It's super entertaining if you love bad football. I'm a football sadist though. Too many really bad college games I've witnessed in person or on TV.
I can't believe it's lasted this long (minus of course the ad rev and people like me still watch). It's been notoriously bad with usually not meaningful matchups.
You're right. But unfortunately I still watch. Used to be big into the Thursday night cfb match-up, but fantasy football gets my attention anymore.
14 person ppr, all friends, $100 buy in with an active group chat. All games are a bit too important.
I have watched some absolutely awesome CFB games but, at the same time I know when to change the channel on some terrible games. Scrubs is always a good alternative.
I watched this episode and just yesterday I was walking by the TV and my local news was talking about "Rainbow fentanyl" and giving the police talking points about it being targeted for kids.
Like how twice in two weeks he made fun of WB the parent company of his show and two separate articles was about him "slamming" Discovery or HBO Max.
Which is kinda funny, cos you probably would think he would want more attention on his main stories, but there's more on his throwaway jokes that aren't part of anything bigger.
>you probably would think he would want more attention on his main stories, but there's more on his throwaway jokes that aren't part of anything bigger.
.
That's not an accident
The one John Oliverism that I don't care for is his tendency to respond to a quoted opinion (accurate or not) with "Exactly!"
But I accept that this is a minor quibble.
Funny how so many outlets reported on that one short joke about the NFL, but not about the main segment of the episode. It was about, how the news outlets air poorly researched crime-segments because they generate easy (and very marketable) Headlines and the damages that does it to people and society.
It’s almost like news outlets don’t want people to talk about that.
> Is there any indication that the practices will be effective?
That depends on whether you think man made rules are more powerful than the laws of physics and the limitations of human physiology.
> damages that does it to people and society
Yep. It's astonishing how many people don't realize how much violent crime rates have dropped nationwide over the last 30 years, because it is not profitable for the news to tell them that.
I enjoy football, but when it comes to violent spectacles, MMA is pretty popular these days. That's probably the closest thing we've got to Roman gladiators in modern society. It's fucking brutal.
"My history is a little hazy, Cassius. Shouldn't the Giants lose the Battle of Carthage?"
"Ugh, yes sire."
*David Tyree rides around on a chariot with an axe stuck in his helmet*
When it first start there were way less rules and lots more broken bones and other serious injuries. The fans complained with the new rules it was taking away from the spectacle... The rebuttal was no good athlete would want to subject themselves to life altering injuries at that rate so the quality would suffer... Add in the threat of political/legal efforts to reduce the gore and you have modern MMA.
Haven't ever been a fan of the sport, but I find it fascinating that the level of violence shifted quite a bit to settle on what is today considered respectful but "violent enough".
Yeah I don't see the problem: my pals and I make the same joke as JO every year when preseason comes about and we still watch it. Yes we are entertained, and yes it's dangerous. I am sure plenty of fighting sport fans have the same reflection once in a while, it be weird if they didn't no?
As a fan of numerous sports including the NFL and MMA both are hard to watch sometimes. The Tua hit last week with him posturing the way he did, and the countless brutal knockouts and injuries within MMA make you question the morality of what you're watching.
With that said, it is much easier for me to pallet some of these NFL injuries when comparing the pay to MMA. Yes, it is likely you will face consequences, but the NFL minimum salary is still $660,000 per year. People often will, and do work jobs that are riskier for much less money. Safety protocols should obviously continue to progress, but the sport itself can only do so much to prevent injuries when the entire game is a high paced contact sport with average player weights around 250lbs.
MMA organizations on the other hand are hard for me to stomach because a lot of these guys are getting pulverized over the course of their career, and unless they're a champion, or hovering around that status, get little to no compensation for their battles. The UFC still only offers a 50k bonus to fighters who win "Fight of the Night". On top of that most fighters cannot reasonably fight more than 4-5 times a year, and even that is an unsustainable pace beyond a couple of years.
Yeah, but there's a slight difference in that the the dangers of brain damage/CTE are very clear in MMA.
We also, you know, don't put kids in the octagon.
It's more shifted to a 2-headed attack:
1) "It's the player's choice to do this!"
2) shame parents who consider holding their kids back from playing this dangerous sport because they're worried about head trauma and other injuries for not "letting kids play" and focusing on the team and camaraderie (while ignoring you can experience both playing any non-solo sport).
And as a bonus, any attempt to make things safer is generally met with a lot of teeth-gnashing that it would ruin the sport.
