- NFFL
National Flag Football League
- Poor fellows...
- Sad.
- Can I have all the used jock straps?
Tim%20Tebow
- Most of the players are that way to start with.
It's like when you put a tiny dent in a Lexus it is a horrible thing
When you put a tiny dent in a Ford, it's just one of many dents that are already there.
- Nope, the ratings are too big and the revenue too massive. There is no way something so lucrative and popular will be quashed. AMericans love football more than ever.
- it's all about $$. They don't care about what happens 15-20 years from now.
- Ted Johnson - former Patriots player. Showing early signs of Alzheimer's; he's 39.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Johnson%23Post-career_trouble
- Oh, sure. Just like boxing?
- Boxing has never been conclusively shown to cause neurological damage of any kind, r9.
M.%20Ali
- Even if it's 100% true, it won't stop American football from being a big-money sport.
Testosterone-maddened young jocks have never been deterred by the risk of injury, and TV exectives don't care if the players die on camera. Football fans won't care either, they adore the fearlessness of players, and have always regarded safety precautions as "ruining the game".
- Just watched three games back-to-back-to-back. Loved it. Sunday in the fall is my favorite time of year.
It%20isn%27t%20going%20anywhere
- The thing is the lawsuits against the NFL for the chronic brain trauma suffered by past and current players have only begun.
Those pending lawsuits and the more that will be filed as the data continues to show that players have been unprotected by their league are what might force the NFL to make changes to the game.
- You don't get out much, do you, OP?
- OP/r13, I'm guessing that the end result will just be to have all would-be NFLers to sign a waiver.
- Football players know the risk. A lot parents do too, but it's part of the game, like it is for all contact sports. Hockey is at least as bad, yet people love their sports, and for many it is an opportunity for a career and wealth. They are compensated for the risk.
- It's a stupid, brutal, and frankly boring sport. The perfect representation of the vast majority of Americans.
- In addition to the potential liability hit the NFL might take as a result of the player lawsuits (and it's too early to know of that will be minor or significant), the other concern is that people being more informed about the hazards of the sport might start to affect parents allowing their kids to get involved in it.
At least that argument works for intelligent people. When presented with evidence that concussions are common and multiple head traumas have lasting effects, kf you ask parents whether they want their kids playing football or something else, the ones that care about their kids living long healthy lives would be more likely to choose another sport. But there will still be plenty that don't think longterm and are interested in having a pro athlete in the family and getting that check.
What will eventually happen will be interesting to see.
- Most parents who have kids with exceptional athletic ability are not gonna keep their kids from football. Most football parents take pride in having kids play a rough and manly sport. They are like Gladiator parents. Then kind of parents that would preclude their kids from playing football because of risks are not likely to have very athletically gifted kids in the first place. Hipster families in the Northeast arent exactly producing football stars.
- I'm going to take a wild guess and assume most who are deriding football aren't exactly superstar athletes.
I%20sense%20many%20limp%20wrists
- "Most parents who have kids with exceptional athletic ability are not gonna keep their kids from football. "
Some well-educated, financially secure, well-informed parents are going to discourage their sons from contact sports after reading this. But that's, what 1% of parents in the US?
- R21 is making the error of underestimating the power of FRAUDOM. You just wait and see.
OP
- OP...Tell that to the barbaric and uncivilized UFC.
- Most parents are idiots...this will soon come to an end why the legal system simply most it to financialy hazardous.
- oh my poor brain.
- Take away the uniforms and play football, that will end injuries.
The injuries only happen because players use that padding and their helmets as weapons.
- It'll never be over. The herren love it, and what the herren want, the herren get.
- Remember that ABC once had boxing on prime time television. Things can change very quickly for the NFL. I myself was a casual football fan but this week as the games started found myself not very excited to watch any of the games. The thought of those guys getting brain damage was constantly on the back of my mind.
- That's true r28, but I also remember that the networks, who had granted 24 hour coverage of the start of the Iraq War, turned to football come the weekend.
At the time, we didn't know it would turn into the war it became, and so shutting down coverage for sports came as a shock.
I think the last time they shut down football for news was when JFK Jr went missing.
- The wisdom of R20, where only someone who practices a skill can deign to comment on it.
Idiot.
