With the emerging time bomb of post football career of early onset of dementia, when will the football codes mandate the complusory wearing of head protection?
American football has had helmets and 2 ton of padding since forever. They still get concussion. The protective gear just turns footballers into demolition machines because they 'think' the padding make them invincible.
It has always happened. We see far more of it now because of the media and an awareness that never existed before.
Thanks to those sports people who have donated their brains to research, after death of course, we know that small but repeated head knocks does lead to CTE (http://www.bu.edu/cte/about/frequently-asked-questions/ It has been comprehensively shown that head gear worn by American football players to be not that effective in reducing the incidence of CTE. Personally, I fear for one of our Socceroos known for his ability to head the ball. Neuropsychology research shows that a concussion takes more than 12 months to resolve, yet we often see high grade/level footy players out for maybe a couple of weeks. But now the cat is out of the bag, I also wonder when health insurance premiums will be effected by occupation and the need to disclose head injury history for coverage. I have a nephew that was doing well in competitive MotoCross and good enough to have several sponsors. He has just received his second quite serious concussion and has been advised by his Neurosurgeon to give it all away for at least 3 years. The kid's mother is happy with that because 3 years will see him out of competitive MotoCross for ever.
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Iza
Semi-permanent state of being Recreationally Outraged as a defence against boredom during lockdown.
I read that Steve Mortimer has been diagnosed with early dementia that the medicos attribute to head knocks he received during his rugby league career.
The era he played in was not short of head high tackles, stiff arms and head punches either.
American football has had helmets and 2 ton of padding since forever. They still get concussion. The protective gear just turns footballers into demolition machines because they 'think' the padding make them invincible.
It has always happened. We see far more of it now because of the media and an awareness that never existed before.
it is along the lines that the boxers wear gloves not to protect the opponents head but the hands of the boxer throwing the punches