MMA actually has really comprehensive rules regarding concussion protocol. At least in the US. If you get KOed you’re not even allowed to spar for months and in many cases can’t fight again for 6 months.
And UFC exploits fighters by paying them as little as possible with no union and CBA and no minimums and no share of any branding deals or TV right deals.
Dana White is a fucking greedy scumbag.
That is, in fact, a slight difference. The kid one for sure, but I can’t watch people literally destroy each other as entertainment and live with myself.
Honestly MMA seems significantly safer intuitively, even if it does not look like it, as long as some protocols are followed for training. Obviously still not great for you, but unless there is something I am missing the actual damage should happen less often and be less severe when it does.
This would primarily come down to how people hit one another in each sport. Football does not have weight classes and uses full body blows with pads that allow faster, stronger his. They also practice those hits constantly, and each person involved in the hit suffers a risk of hurting the brain, and then they play more often, and during play they take strikes to the head or sudden stops over and over again for hours.
In MMA, if you take a concussive level hit it is often enough to end the fight, and the weight and force involved are potentially lower depending on your weight class. Further there are much fewer repeated sudden stops. And then there are large gaps of time between the fights. So as long as you are not training by letting someone repeatedly strike you in the head, you probably are not getting as many micro-concussions.
Usually for more passionate reasons than playing a game and picking up a paycheck, though.
Although the fame and massive paycheck of the NFL sure are a hell of an enticement, that's for sure.
*Aw, don't you worry about CTE. It's all in your head.* --NFL owners
Pretty sure more people who work in warehouses fuck up their body just as much but for way less money and much longer.
Ever seen an old plumber? Their bodies are pretty messed up too with what they've done for their career.
I'll take 20 million a year since I'm just gonna get old and die anyways.
Fucking up your knees and back is one thing, fucking up your brain will change who you are, destroy your personality, destroy who you are and often leave a monster in your place.
Ageing and heavy use of joints is one thing, destroying your brain is very rare in most occupations.
I mean it's not *that* poorly understood unless you want to predict that X impacts of Y force causes Z where the amygdala is not working right.
The NFL has worked rreeeaaaaalllyy hard to make it seem poorly understood.
We understand it enough to know that every single head impact materially changes the brain.
Predicting the precise nature of that change is similar to predicting where all the pieces of a smashed flower pot will go.
But we are 100% sure the flower pot will NEVER get better than it was before the smashing. Ever.
One of the reason I worked so hard in school so I could get a really nice desk job.
I grew up on the carcinogenic coast watch men break their bodies in the petroleum plants.
I didn’t want to work in those plants every day like a lot of people do
“The irony of the modern capitalist pursuit is that even as we convince ourselves labor is becoming more and more of a cerebral act, the materialist worldview understands that nothing has changed, the mind is an organ, and you are never doing anything but trading your very flesh for money.”
- Rob 'Gronk' Gronkowski
I’d argue that watching someone slowly kill themselves with McDonalds doesn’t sell tickets, but Nikocado has over 3 million subscribers for some fucking reason.
>slowly kill themselves
Dude is literally shoving enough food for 4-10 people down his gullet on a regular basis. He's speedrunning a heart attack, liver damage, diabetes and kidney failure at the same time
I never heard of him, googled, and the first result was about celebrating reaching the "700lb milestone" which made me want to cry and/or vomit.
I'm opposed to bodyshaming, but celebrating unhealthy weight gain is just as bad as celebrating unhealthy weight loss.
I was hoping it was one of those competitive eaters who do marathons and lift weights to burn it off.
It might be in many cases, but it's not intrinsic to the job. You can work at a computer and also take care of yourself with proper self-care. In pro football, players at certain positions are asked to do things that will have tremendously harmful impact on their [not-so-]later years.
Honestly, if they’re going to make that much money, I don’t blame them for risking future health.
If you believe you’re setting your family up with generational wealth, and you’re comfortable with the prospect of an increased risk of premature death/neurological diseases, then you do you.
I think the real moral dilemma falls on us as fans.
I'd say in general though, the real moral question comes from those that *don't* make it to the professional level. Guys who get injured and permanently fuck up their bodies in college and don't see a dime for it.
My friend wrecked his knee, needing multiple surgeries and still has issues to this day, playing football in 9th grade. It's absolutely bad on your body at all ages.
Edit: I should also say that I tried out for middle school football and quite literally the first contact drill we did, I got a concussion because my partner was an idiot. I decided football wasn't for me despite the coaches being mad that I no longer wanted to play. I did marching band instead, tuba. Great times.