- All it takes is a bogus study from some shady university which claims that those sport related injuries don't cause that kind of fatal illnesses and with desperate and stupid enough players signing contracts which include waivers and the sport will be stronger than ever, because now more people want to watch while players getting injured and end up a (mental) cripple later on.
- I can't stand football mostly because the crowd screaming NEVER LETS UP. Who needs that kind of manic noise? It totally distracts from the game.
- R20, I'll proudly display my limp wrist and fully-functioning brain while these "manly" football stars are 50 years old, living in nursing homes, and pissing their Depends every 20 minutes.
- They have the worst union. They need the guy who heads up the MLB players' union.
NFL players do not get the medical care they need.
- This is a concussion as it's happening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DBAEiTD9TSqM
- Now, now girls. I was only making a point. If the game itself isn't exciting to you or if it doesn't connote good feelings of athletic nostalgia (and I would suspect that for many gay men it would connote the exact opposite of good feelings), I could see where the dangerous aspects of the game might be enough to turn someone off.
R20
- NFL TV Ratings: Football Continues Its World Domination
by Steve Lepore • Sep 10, 2012 2:47 PM EDT
The National Football League continued to reach absurd ratings heights during its opening weekend.
NBC set a new primetime record for an NFL regular season game in the overnight ratings, which tracks the numbers from the top markets in the country. The peacock drew an 18.0 for Peyton Manning's return to football against the Steelers. In addition to being a record, that was up 7 percent from last years Dallas-Jets opener.
Star-divide
The previous record was 2010 opening night when the Saints, coming off their Super Bowl victory, hosted the Vikings. The combination of Manning's return and the nationally popular Pittsburgh team got diehards and casual fans to tune in. Locally, the game drew a 44.2 rating in Denver -- the highest overnight for a regular season game in that market since September of 2003 -- and a 51.5 in Pittsburgh.
Fox also had a very good opening Sunday. Despite being blacked out in big markets like New York and Chicago. (Whenever CBS has the home game of an NFL team, Fox cannot show a game at the same time in that market.) Their 1 p.m. ET window -- which largely featured RGIII and the Redskins beating the Saints -- drew a 10.2 overnight, up 14 percent from last year's window, which showed Eagles-Rams to most of the country. It was the highest number Fox has drawn in that timeslot during Week 1 in 11 years.
At 4:25 p.m. ET (the new late game window, or as Fox controversially likes to call it, "America's Game of the Week") 49ers-Packers drew big numbers. The Niners win -- which was seen in 87 percent of the country -- scored a 17.2 overnight rating, up slightly from the 17.1 drawn by Giants-Redskins to open up last year's season in that window. That number is a Week 1 record for Fox.
The only network to see a drop in their NFL ratings this weekend was CBS, which drew a 10.4 rating for their singleheader regional window. The window featured Patriots-Titans in most of the country, which -- while showing the ever-popular Tom Brady and Bill Belichick Patriots -- is far from a marquee game. The network was down 2 percent from last year, which featured Ravens-Steelers in most of the country. CBS has been hamstrung for many years on Week 1 of the NFL season, dating well back to their years as the rightsholder for the NFC package, by their commitment to airing the U.S. Open.
In the battle of the pre-game shows, Fox NFL Sunday easily topped CBS' The NFL Today by a score of 3.7 to 2.9. Fox's 3.7 is the best rating for a pre-game show in nine years, and a surprisingly dominant opening for Fox, given that CBS has been neck and neck ever since they hired James Brown away from Fox.
Regardless, it was a prosperous opening weekend for all involved, which makes our corporate overlords at the NFL very happy! Huzzah for the rich people!
http://www.sbnation.com/2012/9/10/3308316/nfl-tv-ratings-week-1
- Sshhh, R37. Don't get the E ff eminates all riled up...
- Most occupations are deadly.
- At the risk of sounding naive, can't they develop better head gear for protection? Parents are too short-sighted to pull their kids from playing football; it's practically "a religion" in some Southern states.
- R40, I believe they're spending big money attempting to. The ironic thing is that the better helmets and padding is the very reason the game is so fierce and violent now. Players feel so safe, they go hurl themselves at maximum velocity. It's exciting as hell, but, alas, very dangerous.
- It's sick how much of a religion it is in the south. FB is filled with fraus and herrs with the pictures and play by plays of their kid's games. The thing is, soccer isn't much better with them bouncing the ball off of their heads.
