2009-10-27T22:40:34-04:00 2009-10-15T13:00:33-04:00 47 2009-10-15T13:00:33-04:00 1 5 10 2009-10-27T22:40:34-04:00 2 GA tippman Canton 902431 47 Have any of you played football? I wear a bucket and I still hit. Does that make me a dog? Its my choice and a great sport. 7431921 2009-10-27T22:38:18-04:00 2 GA tippman Canton 902431 46 Have any of you played football? I know the facts and still play, does that make me a dog? Not to mention everything possible is done to prevent concusions. 7431883 2009-10-27T08:45:58-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/898/074/thumb/Me_being_goofy.jpg 22 AL Airhed Birmingham 898734 45 What about Hockey or Rugby? 7417871 2009-10-16T01:47:44-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/519/787/thumb/avatar_2028.jpg 2755 GA Georgia Tech Ramblin' Wreck Rome 520227 11 Yes, because the athletes are specifically bred and raised for the sole purpose of football, injured players are put down after games, and the participants are forced against their will to play. Seriously? This is like PETA making all those Holocaust comparisons; it just doesn't fly. 7274978 2009-10-26T11:53:56-04:00 1 MS mlparkOU Jackson 901330 Yes, because the athletes are specifically bred and raised for the sole purpose of football, injured players are put down after games, and the participants are forced against their will to play.Seriously? This is like PETA making all those Holocaust comparisons; it just doesn't fly. 44 EXACTLY and last time I checked the dogs did not have the opportunity to go to the NFL and make millions. 7405877 2009-10-26T09:15:58-04:00 9 TX KDD22 Coppell 619605 43 The comparison of football to dog fighting was a poor choice. But if we take a step back and and look at what he is saying as whole we may gain a different perspective. Football does highlight and reward violence. Before this article I had discussions with co-workers talking about football and gladiators and how violence was a spectator sport and how we really haven't evolved. I played football for 10 years and luckily, as least as far as I know, never had a concussion. My son plays and for him I'm concerned. I hope something is done to make the game safer and less violent. To get from this article what is really intended forget the dog fighting analogy. Think about the violent spectacle and how it impacts the participants now and later in life. Then think about whether you want you or your child to possibly be affected. The choice is personal. 7401887 2009-10-24T00:40:35-04:00 49 FL the cane way Lake Wales 712583 42 Man, guy's need something to do that's manly and studly. Don't have to apologize for being a man. If this writer doesn't feel like he has the balls to get out there and play ball, he should keep his mouth shut and not speak for the men who like to get out there and play a little tackle ball. Crap, it's what we used to do all the time, get a game going, never had to ask if it was tackle, it was always tackle. This dude is another one of those kind who are intimidated by men, who never got picked because everyone knew if we pick this kid, were gonna lose. You guy's know the kind. Shut up, put away your typewriter and start a pick up game, tackle, of course, you may even start to feel like a man. 7385644 2009-10-24T00:33:45-04:00 49 FL the cane way Lake Wales 712583 41 big city rag, new york rag, weak milqtoast writer. 7385533 2009-10-22T13:37:40-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/715/933/thumb/CatwithGlasses.jpg 56 Cattus Culinarius 716573 40 Shiba, my friend, this isn't about whether football players represent some ideal of risk-taking behavior, or whether they have bigger b___s. Life is still full of risks and rewards...many different kinds of risks and rewards, not just in sport, and the people who take those risks are just as important. Football involves risks that can result in severe injure or even death, and it often results in chronic conditions that screw up a person's physical and mental health for the rest of his life. The culture as a whole pushes a lot of young kids into thinking that, to be validated as men, they should play football. What are the rewards for this? Some admiration, maybe some personal discipline (though that's debatable), and for a tiny fraction of players, monetary gains. Is it fun for us to watch? Most of the time. Do college and professional football create hundreds if not billions of dollars of revenue? Yep. Is playing football a good bet for the players themselves? Not so much. I'm not going to dignify your political rant with a response, other than to say your assumption regarding a person's political position and attitude towards college sports and risk-taking behavior is simply wrong. 