The Virtual Terrace • rugby study finds brain affected in one season
shinymcshine wrote:
Donnyman - you seem to be missing the fact that this new research has identified that ".. blood flow and cognitive function declines in players tested over just one season. This was over ALL those that took part in the study not just some." I do not think, accounting for risk associated with playing contact sport, anyone was aware of that before this study came out, and now it has it should change the way the game is played and player welfare monitored.
Fair enough if the study has identified the exact nature of the risk, but again players have run that risk since 1857 when the gentlemen of Liverpool first played the Gentlemen of Manchester. Playing a collision sport isn't going to do anyone any good physically I truly think we all know that, just like boxers know their health is at serious risk, and I think everyone has known this to a degree, without having to read any "study"....
I've been with footballers who have watched the rugby and have said they like watching it but would not play it, which to me shows that they didn't need any study to know they risked a higher serious instant damage or alternatively cumulative damage if they played Rugby. The age old term "punch drunk" for boxers is based on a realisation that you don't fully recover from the ravages of contact sport and you do risk a deterioration of your mental and physical faculties.
You say about "changing the way the game is played" but if you take away the contact it's not the game anymore?. You talk about monitoring? To what end? Would there be a level of reduced cognitive function and blood flow that would effectively demand early retirement for all, professional and amateurs? I think many sports leave people with poor health, didn't the weightlifting champion run the risk of paralysis when he had the chance to break the world record? He took the risk as do those who attempt to climb Everest, 308 people have died horrifically this way, Do we close it?
I'm still waiting for soccer to respond but I can't see any response other than players playing on. I do think all contact sports have had seriously declining numbers long before this focus on the damage sport can do, and I think that many people have been actively choosing not to play anymore, so the issue seems to be choice.v. compulsion and the latter does not sit well in a free country
Statistics: Posted by Donnyman — Thu Sep 02, 2021 8:30 pm — Replies 16 — Views 495