- The NFL can probably fight it forever, and they have enough money to pay off the occasional player as required.
The trouble is, this will trickle down to colleges, high schools, even junior high, and Pee Wee football. They don't have the money or the insurance or the lawyers (remember when cities were removing swings and slides from playgrounds because they couldn't afford the insurance? This will be 100 times worse).
Now, how long will the NFL survive without the college programs acting as unpaid farm teams to supply them with fresh bodies?
My point is, if football dies, it will die from the bottom up. Each rung of the ladder needs the rung below to feed it with players, and it goes all the way down to pee wee football.
- Bill Dwyre
September 11, 2012
Heads have been in the sports news recently, and not happily.
Oakland Athletics pitcher Brandon McCarthy took a line drive off the bat of the Angels' Erick Aybar last week and had surgery to reduce swelling around a skull fracture. Those are always scary words when it comes to a head, anybody's head: surgery to reduce swelling.
Thoughts quickly raced to that day in 1957, when star left-hander Herb Score of the Cleveland Indians took a line drive in the right eye off the bat of Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees. Bones were fractured and Score's vision was compromised enough that his pitching career was never the same.
Tulane safety Devon Walker has surgery for spinal fracture Tulane safety Devon Walker has surgery for spinal fracture
Doctor says A's pitcher Brandon McCarthy could have died from injury Doctor says A's pitcher Brandon McCarthy could have died from injury
Tulane player seriously hurt after head-to-head hit in Tulsa game Tulane player seriously hurt after head-to-head hit in Tulsa game
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Score died in 2008, at 75, after spending 34 years as the celebrated broadcast voice of the Indians. His newspaper friends were known to tease him that he had suffered just enough brain damage to qualify him for broadcast work.
There was no joking in the aftermath of the injury to McCarthy. The Angels' Torii Hunter, a friend of McCarthy's, said that the moment it happened, the wind went out of the sails of both teams. Aybar stood in silence at first base for a long time as McCarthy was being administered to, even though he had been called out on the play when an infielder scooped up the ball and threw to first base.
As McCarthy recovers, it is hard not to ponder some heady stuff on the NFL front.
Many newspapers, including The Times, put a story on their front page about a study saying that NFL players with five seasons or more of competition are four times more likely to die of Alzheimer's disease or
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Head trauma, football's dirty little secret forever, is being analyzed from all angles. It always made sense that people who were hit in the head a lot may pay the price for that later. A Tulane player is paying dearly right now. Devon Walker may be left paralyzed after a head-to-head hit while making a tackle Saturday.
It has taken the high-profile suicides of two former NFL stars, Dave Duerson and Junior Seau, to really slap people in the face. Medical studies published in journals and doctors' warnings have nowhere near the impact of two famous athletes putting guns to their chest and pulling the trigger, with the knowledge that that will allow study of their still-intact brains.
The NFL is cornered on this issue. A huge group of former players, more than 3,000, is suing on the grounds that the NFL gave no warnings when it should have known, has known and continues to know that serious neurological problems could result from playing the game.
There is no question that the later life of many NFL players has been badly compromised by head injuries suffered during their playing days. All you have to do is attend one of the several current gatherings of retired NFL players and observe men you remembered as young, strong and healthy, struggling to get out of chairs or finish sentences.
Continued:
- Establishing responsibility is the sport's stickiest wicket. It's like one of those TV mystery shows. Who knew and when did they know it? And once they knew it, what did they do, or how did they cover up what they knew? Or did they?
Sadly, it is the kind of thing that will make thousands of lawyers millions of dollars before it's over. And once it ends, probably with a now-young Roger Goodell pushing his walker into court to testify, all of those who fought this battle will be long gone and deprived of seeing a tangible outcome.
Speaking directly to the multiple layers of emotion and vagueness in this NFL issue was the interestingly timed NFL announcement the same day as the announcement of the study by the journal Neurology. The NFL said it would make a $30-million donation to the National Institutes of Health for a study evaluating "serious medical conditions prominent in athletes and relevant to the general population." It was the largest philanthropic donation made by the NFL in its 92 years.
Are we to interpret this to mean that the NFL really didn't know and now, facing ex-players' lawsuits and increasing public questioning, has become serious about finding out? Is $30 million a crafty legal investment against future court claims that will scream malice? Or is this a matter of the greatest sports public relations machine in the history of mankind doing what it does?
