06-26-2018, 10:09 AM
All the more reason why my preferred solution to the "should we pay players or not" problem--take a big chunk of those revenues and put them in a health insurance program or a pension fund for players later in life--is the correct one.
This sport we love causes permanent damage to many who play it. It's morally indefensible to do nothing. There may not be an adequate solution to this brain injury crisis other than to discontinue offering the sport altogether (which I'd like to avoid, because, again, I love this sport), but at least taking some of the massive revenues and shifting it from dazzling new facilities to actual post-graduation health care for the players who risk their bodies and minds for their universities would be a start.
And yeah, burger, that $70 million isn't going to cut it. The problem will only get bigger, and that pot of money is sitting there for when it's basically too late to help the player, not for early intervention, counseling, and other programs that might help mitigate some of the harmful effects of CTE, at least for a time.
I hope that some of the rule changes that the NCAA and NFL consider annually will improve the safety of this sport and reduce the number of concussions and sub-concussive impacts that players experience. I really do. But ultimately, we have all come to grips with the fact that this sport is inherently dangerous in a way that other team sports are not. (Also, Stanford doesn't have varsity boxing or MMA, so the moral question for us as Stanford alums isn't as front and center as this one is.) If you can't entirely stop these sorts of injuries from taking place, then goodness, the very least you can do is redirect some of the jaw-dropping profits you make toward something that will help these players later in life when these sorts of symptoms may be more prevalent and likelier to impact quality of life. I can make my peace with "we know this sport is dangerous and there are brain injury risks, but we're going to try and keep it from happening in the first place, and we'll really and truly take care of you if you develop a brain injury, and not just by writing your family a check after you kill yourself" but not with "well, them's the risks, but gosh, our new football training center sure is pretty, isn't it?"
This sport we love causes permanent damage to many who play it. It's morally indefensible to do nothing. There may not be an adequate solution to this brain injury crisis other than to discontinue offering the sport altogether (which I'd like to avoid, because, again, I love this sport), but at least taking some of the massive revenues and shifting it from dazzling new facilities to actual post-graduation health care for the players who risk their bodies and minds for their universities would be a start.
And yeah, burger, that $70 million isn't going to cut it. The problem will only get bigger, and that pot of money is sitting there for when it's basically too late to help the player, not for early intervention, counseling, and other programs that might help mitigate some of the harmful effects of CTE, at least for a time.
I hope that some of the rule changes that the NCAA and NFL consider annually will improve the safety of this sport and reduce the number of concussions and sub-concussive impacts that players experience. I really do. But ultimately, we have all come to grips with the fact that this sport is inherently dangerous in a way that other team sports are not. (Also, Stanford doesn't have varsity boxing or MMA, so the moral question for us as Stanford alums isn't as front and center as this one is.) If you can't entirely stop these sorts of injuries from taking place, then goodness, the very least you can do is redirect some of the jaw-dropping profits you make toward something that will help these players later in life when these sorts of symptoms may be more prevalent and likelier to impact quality of life. I can make my peace with "we know this sport is dangerous and there are brain injury risks, but we're going to try and keep it from happening in the first place, and we'll really and truly take care of you if you develop a brain injury, and not just by writing your family a check after you kill yourself" but not with "well, them's the risks, but gosh, our new football training center sure is pretty, isn't it?"