Before you laugh too hard, take a look at this article. It's garnering serious attention in the legal realms. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7559458/cte-concussion-crisis-economic-look-end-football Here is the article cited within the link above: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7443714/jonah-lehrer-concussions-adolescents-future-football As someone who works in malpractice insurance defense, this is all to plausible.
The helmet is a weapon these days instead of a protective device. Go back to rugby helmets and the game changes dramatically.
Absolutely true. The superior levels of padding just caused players to use their heads and bodies as weapons, leading to much more violent hits than when they played with comparatively little padding. That said, violent hits have become an extremely popular part of football among fans, so I don't see the NFL reducing the armor.
I can easily envision lawsuits essentially eliminating football as a sport. Or serious rule modification.
football was almost banned before, it likely will be again, and have to change to flag football, or tecmo bowl [video=youtube;8PBvOxicz-0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PBvOxicz-0[/video]
There is a big surplus of future lawyers now in law schools that will need jobs. They're going to need targets in order to feed their families and pay back their loans. I won't be surprised if high school districts are the first targets, based on minimal care/knowledge of concussions. http://burneylawfirm.com/blog/2011/06/28/where-will-all-the-extra-lawyers-go/
This is true, the US judicial system does need some tweaks. Personally I like the International rule, aka Loser pays.