We can only ponder.
What we do know, on our topic of heads, is that one college president failed to use hers the last few weeks.
Dr. Cheryl Davenport Dozier of Savannah State in Georgia was in charge while her grossly overmatched football team took two embarrassing and dangerous beatings at the hands of powerhouses Oklahoma State and Florida State. Oklahoma State won, 84-0, and Florida State, 55-0. The Florida State game was called because of threatening weather in the third quarter. Too bad it took thunder and lightning to do what common sense should have. Savannah State reportedly received $860,000 for playing these two games.
Is that where the term "blood money" comes from?
We bow our heads in prayer for Brandon McCarthy. We scratch our heads in bewilderment over the NFL.
And we shake our heads in disgust over Savannah State.
- Atlanta is stomping Denver tonight.
- During the Houston Texans' win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Houston quarterback Matt Schaub was on the wrong end of a devastating and illegal hit by Broncos defender Joe Mays. How devastating? He lost part of his earlobe on the play.
Watch the play.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/matt-schaub-loses-piece-ear-illegal-hit-013507090--nfl.html
- This Seattle v Green Bay game is wild. These replacement refs are a fiasco.
- NBC's Cris Collinsworth, on the network's New England Patriots-Baltimore Ravens game broadcast Sunday night, essentially echoed what TV pundits said all day: He called the substitute officiating "pretty ridiculous."
But that didn't hurt the game's rating. The Ravens' win drew a 14.3 overnight rating, which translates to 14.3% of households in the 56 TV markets measured for overnights -- up 8% from comparable coverage of a Pittsburgh Steelers-Indianapolis Colts game last year.
Overall, NFL Sunday ratings are mixed. CBS had the afternoon doubleheader and its early-game coverage, featuring the Kansas City Chiefs' overtime win against the New Orleans Saints, drew an 11.4 overnight. That's up 20% from the time slot's comparable coverage last year, which featured a Philadelphia Eagles-New York Giants game.
But CBS' late-game coverage -- featuring the Houston Texans beating the Denver Broncos -- drew a 14.9 overnight. That's down 6% from last year's comparable coverage, which featured a Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears rivalry game.
Fox's single-game coverage, with the main game featuring a perennial TV draw in the Dallas Cowboys, who beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, drew a 12.2 overnight. That's down 2% from last year's comparable coverage, which featured a Houston-New Orleans game.
Ouch: On paper, Major League Baseball has some pretty good playoff races -- thanks partly to each league getting two wild-card playoff berths this year.
But this doesn't seem promising: ESPN's Sunday prime time Los Angeles Dodgers-Cincinnati Reds game drew just an 0.7 overnight. (There's no comparison to last year, when ESPN didn't carry baseball in the time slot.)
To put that in perspective: That 0.7% is the same rating that CBS' Lucas Oil Drag Boat Racing drew on Saturday afternoon, when far fewer people are watching TV.
You guessed it: NBC drew a 2.2 overnight for its coverage of golf's Tour Championship -- up 57% from last year. Guessing what can cause that kind of jump? Last year Tiger Woods didn't play the event; this year, he did.
Worth a replay: There's one big winner in the NFL's substitute ref mess. ... Fox's Michael Strahan talks about jugglingTerry Bradshaw and Kelly Ripa. ... Amid the hubbub over substitute NFL refs, are NFL TV ratings bulletproof?
- Which is why so many sub human, thug types are drawn to this mindless sport.
Anonymous
- I doubt you will ever see football go away. Too much money and too many are glued to their tv's on the weekend watching it.
I think what will happen is more damaging penalties and more players getting kicked out of games if they commit one.
A list of some of the more severe NFL penalties:
15 Yard penalty and disqualification if flagrant--
Kicking or kneeing opponent.
Malicious unnecessary roughness.
Palpably unfair act. (Distance penalty determined by the Referee after consultation with other officials.)
Roughing kicker.
Roughing passer.
Striking opponent with fist.
Striking an opponent on the head or neck with a forearm, elbow, or hands whether or not the initial contact is made below the neck area.
Unsportsmanlike conduct.
15 yards is a tough penalty, make it automatic 50 yards and throw the player out of the game with no pay. I bet these late hits, and other brain damaging tackles will diminish greatly.
Fag%20who%20loves%20football.
