[qwerty49]

There is one trend in the game that Stanford really cannot mitigate - the focus on head trauma and lifetime injuries. We don't know if any of the retirements are related to that. But we have seen some alumni careers ended due to these factors. AJ Tarpley retired from the NFL because of too many concussions. Coby Fleener sat out the season after being cut by New Orleans because of lingering concussion symptoms.

Football is a violent game. At some point, players (especially those with good options for their post-college career) may say "enough." Insurance companies are close to that point now according to this ESPN story.
http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/2577...leges-espn

OK, I haven't finished reading this ESPN story, but O-M-G is it serious. I've always downplayed the predictions of football's demise as some sort of Chicken Little exercise in hyperbole, but when insurers are refusing to underwrite football operations and others involved in the sport, yikes.

The NFL may have to get into the insurance business to save itself, and it it won't, then the sport very well may be in trouble.

There’s no doubt that this is a big factor in “retirements.”  All the more reason to re-evaluate our expectations that a player staying for 4 or 5 years should be the basis for our recruiting numbers. Getting back to the title of this thread, “adapt or suffer the consequences.”

[qwerty49]

There is one trend in the game that Stanford really cannot mitigate - the focus on head trauma and lifetime injuries. We don't know if any of the retirements are related to that. But we have seen some alumni careers ended due to these factors. AJ Tarpley retired from the NFL because of too many concussions. Coby Fleener sat out the season after being cut by New Orleans because of lingering concussion symptoms.

Football is a violent game. At some point, players (especially those with good options for their post-college career) may say "enough." Insurance companies are close to that point now according to this ESPN story.
http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/2577...leges-espn

OK, I haven't finished reading this ESPN story, but O-M-G is it serious. I've always downplayed the predictions of football's demise as some sort of Chicken Little exercise in hyperbole, but when insurers are refusing to underwrite football operations and others involved in the sport, yikes.

The NFL may have to get into the insurance business to save itself, and it it won't, then the sport very well may be in trouble.

There’s no doubt that this is a big factor in “retirements.”  All the more reason to re-evaluate our expectations that a player staying for 4 or 5 years should be the basis for our recruiting numbers. Getting back to the title of this thread, “adapt or suffer the consequences.”