I'm looking forward to football Sundays this year.
"Parents wary of head injuries in youth sports" by Kurt Voigt | Associated Press August 29, 2014
Parents are worried about their children playing football, but most haven’t decided to keep their kids from putting on a helmet and stepping onto the field.
According to an Associated Press-GfK poll, nearly half of parents said they had reservations about letting their children play football — and other contact sports — amid growing uncertainty about the long-term effects of concussions.
In the poll, 44 percent of parents weren’t comfortable with their children playing football. The same percentage was uncomfortable with ice hockey, and 45 percent were uncomfortable with wrestling.
Only 5 percent, though, said they have discouraged their children from playing in the last two years as concern over head injuries has increased.
The majority of parents said they are comfortable with participation in a host of other sports — including swimming, track and field, basketball, soccer, baseball, and softball.
The AP-GfK poll was conducted from July 24 to 28. It included interviews with 1,044 adults and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
The parents’ concern comes as several high-profile lawsuits have challenged how concussions have been addressed in pro and college sports.
Thousands of pro players sued the NFL, and a $675 million settlement that would compensate them for concussion-related claims is pending.
A tentative settlement with the NCAA, meanwhile, would create a $70 million fund to test thousands of current and former college athletes for brain trauma.
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Maybe the head injuries are responsible for this:
"Roger Goodell deserves credit for getting tougher on domestic abuse" | August 30, 2014
It is entirely to the credit of National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell to admit that he ‘‘didn’t get it right’’
when he handed down a paltry two-game suspension to Ray Rice, the
Baltimore Ravens running back who allegedly beat his then-fiancee to the
point that she became unconscious. In response, Goodell announced new
rules, detailed in a letter
sent Thursday to the owners of the NFL’s 32 teams. The commissioner now
plans to suspend a player for at least 6 weeks for the first offense
and banish him from the league for a second offense, although after a
year the player can appeal the ruling. These rules finally make domestic
violence more serious in the eyes of the NFL than substance abuse,
which generally brings a four-game suspension.
Goodell will have a chance to show his new toughness in dealing with
Carolina Panthers star Greg Hardy, who was convicted in July of
assaulting his ex-girlfriend. Hardy has appealed and requested a jury
trial, which won’t happen until after the season. But that may be merely
a delaying tactic; if Hardy has a strong claim of actual innocence,
Goodell would be justified in waiting until after the legal case is
complete. If not, the commissioner can send a strong message by applying
the six-game suspension immediately.
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Did I make your team, readers?
