Huge news in the world of sports. Mainly because it deals with the Tim Tebow of basketball, LeBron James.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11866239/lebron-james-says-kids-allowed-play-football
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/lebron-football-house/story?id=26872603
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/nov/13/lebron-james-not-let-sons-play-football-safety-fears
Let's just say that there is way too many articles on such a brief statement. What did "The King" say?
"No football in my house."
Interesting, yes. Surprising, yes. A big deal? Absolutely not.
When asked whether the reason for his decision was the health dangers related to football, James replied, "Yes."
People have begun to berate LeBron for his comments.
Some comments I found amusing:
"So basically no real sports in his house?"
"Makes sense since you can't flop in football."
"Pussy Bitch"
Standing at 6'8 and 250 lbs, LeBron is anything but that last comment. LeBron has even stated that his first love was the game of football, but he stopped playing because of a broken wrist he suffered as a junior in high school. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything (that's the NFL's job), but those comments pissed me off. How does not letting your children play football make you any less of a man? If anything, it makes you a sound parent that cares for the safety of your children. Don't get me wrong, letting your child play football isn't bad parenting. But the way we as a society label people who don't play football because of the fear of injuries is just repulsive.
I've said this before and I'm going to say it again. The biggest problem with all that I'm doing in my thesis is the preconceived notions people already have in their minds. Whether it be, "Football is a man's game", "Getting hit is part of the game", or "Walk it off", all these ideas that football is not for the "weak" are just annoying and erroneous. Berating one of the greatest athletes to walk this planet because he believes that his children shouldn't play football is just plain stupid.
I'm going to reiterate this because I think it needs to be said. Injuries in football are just different from those in most sports. Yes, you can tear an ACL playing almost any sport. However, you cannot develop CTE from most sports. Injuries to the head and brain cannot be seen physically in the same way as a broken arm or sprained ankle. Yet, these head injuries tend to be some of the worst that can possibly be sustained. LeBron is just looking out for the long term health of his children. And if you think that he is just being a "pussy bitch", then you need a shot of reality. Maybe even two.
Isn't there a higher instance of concussions in soccer? I think it would be interesting to find information (about misinformation) about football and its connection to brain injury.
ReplyDeleteThe Lebron thing is media hype, unfortunately. But you are correct in your analysis.
There is a very high instance of concussions in soccer, but it is still second to that of football.
Deletehttp://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-07/soccer-concussions-are-more-frequent-than-you-think
Here is actually a link that talks about how concussions in soccer are more common than people think, yet it is still not at the level of football.
Also, Hilderaldo Bellini, former Brazil Captain, who recently passed away was the first professional soccer player to have CTE. So, what I found interesting is the fact that the concussion rate in soccer is relatively high, yet only one player has shown signs of CTE (and this is still somewhat disputed, some sources are saying his death was caused by Alzheimer's disease which culminated in a cardiac arrest, I think someone out there that was reporting the story when it came out was just trying to create speculation). The way concussions in soccer are managed is much better than the way they are tackled in the NFL, but that may just be due to the nature of the game. Football players tend to neglect their health more and try to play the following week, which can be extremely difficult if a team has a Thursday night game. At least on the professional level, soccer teams tend to have an agglomerate of highly paid, well trained players. In football, we can have teams like the Raiders or the Jaguars which are primarily built on young players and rookies who haven't played at a high level. So there is less stress on soccer players to play the following week, while if someone like a Dez Bryant or Josh Gordon is to miss a week there goes the entire team's passing attack.
Also, as you probably know, Derrick Rose is now taking flak for the comments he made about his long term health. I'll talk more about this in a future blog.