(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
In the Washington Post, “Ex-NFL linemen discover that weighing 300 pounds or more is no asset in life after football“:
Roger Brown was made to go to the train station back then, standing where they weighed logs and iron. The Detroit Lions’ scale didn’t reach such ungodly measures…
In the early 1960s, Brown was the biggest man in football — and, as the NFL’s first regular player to weigh 300 pounds, something of an oddity. These days, there’s nothing unusual about a player that size. Three weeks ago, when 256 players entered the league via the NFL draft, 57 were listed at weights of at least 300 pounds.
But what happens when the games end and a man no longer needs to be so big to earn his living?… After years of having their sizes carefully managed and strength coaches and nutritionists keeping close tabs on their weights, some ex-players feel abandoned…
Also in the Washington Post, “First-ever summit on sports concussions held at the White House”:
… Thursday’s conference featured a panel discussion by experts and new financial commitments by the federal government and private sector to fund research into concussions. The pledges included a $10 million grant by Steve Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants, to UCLA School of Medicine’s neurosurgery department, to train pediatric neurologists specializing in sports concussions and research how to prevent, diagnose and treat the injuries among young athletes…
In his remarks Thursday, Obama said that when he “was young and played football briefly” he might have had a mild concussion “a couple of times” that went undiagnosed.
“We have to change a culture that says, ‘You’ve got to suck it up,’” he said…
The concussion-conference article was careful to spell out that every contact sport carries a risk, and “young players” are more vulnerable, and these days plenty of girls get concussions playing soccer. But as many have said, NFL football is the Money Sport here… and if seven-year-olds aren’t enrolled in Pop Warner leagues and high schoolers don’t try out because their parents won’t sign the permission slips, the NFL is going to have to find or invent another feeder system.
scav
Going to be fun watching the 1% chance Invade! Invade! Invade! Dark Lord brigade go bonkers about the wussification of ‘Merca! implicit in not Sucking it Up and racking up the most, biggest, most exceptional concussions possible no matter the consequences down the line. We already know those 1% chances don’t apply to climate change or shooting our own schoolkids in the name of watering metaphorical freedom trees with actual hemoglobin.
The increasing diversity of the despised entitled moocher class is also somewhat heartening. Veterans and Football Players added in just this week.
OzarkHillbilly
crickets…..
gene108
Sigh…Wingnuts are going to have a field day playing this on a loop and saying this is why Obama’s such a dumb-evil-mastermind-weakling-fascist-communist-Muslim-socialist.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Yawn
low-tech cyclist
The kid turns 7 this summer. My wife and I have long since agreed that he’s never getting permission to play tackle football.
I figure we’ve got a lot of company among parents who hope to someday send their kids to the more selective colleges. Ten years from now, those colleges will have a tough time fielding football teams.
It’ll work its way down from there.
Schlemizel
HoF OT Randall McDaniel currently works as an elementary school teacher because he loves kids & education. He worked with my wife for a few years and if you saw him today you would not know he used to be a 300 lb terror – unless you saw his hands. He worked very hard to slim down to a normal weight, its obvious he thought a lot about life after football. But he is the exception. He is still a young guy so the brain damage question is still undetermined.
raven
@Schlemizel: Many players lose a great deal of the bulk when they quit.
raven
Nicole Wallace is “uncomfortable” that the VA issue is being politicized without all the facts being known!
p.a.
They will. By any means necessary.
Chyron HR
And they award Pulitzers for these things.
Schlemizel
@raven:
I have not seen a lot of retired players but many of the ones I have seen look like they went to pot after football. Still carrying a lot of weight but not having the muscle. That can’t be good for them either.
Also too: Who the hell is Nicole Wallace & why should we care about her comfort level?
raven
Yea, the NFL is on it’s way to extinction for sure.
raven
@Schlemizel: hahahahaha
Schlemizel
@raven:
No, I’m serious! I looked her up & IMDB says she is a recurring character on Lawn Order SUV or something. I’m guessing she is on Morning Ho because I know you watch & report (a feat of resolve we should all thank you for since then we don’t have to) One of the best parts about not watching the talking heads is a lot of times I have to look up some name dropped because I have never heard of them before. I view that as a positive.