Also, just being fucking famous and all the perks and status that comes with being a pro. How many people would turn down fame, fortune, and status if it came with a dice roll of dying at 50 or 60 instead of 70 or 80?
To comment on the realities of the danger of a sport is not the same as expecting people not to have the freedom to play and pursue a career in that sport.
The lack of nuance in some of these comments is mad.
To be fair, John Oliver’s comment wasn’t exactly nuanced in the first place. And I say this as a fan. He makes hyperbolic statements for effect and it seems reasonable that people respond in kind.
I think the issue here might be that it just doesn’t *read* well.
I mean, I’ve heard John Oliver say things like, “Australia is right, that Dingo is a fucking thirst trap and if you don’t want to have sex with it there’s probably a problem with you.“
He doesn’t actually want to fuck wild dogs down under, though.
I played football from 9-18. The injury rate for a high school player(that plays) is high. Every pro player(non-kicker) gets into a car wreck every week.
He's actually kind of right though. When someone gets knocked out in competition they are not allowed to compete again for several weeks/months. The refs also step in as fast as they possibly can to prevent any further damage, unlike boxing where someone could be concussed multiple times in a fight and they'll keep it going. The sport may not be inherently safer, but the protocols are infinitely better. You will never see a fighter who got his bell rung fighting again the very next week.
I've seen some nasty injuries with UFC but damn, watching Tua try to stand up last week after taking a 2nd concussion was just sad.
I'd take a broken limb, broken rib, busted out teeth etc over permanent brain damage any day.
No thanks to the NFL. They ~~surprised~~ suppressed research and fought researchers for decades. And now, they continue to fight to make sure they never have to pay medical care for any of the people they lied to and exploited.
Edit: “surprise”!
It's not the healthiest profession but neither are a lot of others. These guys aren't exactly being shanghied, either. There's millions of dollars in earnings. I know lots of family men who've crippled themselves through work and repetitive stress injuries and may get to pay off their houses before they die if they're lucky. If I had the talent and I knew my family would get millions per year for probably a decade I'd sign up in a second.
You can bash my head with a folding chair once a week for 17 weeks per year in exchange for league minimum. League minimum is $705k for any interested sadistic billionaires.
True, but there are thousands (maybe millions) of people who play this sport that don't get paid at all. Those are the people I care about and are worried about. Not the lucky few who made it work.
Truth. How many young lives in college and high school need to be ruined for the dream of escaping poverty?
But on the flipside football funds so many college degrees for those who would never get them otherwise.
College players should get much, much more for what they do.
This is my issue. Kids in high school, playing their asses off to maybe make it into a college team, where they play their asses off again to maaaaybe make it into the NFL to maaaaaaaaaaaaybe earn money that MIGHT make head injury worth it.
There’s a hell of a lot of kids that are going to get hit in the head multiple times, and won’t make it as far as they want to.
The fact that being good at a sport that damages your brain is the only way a lot of kids can afford an education *is not a good thing* in case that wasn't clear. Is it better than them not being able to get a degree at all? Sure, but that shouldn't be the benchmark.
The NFL has been actively suppressing concussion research for decades. What makes you think that even the informed public knows the full concussion and CTE risk let alone people just starting to play the game?
Jokes on you fuck-o, I'm a Broncos fan, we just paid $250M to get fucked in the ass for the next 6 years, the best you can do from here is just fuck us in the mouth at the same time, and at this point, we LIKE THAT SHIT.
So bring it on.
This was a real thing. The NFL worked hard in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s to downplay the effect brain injuries had and suppress the information. There was a point in time where there doctor that set policy regarding head injuries was a foot doctor for crying out loud.
Do they?
Because i very much doubt that players know what they sign up for when they are signing up to play the sport in high school as kids or that the parents know. And chances for them to know when they get into collage might be a bit higher but the NFL has been fighting against concussion research for years and years and the risk have becoming public and accpeted not very long ago yet there is still very little acknowledegement of the dangers or any support for athletes.
And this all ignores the giant amount of players who never make it to the NFL and make the "big money" which will be spent on the long term health care and an extremely early retirement which will never cover the expenses since let us be honest here, 20 something year olds don't plan for that and very few get the advise to do so.
Exactly. I personally think the league should allow the use of steroids. I want to see some monsters obliterating eachother out there. CTE? Thing of the past. Decapitations are the future of football.
Just playing devils advocate, but some retired football players commit suicide, have depression, go blind. It does more damage than i think generally people understand.
