I don't mean to go on a tangent here, but after Junior Seau took his life, I quit watching and associating with football. I can't stand to watch people mostly in their 20s-30s destroying themselves on the football field. Brain damage, spinal damage, damage to joints, all causing long-term and worsening problems for affected players.
Every year we hear about a few players killing themselves because the pain or brain damage is too much for them to bear (often shooting themselves in the chest so their brain can be examined). Pugilist dementia, the same thing experienced by boxers and MMA fighters, is caused by constant head trauma, but most boxers and MMA fighters don't have crippling spinal or joint pain.
Now I know that isn't every player who gets their bell rung every game, but if we watched football just to watch the kickers, we'd be watching the different kind of football. Two-hand touch or flag football I'll watch, but that is about it. Whenever the lights are on at the high school nearby, I always announce to my family "hey it looks like they are playing murderball tonight!"
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