NotMax
In hindsight, the decision some time back by one of the colleges which I attended to end its organized football program after 122 years was a mighty wise one.
Boy oh boy, did a segment of the alumni/alumnae put up a squawk at the time.
OzarkHillbilly
I know it is still early in the morning but I’ve been thinking about something of late (yes, it hurt):
2nd Amendment rights are absolutely inviolate, without any restrictions whatsoever, no matter how many innocent children die at the gun filled hands of hate filled people, guns which everybody admits (even members of the conservative Right) these people never should have been allowed to purchase, but must be allowed to purchase because any restriction on guns, or ammo, or expanded magazines, or flash suppressors, or silencers, is the first sign of the jack booted gov’t thugs coming to take our constitutionally guaranteed FREEDOMS ™,
but….
Voter ID laws are absolutely necessary because even though in person voter fraud is non-existent, and even though it has been proven that these laws will cause some people to lose their inviolable constitutional right to vote, this is absolutely necessary because some people, some where, some how, feel a certain lack of confidence in the integrity of every single solitary vote.
Seems like airtight logic to me…
BillinGlendaleCA
@Schlemizel: Nicole Wallace was Shrub the DimSon’s Communications Director.
Schlemizel
@OzarkHillbilly:
You are correct, air tight . . . as in the brains appear to have been starved of oxygen for an extended period at some point.
Raven: Ah! It Nicolle Wallace! The Great Gazoogle knows her, so glad I don’t.
EDIT: @BillinGlendaleCA: – Yes, thanks it took me a while. My second qustion about who cares still stands though.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Communications Directorator.
:)
Schlemizel
@NotMax:
Well, someone needed to be directoratin’ while Boy George was deciderin’
Its a shame we have to put up with the concussed weak minded Kenyan Usurper after being bless to be under the care of a mental giant like W.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Schlemizel: No one but Joe and Mika, they also have Harold Ford on as a regular as well.
Schlemizel
@BillinGlendaleCA:
UGH! Sadly, I know him so thats a good reason for me not to watch.
Thanks
NotMax
@Schlemizel
That there media strategery don’t sprout sponten-, spontyn -, spontain-, on its own.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Happy (actual) anniversary to you and the bride! You didn’t forget?
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
The two things couldn’t be more different as far as culture and history, though. The 15th and 19th were enacted to trump state actions denying the right to vote. They’re almost an affront to conservatism because (theoretically!) we don’t need federal intervention to protect rights- they would have come around eventually, or something.
I really don’t think one can ignore which two groups those amendments protect, either. It’d be a little ridiculous to ignore that it’s blacks and women we’re talking about.
It really goes back to the role of the federal government. It isn’t a big mystery why groups who have been discriminated against by “states’ rights!” see the federal government as either neutral or beneficial, not malignant and inherently scary. It was and is their last resort, the last line of protection when “local” fails and “state” fails.
I think it’s behind the “dudebro” arguments you see online among liberals and Democrats. Seeing the federal government wholly as a threat to “liberty” is a bit of a luxury. You’d only feel that way if state law had historically been in your corner and you never needed federal protections FROM state law.
Betty Cracker
@Kay:
Excellent point. ETA: I resent how the Paultroons and Gadsden flag peeps have ruined the word “liberty” for me. It’s a perfectly wonderful word, but now when I see it, it signifies “unhinged rant ahead.”
Punchy
Wait…(heh)…ex-employees feel abandoned by their ex-employers? Since when does a former employer have any obligation to continue to provide dietary guidance (unless collectively bargained, and it wasnt) to peeps who no longer work for them? What am I missing?
WereBear
More privilege, in other words.
And I noticed there’s only whining about State’s Rights when they want to do something heinous. And I point that out, because they know it.
schrodinger's cat
I have a new dispatch from India, with a photo and some history.