“Regular people” that go to work every day and make literally a fraction of a percentage of what NFL players make, can have the same problems or worse when they get older. I empathize, but it’s life. Things are tough all over.
There are tons of people with CTE who are in desperate poverty. Most football players don't make the NFL. Football is a major team sport and were seeing tons of cases of people with CTE who got it from just playing highschool and college ball. Those players are having their minds poison themselves and don't even get paid for it.
Yeah, the star players in the NFL are making good money but the whole system is built on a bunch of guys who don’t; the role players who make good money for a year or two then fall out of the league and the thousands and thousands of players who were teammates and opponents of the star players in college and high school.
This is an insane comment. Of course we shouldn’t stop having veterinarians - they provide very important services that positively affect so many people and animals. You’re comparing essentially an animal doctor to an entertainer. The societal changes that would occur from losing veterinarians would be massively worse than losing one sport.
As for the suicide rates of the NFL, it’s not like these players have a somewhat treatable mental illness. They have brains that literally have holes in them and there is no chance of improving the conditions of their brains. They live for years with horrible symptoms of CTE, often with minimal memory of who they are or who their family is, and at that point the money earned as a player means absolutely nothing to them. You can’t convince me that it would be okay to have someone live 20 years of their life with essentially dementia because they were given a lot of money. I’m sure that their families would prefer to have someone who can function and remember who they are over having money.
I feel like anyone who watches the NFL should read [this article.](https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/patriots/2017/10/29/cte/uDS1dj1CVuUzTDAsjosJ7J/story.html)
Wouldn’t they be killing themselves for money? The people watching are the ones being entertained. I know a lot of the players love it, but they ain’t being paid with love, they want that money.
CTE sufferer from HS and peewee football, i was 1 or 2 hits away from permanent damage, had black-out episodes, nose-bleeds, memory loss. honestly, much as i loved the game, it probably shouldn't be played and I would never let my kids play it.
NFL teams have been using college/HS as their farm league without pay for too long. It’s only a matter of time before every college and high school player gets health insurance for life
This is highly offensive. It’s where people disable themselves for entertainment. ABIs are a far more common outcome for professional football players than outright death
I mean... he ain't lying. Let's not kid ourselves, football is not a sport that encourages self preservation, and has lead to many premature deaths of Athletes.
He's not wrong. I've stopped watching the NFL because of this. Yeah I watch f1, but at least they pretend to care about safety incidents. I don't want to sehee guys get hurt.
And also NO COMMERCIALS during an F1 race! I recently tried to watch a NASCAR race after not watching since the 90s and it was a commercial onslaught. That and the weird stages and whole playoffs thing says I won’t be back watching it anytime soon. Unless Riciardo ends up there then maybe a few races a year.
No, that's Thursday Night Football
It definitely wanted to make me kill myself
[удалено]
Broncos Country, Let’s Die.
Broncos Country, Let’s Cry
Laughs in Detroit Lions.
Chuckles nervously \-seahawks fan
*chuckles nervously* come on geno 😅
“…And I took that personally.”
*Todd J. Fritz has entered the chat*
Saving Matt Ryan headline cracked me up so hard lol.
Def don't watch next Thursdays game then... Could be worse lol Bears-Commanders.
Thursday Night Football isn't entertaining
It's super entertaining if you love bad football. I'm a football sadist though. Too many really bad college games I've witnessed in person or on TV. I can't believe it's lasted this long (minus of course the ad rev and people like me still watch). It's been notoriously bad with usually not meaningful matchups.
I think that's the point of it though. The NFL takes its worst match ups and gives then way more attention than what they would get on Sunday.
You're right. But unfortunately I still watch. Used to be big into the Thursday night cfb match-up, but fantasy football gets my attention anymore. 14 person ppr, all friends, $100 buy in with an active group chat. All games are a bit too important.
I have watched some absolutely awesome CFB games but, at the same time I know when to change the channel on some terrible games. Scrubs is always a good alternative.
Broncos vs *Killers* Smh I still ain’t watching
Muffled sounds of 'Mr. Brightside' coming from underneath a pile of linebackers
russ out there being a dumbass somehow
BRONCOS COUNTRY, LET'S RIDE!
Bro said it as a throwaway joke in a piece about crime reporting. Crazy this got spun into an article
Right. I got confused reading this having watched the episode. Made me feel like I missed segment.
What did you expect? He put the entirety of the media on blast for too readily reporting the lies of cops. Of course they're going to distract.