- It is no different than the days of the gladiators. They could kill each other out there and the crowds would cheer and idiot young men would sign up to die.
- It's not just their brains- but also their knees, hips, necks and backs. American football destroys bodies. I see it as organized violence, war if you like, merged with testosterone fueled sport. It is the modern day equivalent to gladiators. I think it is pretty awful due to the violence of the game- hocky is pretty violent as well, but at least the premise of hocky is not to bring the other team down with the ball. But I sure recognize that people build their lives around college and professional football- many of my friends and family included. The Super Bowl is as big as Christmas. Oh well- I have to put up with the Republican Party as well.
charlie
- Glersh! Glerrshhhhh!!!!!
(grabs head)
25 year old football player
- Roman gladiatos were slaves, R52, not sportsmen. If they refused to fight to the death in the arena, their owners could tortue or kill them.
- I don't see the problem.
I played football in grade school, high school, and college and I turned out fine!
Jerry Sandusky
- (Los Angeles Times) A 17-year-old high school quarterback from Riverside County remained in critical condition Tuesday after suffering what was described as a "traumatic brain injury" during a game that required emergency surgery.
Wildomar Cornerstone Christian player Ryan "Dax" McGregor has been on a ventilator at UCLA-Harbor Medical Center since Friday, according to a website soliciting donations for his medical expenses. He was hurt during a game against Avalon High School played on Santa Catalina Island.
The latest update Monday said that although McGregor remained heavily sedated, his breathing and oxygen levels had improved and he had shown "some hand movement and response" to his family and girlfriend.
Coach Bill Jarvis told the Press-Enterprise his staff wasn't sure on what play McGregor was hurt, but planned to review game tape again to try and find out.
“We still don’t know. We just know [he] came off the field and said he had a problem,” Jarvis said. “The process is still going on—we don’t know if it was a fluke thing or not."
McGregor previously spent three years at Elsinore High School, also in Wildomar.
“Our school is praying for him,” Cornerstone principal Sharon Privett told the newspaper. “It’s tough, it’s somber, but it’s hopeful.”
The team plans to play Friday against Corona Crossroads Christian despite McGregor's injury, she added.
“The parents know that we’re moving forward, in honor of him," Privett said. "He was doing what he loves to do when this injury happened.”
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/high-school-quarterback-critical-after-traumatic-brain-injury.html
- Add to the helmets these replacement refs -- what's with that?
I'm not even a football person but that call in the Green Bay-Seattle game will live in infamy.
A banker refed the play? A banker???
- More Americans watched the Pro Bowl Sunday than watched the third game of the World Series last fall. Shows you how much football dominates in AMerica.
-
- Now maybe Penis Fencing will take it's rightful place in the wide world of American sports.
- American Football was over when Janet Jackson exposed her boobie at half time.
Costume Malfunction My Ass
- No judge is ever going to allow a player to say he didn't know slamming his head into his opponents would cause him injury. No player who took millions is going to be able to show himself a victim to the NFL, especially when the NFL trots out all the experts to show the vast improvement in player protection over the years.
I agree that it may die because high schools and colleges, where the players might actually be able to make the arguments shown above, choke off the supply of players. I doubt it though as it really only requires a bunch of big guys willing to throw themselves around and a few skill players who aren't often that much at risk.
- Alive
- I bet this year's Super Bowl will set more records. The game is larger than ever.
- I think this year's game was so odd, people will be put off.
Still, a good night for Baltimore.
- Only if you're a sissy afraid to play it.
- ww for R5!
-
By Chuck Schilken
February 4, 2013, 8:31 a.m.
If Joe Flacco wasn't a household name before the Baltimore Ravens' 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII, he certainly is now.
That's because a record number of households were watching Flacco's MVP performance Sunday night, according to early overnight ratings released by the Nielsen Co.
The game scored a 48.1 rating and a 71 share in a select measurement of big cities, which would make it the most-watched TV event in U.S. history.
The Green Bay Packers' win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2011 drew a 47.9 rating; the New York Giants' victory over the New England Patriots in 2012 got a 48.1 rating.
Those two games and the 1983 series finale of "MASH" were the only three broadcasts in history to top the 100-million view mark. This year's Super Bowl is sure to join the list when Nielsen releases its estimate of how many people watched the game later Monday.
One ratings point represents 1% of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share means that 71% of TVs that were on at the time were tuned to the Super Bowl.