Baud
Happy anniversary, Raven and Mrs. Raven.
Obama coming out with big power plant emissions rules on Monday. Steve Schmidt was giddy on Chris Hayes because he thought the rules would hand the Senate to the GOP. I guess we’ll find out whether people really care about climate change.
Lee
I’ve got a buddy who has been following this story for awhile he says Pop Warner enrollments have decreased the last 2 years. This is not that unusual as there have been decreases before. If it continues into a 3rd year, that is a problem.
I’ve already noticed a slight difference with youth soccer. There are still headers, but they are really pushing for the kids to chest the ball instead.
satby
Happy Anniversary to raven and his princess! Long may you garden together.
Thoughtful David
@Betty Cracker:
They’ve also ruined some other really good words: “freedom” and “patriot” and “constitutional.” I see those words coming from someone I don’t know and immediately have a (non-Thoughtful) negative image of the person doing the writing. He or she can redeem himself, but my first reaction is, sadly, negative.
Here in Virginia we also have “never forget 9/11” license plates. Those are ruined for me too. Everyone I’ve ever spoken to who had those on their car turned out to really mean “kill more Muslins–we don’t care who, just kill ’em.” Now when I see the license plates I also immediately develop a negative image of the owner. Really ruined it. I could never have those license plates on my car, despite my sympathy for the victims of the 9/11 tragedy.
Ash Can
@Punchy: The “abandonment” comes when the employers don’t make any attempt to fix what they broke — and broke under false pretenses, yet.
Kay
@WereBear:
I look at it more literally, I see it as “where you’re standing”. If you’ve always been INSIDE state law protections then it’s easy to see the federal role as wholly a sword, taking something you already had. The “outside” groups tend to see it more as a shield, because they’ve been standing OUTSIDE.
I love Rand Paul speeches because he’s the absolute best example.
I watched his senate debates and his opponent (who was an AG, and, incidentally, a white southern male) made the federal law sword/shield point over and over again, really eloquently, but it’s like a brick wall. They can’t see it. They’re inside, and that’s where they’re staying.
Baud
Conservatives have ruined the words “and,” “the,” a*d “from” for me.
Oh wait. No, they haven’t. Because fuck conservatives.
JPL
@Baud: I think Steve Schmidt is right. Unfortunately, too many citizens are uninformed or misinformed about climate change.
Schlemizel
@Thoughtful David:
Its sad but I am starting to feel that way about the American flag. Particularly if someone is flying a large one. I assume “wingnut”. They have stolen a lot from us and we hardly even notice.
raven
@satby: Thanks, it went better this morning!
Baud
@JPL:
Then we should stop asking Democratic politicians to pursue these policies.
raven
Joe wants Mitt Romney to head the VA!
Robert Green
shameless self promotion, but here’s an NFL documentary i produced about players’ lives post career, emmy nominated! warning: exceedingly depressing.
WereBear
@Robert Green: Yeah, everybody thinks they make so much money. But it’s not so much… and their medical and other issues sucks it all up.
But ordinary people have trouble figuring that out. They see how much they make a year and think it’s big bucks. They don’t even KNOW how much the owners make.
Bex
@raven: And he can appoint his kids as assistants because of their military experience. Oh, wait…
Kay
@WereBear:
I was smiling reading Rand Paul’s speech on federal drug laws, because he centered on federal mandatory minimums. Now mandatory minimums are ridiculous and I disagree with them, but his belief that “discretion” in sentencing will lead to a more just or equitable result for African Americans is, frankly, delusional.
You have to be pretty confident in your place “inside” to believe that a judge’s discretion or state law and local ordinances and rules will always fall toward The Just and Fair :)
Baud
@raven:
He saved the Olympics!
rikyrah
Obama’s leadership is right for today
By Fareed Zakaria,
Published: May 29
……………..