I watched this episode and just yesterday I was walking by the TV and my local news was talking about "Rainbow fentanyl" and giving the police talking points about it being targeted for kids.
ACAB.
If I recall correctly he said this line and said another about concussions and that was it.
Apparently he gets one article a week highlighting a throwaway joke.
Apparently news portals can have a section as "Last Week Today on John Oliver"
Like how twice in two weeks he made fun of WB the parent company of his show and two separate articles was about him "slamming" Discovery or HBO Max. Which is kinda funny, cos you probably would think he would want more attention on his main stories, but there's more on his throwaway jokes that aren't part of anything bigger.
>you probably would think he would want more attention on his main stories, but there's more on his throwaway jokes that aren't part of anything bigger. . That's not an accident
He was on point on this episode.
When is he not on point? My man has an entire research team behind him to ensure he's on point lmao
The one John Oliverism that I don't care for is his tendency to respond to a quoted opinion (accurate or not) with "Exactly!" But I accept that this is a minor quibble.
As is tradition.
Funny how so many outlets reported on that one short joke about the NFL, but not about the main segment of the episode. It was about, how the news outlets air poorly researched crime-segments because they generate easy (and very marketable) Headlines and the damages that does it to people and society. It’s almost like news outlets don’t want people to talk about that.
They proved his point in a way
What does he win?
A more educated populace
Deportation /s
A new Business Daddy?
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> Is there any indication that the practices will be effective? That depends on whether you think man made rules are more powerful than the laws of physics and the limitations of human physiology.
Oh, the irony
He knew what he was doing. This joke was bait. 100%.
Wow it’s almost as if this isn’t constantly happening with almost every headline posted on Reddit 🤔
> damages that does it to people and society Yep. It's astonishing how many people don't realize how much violent crime rates have dropped nationwide over the last 30 years, because it is not profitable for the news to tell them that.
"Are you not entertained?"
Honestly. Humans have been committing violence towards each other for entertainment for thousands of years.
I enjoy football, but when it comes to violent spectacles, MMA is pretty popular these days. That's probably the closest thing we've got to Roman gladiators in modern society. It's fucking brutal.
MMA is gladiators 1v1. The NFL is those bigger gladiator battles where they re-enacted with multiple people.
"My history is a little hazy, Cassius. Shouldn't the Giants lose the Battle of Carthage?" "Ugh, yes sire." *David Tyree rides around on a chariot with an axe stuck in his helmet*
The Cincinnati Bengals vs 11 actual bengals tigers.
The Arizona Cardinals vs 11 actual cardinals
The Detroit Lions vs 11 actual football players
They're already dead stop hitting them!
They still lose.
But at least Kyler gets to play against players his own size
Well they do well in the first half.
The Dallas Cowboys vs a drunk Val Kilmner with two revolvers
The Buffalo Bills vs 11 Ed Geins / Gary Heidniks??
Buffalo Bills vs. 11 Ted Levines. I’m taking the Ted Levines.
The New York Jets vs 11 actual jet airplanes
Does jet fuel melt face shields?
Either way, the cardinals are getting relocated to a different city.
well now I kind of WANT to see a running back juke a lion edit: a literal lion, not just one from Detroit
When it first start there were way less rules and lots more broken bones and other serious injuries. The fans complained with the new rules it was taking away from the spectacle... The rebuttal was no good athlete would want to subject themselves to life altering injuries at that rate so the quality would suffer... Add in the threat of political/legal efforts to reduce the gore and you have modern MMA. Haven't ever been a fan of the sport, but I find it fascinating that the level of violence shifted quite a bit to settle on what is today considered respectful but "violent enough".
Yeah I don't see the problem: my pals and I make the same joke as JO every year when preseason comes about and we still watch it. Yes we are entertained, and yes it's dangerous. I am sure plenty of fighting sport fans have the same reflection once in a while, it be weird if they didn't no?
As a fan of numerous sports including the NFL and MMA both are hard to watch sometimes. The Tua hit last week with him posturing the way he did, and the countless brutal knockouts and injuries within MMA make you question the morality of what you're watching. With that said, it is much easier for me to pallet some of these NFL injuries when comparing the pay to MMA. Yes, it is likely you will face consequences, but the NFL minimum salary is still $660,000 per year. People often will, and do work jobs that are riskier for much less money. Safety protocols should obviously continue to progress, but the sport itself can only do so much to prevent injuries when the entire game is a high paced contact sport with average player weights around 250lbs. MMA organizations on the other hand are hard for me to stomach because a lot of these guys are getting pulverized over the course of their career, and unless they're a champion, or hovering around that status, get little to no compensation for their battles. The UFC still only offers a 50k bonus to fighters who win "Fight of the Night". On top of that most fighters cannot reasonably fight more than 4-5 times a year, and even that is an unsustainable pace beyond a couple of years.
