OT: Tua Tagovailoa injury

[DirtyDez]

Absolutely nuts to play him on a Thursday after a Sunday. He would’ve had two full weeks off so even the cover up was dumb.

[rzzzzz]

I ain’t making no excuses and am glad he finally did time, even if it was a set up, but I don’t doubt 70 year old OJ when he says getting his bell rung all those years took its toll. Man, I love the game, but ain’t no headware tech is going to protect the brain from ricocheting off the skull from a direct shot. I don’t even know if it can ever really be protected, but I would enforce immediate suspensions for any blow above the shoulders or causing the head to hit the ground. (I’d also eliminate heading the ball in soccer. The amount of TBI in that sport is more serious than most folks realize.)

[Pharmcat]

Spoiler:

Lot of American kids just pick up football games at recess. It's mostly about throwing and catching the ball so in the simplest form we played as kids, there were no linemen, everyone went out for the pass except the QB and nobody rushed the passer right away, counted to 5 or 10 before chasing him or her.

Basketball, people go and shoot baskets once in awhile but casual players don't stick with it unless they learn to make the shots. It's popular because you need minimal equipment. Probably the least amount of equipment, so it's available to all socioeconomic classes.

Baseball used to be the national sport but it's fallen way off in popularity. Still a lot of youth participation.

But I think youth soccer may have greater participation in the US than any other sport for kids up to age 12 or so. AT that point, kids go to middle school and then high school and pick up other sports since high schools all have programs for baseball, basketball and especially football. But not as much for futbol.

Soccer is up and coming here , there is a reason private equity are investing in mls . It won’t take over top 3 sports anytime soon , but it’s on the upward swing

Never mind that.

When are you going to post this season's "Curry is washed up" thread?

He was only 1-7 in his first preseason game.

How many Ls do you want me to rack up

[CobraCommander]

I ain’t making no excuses and am glad he finally did time, even if it was a set up, but I don’t doubt 70 year old OJ when he says getting his bell rung all those years took its toll. Man, I love the game, but ain’t no headware tech is going to protect the brain from ricocheting off the skull from a direct shot. I don’t even know if it can ever really be protected, but I would enforce immediate suspensions for any blow above the shoulders or causing the head to hit the ground. (I’d also eliminate heading the ball in soccer. The amount of TBI in that sport is more serious than most folks realize.)

Then you would ban football...

Those hits were not vicious- it’s not really about the hit as much as it’s about how that ONE persons body reacts to the hit.

I don’t think they can ever make football safe. It’s playing Russian Roulette for college scholarships and hopefully for big money. The best case, play QB get a ton of money and retire before getting permanent debilitating injuries ....like Andrew Luck.

Tua should take the 30 mil he made and never play this game again.

[Johnny Firpo]

I wanted to suggest that they should play the sport without padding and helmets, and that way players wouldn't give out/take hits like that. But I checked rugby stats, and apparently concussions are prevalent there too. I guess the only solution is to ban some types of contacts entirely, but then it's a totally different sport.

[Clyde Frazier]

Holding back a rageful rant. The bottom line is he never should've been on the field last night. I understand the mentality of most football players is to play as long as they can stand up, so the team should have some humanity and step in to prevent that. Of course, money supercedes everything for most owners. Sad situation.

Same for the players as well. Tua is out there risking injury so he can get the next massive QB contract. If he really did get a concussion last Sunday and he shouldnt have been out there this past Thursday, well Tua all week has also been telling the media that he never hurt his head and it was just his back. So Tua is part of this as well. And we are talking about grown adults, not teenagers getting taken advantage of. We are also in a very concussion awareness era, so its not like these players can claim they didnt understand the consequences, because all of the information is available and very public.

So yes I agree that the owners want to do whatever it takes to win because winning means more profit. But I also understand these players are well aware of the risks. Whether it is a player just trying to make or stay on a roster, trying to hide injuries because he is afraid one injury could ruin his only chance. Or if its a player doing the same because he is afraid his starting spot might not be there if he misses time with injuries, or if its a player doing it because he is chasing the giant contract.

Unless we find out Tua had a concussion Sunday and the doctors lied to Tua about it and told him it was just a back spasm or whatever. Then ya I thinks its both on the team and on Tua, but that is the culture of professional sports, you see this in all sports. It just tends to get publicized more with football because of how often injuries occur in football. But ya its seen in all sports whether its trying to hide injuries or injecting steroids or whatever chemicals to get an advantage without caring what possible long term issues may come with that.

Well I did say "I understand the mentality of most football players is to play as long as they can stand up." So yes I believe it's on the team to step in and make a judgement call when a player won't. I don't wan't to think about what will need to happen for a further wake up call.

And I know we didn't have the below info when you responded to me, but I'm really not surprised. Yes these kinds of things happen in other sports, but head injuries are just on another level of danger. It's really sad to see former players clearly affected in their day to day lives by taking too many hits to the head.

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[Meat]

I wanted to suggest that they should play the sport without padding and helmets, and that way players wouldn't give out/take hits like that. But I checked rugby stats, and apparently concussions are prevalent there too. I guess the only solution is to ban some types of contacts entirely, but then it's a totally different sport.

Entirely anecdotal but in my experiences my and my teammate’s concussions were a much lower grade. It’s a different sport but with rugby you don’t get to slam on someone and run off the pitch, you’re able to be retaliated against. More so you’ve got to protect yourself, whatever you dole out you also feel

[Nuntius]

I really wish that the NFLPA was as powerful as the NBAPA is. If they were then maybe they'd be able to enforce stricter and more effective health protocols that would protect the health and well-being of their players. It's a damn shame.