In this context, what is needed from Washington is not a heroic exertion of American military power but rather a sustained effort to engage with allies, isolate enemies, support free markets and democratic values and push these positive trends forward. The Obama administration is, in fact, deeply internationalist — building on alliances in Europe and Asia, working with institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations, isolating adversaries and strengthening the global order that has proved so beneficial to the United States and the world since 1945.
The administration has fought al-Qaeda and its allies ferociously. But it has been disciplined about the use of force, and understandably so. An America that exaggerates threats, overreacts to problems and intervenes unilaterally would produce the very damage to its credibility that people are worried about. After all, just six years ago, the United States’ closest allies were distancing themselves from Washington because it was seen as aggressive, expansionist and militaristic. Iran was popular in the Middle East in 2006 because it was seen as standing up to an imperialist America that had invaded and occupied an Arab country. And nothing damaged U.S. credibility in the Cold War more than Vietnam.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-obamas-disciplined-leadership-is-right-for-today/2014/05/…
Mike E
@OzarkHillbilly: Heh. They’re out there, you just can’t hear them.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Which is the hallmark of a libertarian.
you point out that he centered on FEDERAL.
once again, Paul is supporting STATES RIGHTS.
and, once again, I point out why my Black Behind knows that this mofo is MY ENEMY.
rikyrah
Why Are Indian Kids So Good at Spelling?
Because they have their own minor-league spelling bee circuit.
By Ben Paynter
Today marks the 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee. One year ago, Arvind Mahankali, whose family is originally from Hyderabad, India, became the sixth consecutive Indian-American winner of the Spelling Bee and the 11th in the past 15 years. In honor of his victory, Slate revisits Ben Paynter’s story, originally published in 2010, about Indian-Americans’ shocking prowess in spelling competitions. It is reprinted below
This April’s North South Foundation bee in Shawnee, Kan., might seem like an obscure place to find the spelling world’s two biggest stars. Mostly, it looked like the sort of geeky local bee I might have attended as a kid—except everyone there was Indian. Inside Shawnee’s Hindu Temple and Cultural Center, 23 awkward kids took turns passing a microphone back and forth in a hushed beige auditorium. No spotlights, no podium, just cringe-inducing feedback on the P.A. system. And for the record, the spelling was a-t-r-o-c-i-o-u-s. Just three of the first 10 contestants spelled their words correctly. At one point, a poor kid paced in circles and clutched his crotch before misspelling beleaguered and sprinting off to the restroom
Amid it all, 13-year-old Kavya Shivashankar pronounced words from a fold-out judging table as her father, Mirle, emceed in a sharp dark suit. Kavya, the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, is a spelling superstar complete with signature move: She air-writes each word across her palm before speaking it. Kavya and Mirle—her innovative, ever-enthusiastic coach—were at the small-time competition to pay homage. Over the past two decades, tournaments like this one—a regional qualifier for the North South Foundation’s spelling league—have become a breeding ground for Scripps contenders. These minor-league competitions help kids as young as 6 years old work out the spelling kinks at an early age. The result has been an Indian-American dynasty at the National Spelling Bee.
Consider the facts: Indian-Americans make up about 1 percent of the U.S. population; this year, an estimated 30 NSF-ers will compete at Scripps, 11 percent of the 273-kid field. Recent winners include Sai R. Gunturi from Dallas, who nonchalantly reassembled pococurante for a national title in 2003. Sameer Mishra from West Lafayette, Ind., nailed guerdon in 2008. And four-time finalist Shivashankar made it back-to-back titles for North South Foundation competitors last year, air-writing Laodicean for the win. If Shivashankar hadn’t come through, it’s possible another North South graduate would have: Four other NSF kids cracked the top 10 behind her.
slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2010/06/why_are_indian_kids_so_good_at_spelling.html
FlipYrWhig
@JPL: Ah, but I don’t think he’s right. In fact, I think he’s totally backwards, because the advantage of using executive orders rather than legislation is that vulnerable Democrats in coal/oil/gas states don’t have to say they approve those actions at all. It gives them a no-cost way to stand apart. If Mary Landrieu thinks the new rules suck, she can say so, and thereby project independence from Obama.
balconesfault
I’ve long had that feel about football players – that the way the game is played, particularly with the constant substitutions – creates a league filled with 300+ lb behemoths who really don’t fit in the rest of the world. There is no functional reason for their body to be that big except for within the confines of the gridiron to be able to use their mass as a wall or a guided missile.