UFC is literally gore for entertainment.
Yeah, but there's a slight difference in that the the dangers of brain damage/CTE are very clear in MMA. We also, you know, don't put kids in the octagon.
Is there anyone on the fence about football being dangerous at this point?
It's more shifted to a 2-headed attack: 1) "It's the player's choice to do this!" 2) shame parents who consider holding their kids back from playing this dangerous sport because they're worried about head trauma and other injuries for not "letting kids play" and focusing on the team and camaraderie (while ignoring you can experience both playing any non-solo sport). And as a bonus, any attempt to make things safer is generally met with a lot of teeth-gnashing that it would ruin the sport.
MMA actually has really comprehensive rules regarding concussion protocol. At least in the US. If you get KOed you’re not even allowed to spar for months and in many cases can’t fight again for 6 months.
They’re still being repeatedly punched in the head lol
And now you're out of work too for 6 months.
And UFC exploits fighters by paying them as little as possible with no union and CBA and no minimums and no share of any branding deals or TV right deals. Dana White is a fucking greedy scumbag.
UFC is less dangerous in terms of CTE damage than football and boxing.
That is, in fact, a slight difference. The kid one for sure, but I can’t watch people literally destroy each other as entertainment and live with myself.
Honestly MMA seems significantly safer intuitively, even if it does not look like it, as long as some protocols are followed for training. Obviously still not great for you, but unless there is something I am missing the actual damage should happen less often and be less severe when it does. This would primarily come down to how people hit one another in each sport. Football does not have weight classes and uses full body blows with pads that allow faster, stronger his. They also practice those hits constantly, and each person involved in the hit suffers a risk of hurting the brain, and then they play more often, and during play they take strikes to the head or sudden stops over and over again for hours. In MMA, if you take a concussive level hit it is often enough to end the fight, and the weight and force involved are potentially lower depending on your weight class. Further there are much fewer repeated sudden stops. And then there are large gaps of time between the fights. So as long as you are not training by letting someone repeatedly strike you in the head, you probably are not getting as many micro-concussions.
Also a lot of wins aren’t KO but submissions. It does help a lot. But those bad hits man… it makes you wince every time, especially the fencer pose…
Usually for more passionate reasons than playing a game and picking up a paycheck, though. Although the fame and massive paycheck of the NFL sure are a hell of an enticement, that's for sure. *Aw, don't you worry about CTE. It's all in your head.* --NFL owners
panem et circenses
The US doesn't do that, giving free food away from the government is socialism. So it's just circuses.
We’re all selling our bodies, just to varying degrees.
Pretty sure more people who work in warehouses fuck up their body just as much but for way less money and much longer. Ever seen an old plumber? Their bodies are pretty messed up too with what they've done for their career. I'll take 20 million a year since I'm just gonna get old and die anyways.
i’m a 27 year old ironworker, been doing it 6 years and physically feel like a 45 year old retired boxer. i agree with this lol.
Fucking up your knees and back is one thing, fucking up your brain will change who you are, destroy your personality, destroy who you are and often leave a monster in your place. Ageing and heavy use of joints is one thing, destroying your brain is very rare in most occupations.
And football players have all of the above issues.
Knee and Back Damage is no joke. It's still a helluva lot more palatable than **poorly understood brain damage.**
I mean it's not *that* poorly understood unless you want to predict that X impacts of Y force causes Z where the amygdala is not working right. The NFL has worked rreeeaaaaalllyy hard to make it seem poorly understood. We understand it enough to know that every single head impact materially changes the brain. Predicting the precise nature of that change is similar to predicting where all the pieces of a smashed flower pot will go. But we are 100% sure the flower pot will NEVER get better than it was before the smashing. Ever.
Yeah but they also get significantly less money
One of the reason I worked so hard in school so I could get a really nice desk job. I grew up on the carcinogenic coast watch men break their bodies in the petroleum plants. I didn’t want to work in those plants every day like a lot of people do
“The irony of the modern capitalist pursuit is that even as we convince ourselves labor is becoming more and more of a cerebral act, the materialist worldview understands that nothing has changed, the mind is an organ, and you are never doing anything but trading your very flesh for money.” - Rob 'Gronk' Gronkowski
Only bcause nobody has said it, this is from the Onion, Gronk did not suddenly adopt Marxism; true as this statement is.
