38 pm

Rule proposal for RB initiating helmet contact

The guy who has had a long productive life after leaving the game early likes the rule. The guy who can barely form a sentence doesn't. Hmmmmmmm.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:50 pm

The rule is that you can't hit a defender with the crown of your helmet. It's not that you can't put your head down at all.

I might buy a slippery slope argument, but I won't buy the running backing is now imposs.

FredRomero · Post by **FredRomero** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:57 pm

This would kill Mike Tolbert's career (if it's not already dead).

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 2:16 pm

C'mon, where's Brian?

Post by **brian** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 2:28 pm

Something something something pussies something?

(I don't have an issue with the rule. Of course, it'll get applied incorrectly because NFL officials mostly suck, but the theory of it is OK.)

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:24 pm

I hate this new swamp.

Post by **Sabo** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:30 pm

FredRomero wrote:This would kill Mike Tolbert's career (if it's not already dead).

Ironhead Heywood agrees.

Rams Fanny · Post by **Rams Fanny** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 12:31 pm

I find it very hard to believe Jeff Fisher would be behind this new helmet rule if Steven Jackson were still on the roster.

Johnny Hotcakes · Post by **Johnny Hotcakes** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 1:45 pm

mister d wrote:I hate this new swamp.

Hey Mr. Dick - take your La Salle-related stress out on your family, not us.

rass · Post by **rass** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:59 am

Damn Mark Duper. Beat up and threatened to kill a "teenager" after arguing with him while playing video games.

HaulCitgo · Post by **HaulCitgo** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 3:27 pm

Not that beatings are really justified but I could see how a parenting dispute might turn to an ass whopping with a 17 yr old child of a former NFL guy. Mark Duper wasnt huge but its not crazy to think his son is the size of most full grown men.

Post by **brian** » Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:30 am

Terry Bradshaw is planning a one-man show in Vegas.

I mean, there's no way that isn't a trainwreck, right? I'm going to see if I can wrangle some free tickets and report back to yinz.

rass · Post by **rass** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 3:02 pm

Deadspin piece on the Chargers team doctor.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 3:20 pm

rass wrote:Deadspin piece on the Chargers team doctor.

Hi, everybody! The NFL is a great place to work!

HaulCitgo · Post by **HaulCitgo** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 9:36 pm

Chief medical officer of x games too.

Post by **brian** » Thu May 02, 2013 1:58 pm

So this is the stupidest poll you're ever going to see.

Regardless of how you feel about the issue, polling a bunch of non-Natives and expecting the poll to be anything but useless is pathetic.

rass · Post by **rass** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 9:57 am

GQ gives the oral history treatment to the downfall of Junior Seau

rass · Post by **rass** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 6:17 am

ESPN has abruptly pulled out of a collaborative investigation with PBS (Frontline) into the NFL's concussion "crisis". The full report is due to air in October.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 7:08 am

Starting the NFL network finally pays off for the NFL.

Johnny Carwash · Post by **Johnny Carwash** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 8:02 am

Per a NYT report, the decision to pull out of the Frontline documentary was a result of pressure directly from the league:

Last week, several high-ranking officials convened a lunch meeting at Patroon, near the league’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because they were prohibited by their superiors from discussing the matter publicly. It was a table for four: Roger Goodell, commissioner of the N.F.L.; Steve Bornstein, president of the NFL Network; ESPN’s president, John Skipper; and John Wildhack, ESPN’s executive vice president for production.

At the combative meeting, the people said, league officials conveyed their displeasure with the direction of the documentary, which is expected to describe a narrative that has been captured in various news reports over the past decade: the league turning a blind eye to evidence that players were sustaining brain trauma on the field that could lead to profound, long-term cognitive disability.

Also, I love that a guy named "Wildhack" is in charge of ESPN's production.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 8:13 am

Did Paul Tagliabue ever swing his dick the way Roger Goodell does? Regardless, Tagliabue is just as culpable in this whole mess, right?

I just wish Goodell would've also been like "And for fuck's sake...take Tim Tebow off your fucking front page! He sneezes; you report. He prays; you report. He might get cut; you report. Enough!"

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 8:37 am

Johnny Carwash wrote:Per a NYT report, the decision to pull out of the Frontline documentary was a result of pressure directly from the league:

Last week, several high-ranking officials convened a lunch meeting at Patroon, near the league’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because they were prohibited by their superiors from discussing the matter publicly. It was a table for four: Roger Goodell, commissioner of the N.F.L.; Steve Bornstein, president of the NFL Network; ESPN’s president, John Skipper; and John Wildhack, ESPN’s executive vice president for production.

At the combative meeting, the people said, league officials conveyed their displeasure with the direction of the documentary, which is expected to describe a narrative that has been captured in various news reports over the past decade: the league turning a blind eye to evidence that players were sustaining brain trauma on the field that could lead to profound, long-term cognitive disability.
Also, I love that a guy named "Wildhack" is in charge of ESPN's production.