Ever stand next to one of these guys at a bar or store? They’re massive. Pro basketball players might be tall, but that’s just what nature did to them. Pro baseball players are the guy you run into at the garage.
My solution is just severe limitations on substitutions. If a 300+ pounder has to be on the field for 12 or 14 plays in a row, his mobility and response time will significantly drop … and football will evolve to favor guys with a bit less mass to haul around.
FlipYrWhig
@balconesfault: I kind of like that idea. Rugby players are big slabs of humanity, but they’re not 6’7″ and 360 lbs.
RobertB
@balconesfault: Offensive linemen play pretty much every offensive down that isn’t a punt. They might get subbed if the game is a big blowout in either direction, but exhaustion doesn’t seem to be a factor.
Size is just where the game’s arms race is headed. _All_ positions are bigger now, and play _more_ downs per game at that size than they did years ago. I don’t think you can shrink optimal player size as a reaction to rule changes, short of a rule that says “No players larger than X lbs”, unless you change the game so much that it’s not football anymore.
FlipYrWhig
@RobertB: If you had much smaller rosters, though, there would be less call for behemoths with the specialized skill of blocking or run-clogging. (Also for various kinds of kicking, I suppose.) If instead of 53 guys you could only have 30, most of them would end up being smaller and more versatile, right? I imagine more 240-lb. linebacker/tight end types and fewer 350-lb. linemen.
Origuy
@rikyrah: In which other languages could you have a spelling bee? Spanish is almost completely regular; Russian has some inconsistency between pronunciation and spelling, but most of those are governed by simple rules. Maybe French.
FlipYrWhig
@Origuy: When I was learning French and complaining about the complexities of spelling and pronunciation, my then-girlfriend, now-wife, said: “You just have to remember that in French, ALL the letters are silent.”
Kay
@rikyrah:
“Discretion” is an endlessly elastic word, right? I love that he sees it only working one way, despite the entire history of the world where it’s been used as a sword more often than a shield.
He’s winning any discretionary analysis! Just on the FACTS! :)
I read the reparations piece and I think a lot about how local, state and federal interact and I was struck by how Coates sees local, state and federal as to state-sanctioned or permitted housing discrimination. It’s almost a given to him that the local rules will go against him. He looks to the federal role in allowing that to continue, and blames the feds for inaction or actual discrimination. He spends more time on that. It’s completely valid and rational, the local role WAS a given, the feds WERE the one and only avenue of protection or appeal, but it is very, very different than Rand Paul’s view of the world. Rand Paul would see it as the feds interfering with his property rights.
Paul in KY
@raven: Best wishes to you & the missus.
schrodinger's cat
@Kay: Your frame of reference determines your inference,!
@rikyrah: I for one don’t understand the fascination with spelling bees.
drkrick
@Schlemizel:
Nixon and Agnew really started that 40-odd years ago. We have to take it back the same way we need to take back liberty and constitution. None of them mean what they want people to think they mean.
rikyrah
Free Market’ Republicans Give the Koch Brothers and ALEC a Monopoly Over Ohio’s Energy
By: Rmuse
Friday, May, 30th, 2014, 10:14 am
Monopolies exist when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity, and are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce the commodity coupled with a lack of a viable substitute. The most terrifying thing on Earth to a person or enterprise controlling the only supply of a commodity is when a viable substitute is discovered that forces the enterprise into economic competition that, in part, is the nature of free market capitalism. Republicans and their conservative donors are staunch defenders of free market capitalism; that is until they see a viable competitor. It explains their drive to restrict Democratic voters during elections, and new energy sources that threaten the dirty energy industry’s monopoly on supplying power.