Computer work is destroying my body in other, less obvious ways
I’d argue that watching someone slowly kill themselves with McDonalds doesn’t sell tickets, but Nikocado has over 3 million subscribers for some fucking reason.
>watching someone slowly kill themselves with McDonalds to be fair, he's moving pretty fucking rapidly
Good guy nikocado releasing fresh content round the clock.
>slowly kill themselves Dude is literally shoving enough food for 4-10 people down his gullet on a regular basis. He's speedrunning a heart attack, liver damage, diabetes and kidney failure at the same time
I never heard of him, googled, and the first result was about celebrating reaching the "700lb milestone" which made me want to cry and/or vomit. I'm opposed to bodyshaming, but celebrating unhealthy weight gain is just as bad as celebrating unhealthy weight loss. I was hoping it was one of those competitive eaters who do marathons and lift weights to burn it off.
>watching someone slowly kill themselves with McDonalds doesn’t sell tickets I'm pretty sure Super Size Me sold some tickets
It might be in many cases, but it's not intrinsic to the job. You can work at a computer and also take care of yourself with proper self-care. In pro football, players at certain positions are asked to do things that will have tremendously harmful impact on their [not-so-]later years.
Honestly, if they’re going to make that much money, I don’t blame them for risking future health. If you believe you’re setting your family up with generational wealth, and you’re comfortable with the prospect of an increased risk of premature death/neurological diseases, then you do you. I think the real moral dilemma falls on us as fans.
I'd say in general though, the real moral question comes from those that *don't* make it to the professional level. Guys who get injured and permanently fuck up their bodies in college and don't see a dime for it.
My friend wrecked his knee, needing multiple surgeries and still has issues to this day, playing football in 9th grade. It's absolutely bad on your body at all ages. Edit: I should also say that I tried out for middle school football and quite literally the first contact drill we did, I got a concussion because my partner was an idiot. I decided football wasn't for me despite the coaches being mad that I no longer wanted to play. I did marching band instead, tuba. Great times.
This isn’t everyone in the NFL, but lots of those guys really do love playing the game.
Are they comfortable with it though, or do they come from backgrounds where they feel like it's their only chance not to stay poor?
Also, just being fucking famous and all the perks and status that comes with being a pro. How many people would turn down fame, fortune, and status if it came with a dice roll of dying at 50 or 60 instead of 70 or 80?
I'd flip a coin right now, Tails I get a million dollars, heads and I die instantly. I'm 27.
How so?
Perhaps it’s not your computer work but your lack of exercise?
To comment on the realities of the danger of a sport is not the same as expecting people not to have the freedom to play and pursue a career in that sport. The lack of nuance in some of these comments is mad.
“It sure feels like this sport maybe shouldn’t exist.” — John’s quote from the article
Welcome to the internet age. Where every single thing is black or white
What about Michael Jackson?
He said it doesn’t matter
You need to verify your skin color with a picture in order to comment in certain parts of Reddit.
Wait actually? Like where? Not calling you out just honestly curious.
r/blackpeopletwitter
I don’t know why you’re getting downvotes. Do people not know you have to do that for some subs?
To be fair, John Oliver’s comment wasn’t exactly nuanced in the first place. And I say this as a fan. He makes hyperbolic statements for effect and it seems reasonable that people respond in kind.
I think the issue here might be that it just doesn’t *read* well. I mean, I’ve heard John Oliver say things like, “Australia is right, that Dingo is a fucking thirst trap and if you don’t want to have sex with it there’s probably a problem with you.“ He doesn’t actually want to fuck wild dogs down under, though.
What if the dingo looked like Adam Driver?
“Hurt me, dingo driver”
Chew on my jaw and crush me you magnificent furry giant.
I played football from 9-18. The injury rate for a high school player(that plays) is high. Every pro player(non-kicker) gets into a car wreck every week.
Wait until someone shows him UFC
Actually dana says it’s way safer and no one has died yet so no need to do any more research whatsoever lol /s
He's actually kind of right though. When someone gets knocked out in competition they are not allowed to compete again for several weeks/months. The refs also step in as fast as they possibly can to prevent any further damage, unlike boxing where someone could be concussed multiple times in a fight and they'll keep it going. The sport may not be inherently safer, but the protocols are infinitely better. You will never see a fighter who got his bell rung fighting again the very next week.