That's what i was insinuating, rather poorly. I imagine that the NFL basically told ESPN they'd pull out of Monday Night Football at the earliest possible moment and move it to the NFL network. Leverage.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 12:51 pm

Bronto posted a tweet on this on Monday, and I agree with him. On Monday night, Keyshawn, Chris Carter, Tom Jackson and Mike Ditka were all discussing the low hit on Dustin Keller. They were all in agreement and tut tutting about how the penalties nowadays against headshots are causing defenders to go low. They all thought it was a damned shame and that it would be much better to take a headshot, because, "you'd miss a couple games, then be fine", while a shot to the knee could ruin a whole season. They seemed to have no awareness at all of the concussion issues, legal or otherwise.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 2:11 pm

They act like an ACL tear is something new.

Of course in a vacuum I'd take one concussion over one knee tear. But that's not the question here. It's one knee tear v. multiple concussions, because as soon as you recover you're going to get drilled again by some roided up freak that never gets caught because they don't do blood testing.

howard · Post by **howard** » Wed Sep 25, 2013 8:28 pm

Chargers 'devastated' by DB Paul Oliver's suicide

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 3:56 pm

The suicide/brain injury culture in the NFL is
looking like the same suicide/brain injury culture in the military.

Has anyone made this comparison at all? I'm sure I can't be the only dude who noticed this.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:00 pm

As far as I can remember, that is the first time I see the comparison (and it fits).

howard · Post by **howard** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 5:36 pm

Ayup. I concur.

Post by **Shirley** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:21 am

Has anyone looked to see if the suicide rate for ex-NFL players is actually statistically higher than the rest of the population?

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:58 am

I think a rate of several multiples of the general population rate has been widely reported. A quick goog shows this. I haven't drilled down into any of these studies or citations, though. Plus, pretty small population; a cluster of events such as we have seen in the past few years could seriously skew the rate by inclusion or exclusion in a data set. I mean, if a study ended prior to this recent cluster of deaths, that rate would be very different than a study including this cluster, against a population of what, a few thousand NFLPA alumni (versus hundreds of millions of Americans).

Someone get an intern on this.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 11:16 am

Suicide rate among people who had a lot of money and then don't anymore may be applicable.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 11:41 am

Gunpowder wrote:Suicide rate among people who had a lot of money and then don't anymore may be applicable.

Plus being pampered and worshiped for their athletic prowess from the time they were 8, then suddenly cast aside and resort to selling insurance.

Post by **Shirley** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:02 pm

howard wrote:I think a rate of several multiples of the general population rate has been widely reported. A quick goog shows this. I haven't drilled down into any of these studies or citations, though. Plus, pretty small population; a cluster of events such as we have seen in the past few years could seriously skew the rate by inclusion or exclusion in a data set. I mean, if a study ended prior to this recent cluster of deaths, that rate would be very different than a study including this cluster, against a population of what, a few thousand NFLPA alumni (versus hundreds of millions of Americans).

Someone get an intern on this.

Yeah, I was too lazy to look it up. Still haven't I guess. A proper statistical analysis would take the sample sizes into account. The small NFL sample size would require a large difference from the standard population to be significant.

And Slolz and Sybian pointed out, there are a number of other factors you'd have to account for - age, gender, etc being the easiest to tease out. The other stuff - loss of career - would be much harder statistically, but it would seem to be an important factor. I can't even imagine how hard it must be to step down from a professional sports career, PARTICULARLY when you feel like you are still in your prime. And that's the majority of former NFL players.

testy boxcar · Post by **testy boxcar** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:16 pm

Johnnie wrote:The suicide/brain injury culture in the NFL is
looking like the same suicide/brain injury culture in the military.

Has anyone made this comparison at all? I'm sure I can't be the only dude who noticed this.

lots of people

Post by **Shirley** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:16 pm

I don't see a date on this report, but I think it came out with the last few years (articles linking to it say January 2012) - the CDC says ex-NFL players as a whole live longer than comparable non-NFL men.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/pgms/worknotif ... ion_01.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They don't break out suicide as a cause of death, only cancer and heart disease. Ex-NFLers get cancer at a much lower rate, and heart disease rates depend on position - the big boys get it more often, obviously.

I would think that if suicide were significant, they would have spelled it out.

I saw a bunch of other references online to a suicide rate "six times higher" than non-NFL players, but I never found a proper source for that number. Most referred only to the the NFLPA, which doesn't say where they got the number (and they are hardly unbiased).

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:29 pm

Shirley wrote: Ex-NFLers get cancer at a much lower rate

Except for former Giants. They have a high rate of cancer, believed to be related to toxins near their practice facility (IIRC)

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:06 pm

Shirley wrote:The other stuff - loss of career - would be much harder statistically, but it would seem to be an important factor. I can't even imagine how hard it must be to step down from a professional sports career, PARTICULARLY when you feel like you are still in your prime. And that's the majority of former NFL players.

You may be able to gauge this effect by looking at athletes in other pro sports, or looking at NFL players from previous decades. I know Donnie Moore was a well-known suicide; I'm sure there are other ex-baseball players who killed themselves, but I can't think of them right now.