………………………….
The manufacturers’ association was not exaggerating because since Ohio adopted the RES, nearly unanimously in 2008, Ohio’s clean energy sector created over 25,000 jobs, over $1 billion in private sector investment, and cut electricity rates by 1.4% (over $230 million in savings). However, that was before the Kochs bought the Ohio legislature and installed an ALEC alumnus in the governor’s office.
Sadly, Ohio is just the first, but certainly not the last, state the Koch brothers, ALEC, Americans for Prosperity, and the Heartland Institute are working to prohibit access to the wind and Sun’s power source. According to the New York Times, in just the past year more than a dozen states have embraced ALEC proposals to eliminate green and renewable energy mandates and incentives due to intervention from “libertarian policy and advocacy groups.” It is noteworthy that libertarians and their staunch devotion to letting “free market capitalism” drive the economy does not apply if it cuts into the libertarian Koch brothers’ monopoly on energy and profits.
politicususa.com/2014/05/30/free-market-republicans-give-koch-brothers-alec-monopoly-ohios-energy.ht…
Kay
@schrodinger’s cat:
Some of it is laugh out loud funny. His faith in local judges and law enforcement “doing the right thing” without any interference from those jack-booted feds is nuts.
At the same time he was taking his brave stand against federal drug laws, the federal government was aggressively enforcing civil rights as to juvenile offenders and due process in NY, IL, and TX. Those jack-booted enemies of liberty were literally springing 14 year old black kids from endless detention in juvenile facilities.
So. We might want to keep some federal police power around, for people who rely on it.
RobertB
@FlipYrWhig: You’re right. Smaller rosters would make you use a bunch of two-way players. Now if we can get the high schools and colleges to go with this, it’s a plan. :)
FlipYrWhig
@RobertB: My late grandfather, a pretty big Dallas and Texas fan, told me about a local high school kid who had gotten a scholarship _as a long-snapper_. I was stunned by this. I played football, badly, for a year in high school–this was the mid-1980s. All the good players, as well as all the lousy ones like me, were two-way players because if you had like 8 biggish, strongish, fastish guys, you might as well use them the whole game, rather than using lesser players.
If parents start prohibiting their kids from playing football because it’s just too dangerous, football coaches might have to turn back to that model at all levels.
burnspbesq
No sport where a helmet is part of the standard equipment is ever going to be free of the risk of brain trauma, but (the Brad Ross story notwithstanding) the data suggest that lacrosse is considerably safer than football or hockey.
Cole and I, and pretty much anybody else who has played the game, can tell you stories about getting popped, but the nature of the hitting in lacrosse is different than in football, and the governing bodies are working hard to minimize head-to-head and stick-to-head contact (hits that were routine ten years ago now draw two-minute, non-releasable penalties, and that’s changing how defense is played and how players approach loose-ball situations).
It’s pretty much the only team sport that is posting significant year-over-year increases in youth participation. Put a stick in a kid’s hand and he (or she) is unlikely to ever put it down.
Calouste
@FlipYrWhig:
Jonah Lomu was probably the largest player to play top level rugby (his nickname “the Whale” wasn’t just a reference to his biblical first name), and he “only” weighed 260 pounds. And ran the 100 m under 11 seconds.
WaterGirl
@Baud: “He saved the Olympics!”
You left off the rest of the sentence: Romney saved the Olympics by getting a bunch of money from the federal government.
Edit: I know you know that, but I felt compelled to say it anyway.
RobertB
@burnspbesq: “Put a stick in a kid’s hand and he (or she) is unlikely to ever put it down.”
My daughter begs to differ. :) She likes basketball, and loves volleyball. Soccer, softball, and lacrosse got no traction with her. Maybe it’s the notion of bugs being involved.
Wally Ballou
@Schlemizel: From one week after 9/11, a Salon piece about this very issue (which the author got a lot of angry mail in response to):
salon.com/2001/09/18/flag_2/
Add “Christian” and “family” to the list of good words that the wingnuts have tainted.