TheBrownBear

Great post! As a parent, this just about sums it up. Thank you for this.

I was four when my father and uncle took me to my first game. It was October 1983, a Monday night game against the Jets in which we were blown out. I don't recall much, bu I remember was walking into the stadium and seeing the field under the lights for the first time. My Dad said I fell asleep sometime in the second quarter and then he carried me back to the car sometime late in the third. My Mom was pissed to high hell when we got home...lol. She had no clue we were going to the game. She was working late that night and my Dad just left her a note that my uncle had a couple extra tickets and that he was dragging me along. I guess he couldn't find a babysitter at that late notice. We became season ticket holders in the family section in 1987 and attended every game through the mid-90's. So, I was eight when I really started to attend the games and I remember loving every second of it. Definitely old enough at that point to follow the games passionately and I wasn't intimidated or afraid of the crowd element. I'm not sure when I'd take my own son to an NFL game. I took him to a Padres game here in SD when he was about a year old and all he wanted to do was run around at the park behind the bleacher seats. He had fun but it's a totally different atmosphere than an NFL game. His first real football game will probably be at the Rose Bowl in a couple of years to check out his Dad's UCLA Bruins. Outside of the student section, it's a much more collegial atmosphere and he's not likely to see the drunken tomfoolery or hear the kind of racy language he'd be exposed to at an NFL game.

It's not about the random risks that are associated with any activity. The problem with football is that, due to the repetitive contact that is inherent in the sport, there really is no way to educate people about the risks in a way that they can prevent or limit their risk of suffering these head injuries. The game itself must be changed to eliminate these kind of collisions. Maybe this can be done by eliminating helmets and having the linemen stand at the line of scrimmage...I don't know. As far as the ethical questions and/or helicopter parenting, I frankly don't care what grown men choose to do with their bodies/minds. Once you are an adult you can make the choice to inflict the type of punishment upon yourself that football brings with it. But, with the scientific knowledge that is now available to us with regards to football and CTE, I don't see how in good conscience you can allow your child to be exposed to that environment.

I have a son and there is no way I will allow him to play football, at least as it exists in its present format. There's plenty of other sports/team activities that he can engage in that don't carry the same risk of devastating injury. As a fan, I used to love the big hits in football. But with what we've learned over the past few years with regards to CTE, I'm finding the idea of being a fan of the game less and less enjoyable. I think football, as it is currently constituted, is fundamentally flawed and will ultimately become a marginalized sport over the next twenty years. There's more than just the helmet issue too. For instance, the repetitive, seemingly innocuous, line-of-scrimmage impacts between linemen are also showing to be a contributing factor to CTE. Remove the big guys and you're left with a professional flag football passing league.

On the field only... 1) Thomas 2) Reed 3) Kelly 4) B. Smith 5) Moulds Was/is a big fan of both Travis Henry and Fred Jackson. Two tough dudes. Born in '79, so no frame of reference prior to the '85 season.

San Diego, CA...via Depew, NY

Call me once we've added some real NFL linebackers.

I liked Florence and think he will be missed. Good luck to him. I hope he finds a good situation.

This. To call it a selfish act shows a real lack of empathy. Like you said, 90% of the time these are very sick people who see no way out of their situations. A few years back I experienced a prolonged period of major depression (which I mostly successfully hid from my loved ones) that had me on the precipice of taking my own life. I had made up my mind to do it on the way home from grad school one night, when I happened to run into a friend on the way to the subway. After spending some time with them, I felt just well enough to stay here for one more day. That was the one extra day I needed to come clean with my family and finally ask for help. You literally can't see the forest for the trees when you're effected by mental illness. And I think it's definitely harder for men to seek help. We are raised not to show weakness - mentally or physically. When you're suffering and you're programmed not to seek help, sometimes taking your life can seem like the only solution.

Corp is a dud. It wasn't injuries that set him back. He just sucked when given the opportunity at USC. I remember him handing that game to UW. No way he makes this team.

Perfect comparison actually. Hell, I think Marino is overrated too. He put up some ridiculous numbers at the very start of his career, but he never put any fear into me after, say, 1987 or so.

If you were to project that over a 16 game schedule, you end up with 88 rec. for 1280/yds, and 14.5 ypc. Keep in mind this is against the undisputed number one cover corner in the NFL. Not sure if that's owning Revis, but it's pretty darn good - and it's solid evidence of Stevie being worthy of the #1 receiver moniker.

And the Buffalo area could always use another quality chronic distributor.

We should trade Fred Jackson straight-up for the Vikings #3 pick and take Kalil.

San Diego is adding some burners - Royal, Roscoe and Meacham.

Draft this guy and the composite score of our entire secondary might be less than Fitzy's. Honestly, I feel bad for this dude that this was leaked. Especially, if he has a legitimate learning disability.

I'm disappointed. I didn't see an image of Rob Johnson lying flat on his back.

Osweiler is raw but he's got a nice live arm. Mazzone runs a ton of bubble screens, so that's what you'll see in most highlights. He's a good athlete (If I recall, he was a pretty big basketball recruit coming out of high school). Would love to see him here with a 3rd round or later selection.

bingo

I like the op's idea, but why not just trade fred to indy for their first. Then we could take andrew luck. Trade fitz to the browns for the #4 pick and grab kalil. Move next year's first rounder and merriman for the #5 pick and take blackmon. Then use the #10 pick on trent richardson. That would give us a nice young core for the next few years.

Holy crap!!! That is some legit punishment there. Impressive. Love Goodell's management style, if not his overall vision.

This. But if we could get him for a 6th rounder or less, I'd consider it.

bingo

*Ralph shuffles to podium* "What? Why am I here? Oh, um, yes, I'd like to announce our first round pick JD Williams"

This is a great signing! No doubt about it. And I'm a skeptic when it comes to everything. This was the best option available to them and they got it done. Combined with the Stevie re-signing, this frees them up to do pretty much whatever they want with the number 10 pick in the draft.