[2006alum]

And yes, their existence suggests every contact sport is risky to some degree. But the extent of the damage is so significant with football that it's just too hard to ignore. I have a distant family member who played football at U$C, suffered numerous concussions, and while he held down a job at a tech firm for a few years, started to have issues with memory, concentration, focus, and impulse control. Now, at the ripe old age of 30, he cannot concentrate for extended periods of time, manage his anger, or hold down a job, and he recently literally walked into a police station and started threatening officers because he knew it was the only way he would get helped and be detained from doing something dangerous to himself or someone else. And he's 30. Sorry, but I just can't look past this stuff anymore and willfully enjoy a sport that is generating such catastrophic byproducts.

I'm so, so sorry.  That's terrible :(

Thanks, fullmetal. It's a terrible situation and I really don't see what a viable path forward will be, although he's at least now being medicated, with uneven initial results.

Some posts have referred to boxing's demise. Perhaps it's gotten smaller but it's far from disappeared. Amateur boxing has changed tremendously, of course. But as a sport we are talking about a sport that generates about half a billion dollars a year in the United States alone (it was $438.6 million last year and I wonder if a massive year this year could be bigger with Crawford-Spence, Davis-Garcia, Haney-Lomachenko, Benavidez-Plant, not to mention every time Canelo steps in a ring). Globally it's a bigger sport than tennis.

I mention this less to defend the sweet science and more to inject a dose of realism into discussions about what happens even to barbaric sports. Is there a time since the gladiators when human society hasn't showcased (some would say exploited) superior physical specimens for the entertainment of others? Is there a time when violence of one man against another man isn't part of the appeal?

Americans enjoy football. It's an Ivory Tower, coastal elite discussion to talk about the physical risks. I think it's unlikely physical risks will ever stop modern day gladiators from leveraging their physical gifts to make money or stop the masses from enjoying the incredible drama, beauty, inspiration, and human spirit that gets showcased in physically grueling sports in a way nothing else can match, at least for some subset of the population that will continue to pay for it (in terms of both the physical costs to the competitors and the monetary costs to the audience).

Matt, I generally really appreciate your analysis, but I think you're missing the point, or at least my point. The reason colleges and the NCAA don't sanction collegiate boxing, no matter how popular it may be, is because the side effects are so fully at odds with the mission of a university. And my point is that the same is increasingly true for college football. My distant relative (mentioned above) played football very competitively in high school to qualify for an athletic scholarship (and admissions glide path) to U$C, and U$C exists (and receives beaucoup state and federal subsidies) to produce well educated citizens; optimally, future leaders; and, at a minimum, self-sufficient members of society.

Yet in large part due to his participation in college football, he's unlikely to be any of those things. So in exchange for his extremely diminished life outcomes, U$C, its fans, and TV viewers got to watch the "incredible drama, beauty, inspiration." Sorry, but seeing the effects up close I'm not seeing beauty or inspiration. I'm seeing abuse, exploitation, and turning a blind eye to hypocrisy. U$C is not going to foot the bill for his lifetime of medical issues and inability to be a fully functioning citizen; the rest of us are. But U$C will still greedily take its share of B1G media money while it produces another generation of broken toys who will one day become someone else's problem.

[2006alum]

And yes, their existence suggests every contact sport is risky to some degree. But the extent of the damage is so significant with football that it's just too hard to ignore. I have a distant family member who played football at U$C, suffered numerous concussions, and while he held down a job at a tech firm for a few years, started to have issues with memory, concentration, focus, and impulse control. Now, at the ripe old age of 30, he cannot concentrate for extended periods of time, manage his anger, or hold down a job, and he recently literally walked into a police station and started threatening officers because he knew it was the only way he would get helped and be detained from doing something dangerous to himself or someone else. And he's 30. Sorry, but I just can't look past this stuff anymore and willfully enjoy a sport that is generating such catastrophic byproducts.

I'm so, so sorry.  That's terrible :(

Thanks, fullmetal. It's a terrible situation and I really don't see what a viable path forward will be, although he's at least now being medicated, with uneven initial results.

Some posts have referred to boxing's demise. Perhaps it's gotten smaller but it's far from disappeared. Amateur boxing has changed tremendously, of course. But as a sport we are talking about a sport that generates about half a billion dollars a year in the United States alone (it was $438.6 million last year and I wonder if a massive year this year could be bigger with Crawford-Spence, Davis-Garcia, Haney-Lomachenko, Benavidez-Plant, not to mention every time Canelo steps in a ring). Globally it's a bigger sport than tennis.

I mention this less to defend the sweet science and more to inject a dose of realism into discussions about what happens even to barbaric sports. Is there a time since the gladiators when human society hasn't showcased (some would say exploited) superior physical specimens for the entertainment of others? Is there a time when violence of one man against another man isn't part of the appeal?

Americans enjoy football. It's an Ivory Tower, coastal elite discussion to talk about the physical risks. I think it's unlikely physical risks will ever stop modern day gladiators from leveraging their physical gifts to make money or stop the masses from enjoying the incredible drama, beauty, inspiration, and human spirit that gets showcased in physically grueling sports in a way nothing else can match, at least for some subset of the population that will continue to pay for it (in terms of both the physical costs to the competitors and the monetary costs to the audience).

Matt, I generally really appreciate your analysis, but I think you're missing the point, or at least my point. The reason colleges and the NCAA don't sanction collegiate boxing, no matter how popular it may be, is because the side effects are so fully at odds with the mission of a university. And my point is that the same is increasingly true for college football. My distant relative (mentioned above) played football very competitively in high school to qualify for an athletic scholarship (and admissions glide path) to U$C, and U$C exists (and receives beaucoup state and federal subsidies) to produce well educated citizens; optimally, future leaders; and, at a minimum, self-sufficient members of society.

Yet in large part due to his participation in college football, he's unlikely to be any of those things. So in exchange for his extremely diminished life outcomes, U$C, its fans, and TV viewers got to watch the "incredible drama, beauty, inspiration." Sorry, but seeing the effects up close I'm not seeing beauty or inspiration. I'm seeing abuse, exploitation, and turning a blind eye to hypocrisy. U$C is not going to foot the bill for his lifetime of medical issues and inability to be a fully functioning citizen; the rest of us are. But U$C will still greedily take its share of B1G media money while it produces another generation of broken toys who will one day become someone else's problem.