7360996 2009-10-21T16:37:02-04:00 2 VA shibafriend Hampton 568384 39 Life was once full of risks and rewards. Certain types of risk-adverse individuals have neither the backbones nor the b___s to take a risk and they envy those who do and especially the rewards they receive. These risk-adverse types seem to migrate towards the politically-correct left, the New Yorker, the NYT, vote democrat and bemoan the 20% who accomplish the 80%, whether in sports, banking, the military, or any other high-stakes risk vice reward activity. It is only recently that the American society paid the cowards any attention. They abhor all forms of violence, guns and traditional manly endeavors. They are blow holes. College sports remains one of the few places where the cream still rises to the top and it is dispised by the political left on Campus and off by the likes of the New Yorker writer. Now they are running the country. 7347760 2009-10-21T14:14:35-04:00 1 CA auntrachel South Lake Tahoe 896168 38 Not bred for the game? Look at the physical characteristics of players today. The limit for me was when our high school coach quit because his returning seniors had been unwilling to weight-train during the off season. 7344877 47 <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/08/13/bowl.arrangements/tate-forcier.jpg" alt="Double Click to select a Photo" width="298" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Recently concussed Michigan QB Tate Forcier ::AP</div> </div> <p>If you have a few minutes before Cincinnati and USF kick off, consider this your reading assignment. <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell" target="_blank">It's a New Yorker piece by Malcolm Gladwell</a>, the author of best-sellers T<em>he Tipping Point</em>, <em>Blink </em>and <em>Outliers</em>, and it compares football and dogfighting.<br /><br />If you're like me, you probably slammed the brakes when you read that last sentence, just as I did when I first saw the headline on the New Yorker site. Just ignore that instinct and keep reading. When I was researching a story last week about what doctors would want to see before they would allow Florida quarterback Tim Tebow to play, cranial rights advocate Chris Nowinski mentioned that he'd been interviewed by Gladwell for an upcoming piece. Concussions are very much in the news these days. Besides Tebow, Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier and Texas Tech quarterback Taylor Potts also have recently suffered concussions. Having read much of Gladwell's work, I was curious to see what he would juxtapose with the violence of concussions. In two recent New Yorker forays into sports, Gladwell <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell" target="_blank">wondered why NBA teams don't use the full-court press more often</a>, and he used the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_gladwell" target="_blank">pre-draft evaluation of Chase Daniel</a> to illustrate that it's just as hard to find a good future teacher coming out of college as it is to find a good future NFL quarterback.<br /><br />Gladwell picked dogfighting, and the connection seemed tenuous at first. But as the story progressed, the juxtaposition made more sense. By the end, I found myself counting up every blow to the head I ever took while playing football.<br /><br />The conclusion should make you think. Are we as football fans no better than the Romans who cheered as gladiators died in the name of sport? Are we no better than the bumpkins who gather in deserted barns and watch dogs rip each other to shreds? Unlike the gladiators and the dogs, the football players have a choice, but does that let us off the hook?<br /><br />These questions have no easy answers, but they're worth pondering.</p> http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/245/899/thumb/staples_andy2.jpg 39 Andy Staples 246219 81641 <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/08/13/bowl.arrangements/tate-forcier.jpg" alt="Double Click to select a Photo" width="298" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Recently concussed Michigan QB Tate Forcier ::AP</div> </div> <p>If you have a few minutes before Cincinnati and USF kick off, consider this your reading assignment. <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell" target="_blank">It's a New Yorker piece by Malcolm Gladwell</a>, the author of best-sellers T<em>he Tipping Point</em>, <em>Blink </em>and <em>Outliers</em>, and it compares football and dogfighting.<br /><br />If you're like me, you probably slammed the brakes when you read that last sentence, just as I did when I first saw the headline on the New Yorker site. Just ignore that instinct and keep reading.&nbsp;</p>