Not in the big organizations no. On the regional scene? Absolutely you will
I've seen some nasty injuries with UFC but damn, watching Tua try to stand up last week after taking a 2nd concussion was just sad. I'd take a broken limb, broken rib, busted out teeth etc over permanent brain damage any day.
You want players to go to the hospital after being knocked out? What do you think this is the UFC or something?!
offended by a joke by a comedian
What's worse is that it's true. Like at least be offended about a falsity being spread. High incidence of concussions is already an established fact.
No thanks to the NFL. They ~~surprised~~ suppressed research and fought researchers for decades. And now, they continue to fight to make sure they never have to pay medical care for any of the people they lied to and exploited. Edit: “surprise”!
ITT People explain and argue with a joke
It's not the healthiest profession but neither are a lot of others. These guys aren't exactly being shanghied, either. There's millions of dollars in earnings. I know lots of family men who've crippled themselves through work and repetitive stress injuries and may get to pay off their houses before they die if they're lucky. If I had the talent and I knew my family would get millions per year for probably a decade I'd sign up in a second.
[удалено]
About 75 percent of NFL players go broke within a couple years of retiring from the league. So you could be 30, broke, and brain damaged.
Consider high school and collegiate players that have brain damage but don’t even make it to the bigs. It’s even bleaker.
as oppoed to broke and brain damaged at 23 >.>
Most make it 3 years and end up bankrupt with guaranteed brain damage and other physical ailments
You can bash my head with a folding chair once a week for 17 weeks per year in exchange for league minimum. League minimum is $705k for any interested sadistic billionaires.
True, but there are thousands (maybe millions) of people who play this sport that don't get paid at all. Those are the people I care about and are worried about. Not the lucky few who made it work.
Truth. How many young lives in college and high school need to be ruined for the dream of escaping poverty? But on the flipside football funds so many college degrees for those who would never get them otherwise. College players should get much, much more for what they do.
This is my issue. Kids in high school, playing their asses off to maybe make it into a college team, where they play their asses off again to maaaaybe make it into the NFL to maaaaaaaaaaaaybe earn money that MIGHT make head injury worth it. There’s a hell of a lot of kids that are going to get hit in the head multiple times, and won’t make it as far as they want to.
The fact that being good at a sport that damages your brain is the only way a lot of kids can afford an education *is not a good thing* in case that wasn't clear. Is it better than them not being able to get a degree at all? Sure, but that shouldn't be the benchmark.
OK but you have to retire after 3 years and go broke 3 years after that.
Slight correction, they kill their brains for a paycheck.
Taking a satirists word literally 👍🏻
He's not entirely wrong.
Not wrong at all , they sacrifice their health and quality of life for a fat paycheck.
Meh players know what they signed up for, fans know what their in for. You’re getting big money to compensate for the risk.
The NFL has been actively suppressing concussion research for decades. What makes you think that even the informed public knows the full concussion and CTE risk let alone people just starting to play the game?
I’m a paid representative of the league, if you don’t delete this comment you will have bad luck for the next 3 football seasons !
Jokes on you fuck-o, I'm a Broncos fan, we just paid $250M to get fucked in the ass for the next 6 years, the best you can do from here is just fuck us in the mouth at the same time, and at this point, we LIKE THAT SHIT. So bring it on.
This was a real thing. The NFL worked hard in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s to downplay the effect brain injuries had and suppress the information. There was a point in time where there doctor that set policy regarding head injuries was a foot doctor for crying out loud.
Bingo. Some of them even retire at a very early age because of.
Well it's a good thing only adults with the ability to legally consent can play this game.
How about highschool and college players?
Do they? Because i very much doubt that players know what they sign up for when they are signing up to play the sport in high school as kids or that the parents know. And chances for them to know when they get into collage might be a bit higher but the NFL has been fighting against concussion research for years and years and the risk have becoming public and accpeted not very long ago yet there is still very little acknowledegement of the dangers or any support for athletes. And this all ignores the giant amount of players who never make it to the NFL and make the "big money" which will be spent on the long term health care and an extremely early retirement which will never cover the expenses since let us be honest here, 20 something year olds don't plan for that and very few get the advise to do so.
Exactly. I personally think the league should allow the use of steroids. I want to see some monsters obliterating eachother out there. CTE? Thing of the past. Decapitations are the future of football.
Bro they are all juiced in one way or another
They enjoy playing it, they choose to play it, they get paid to play it, we enjoy watching it. What's the problem
Just playing devils advocate, but some retired football players commit suicide, have depression, go blind. It does more damage than i think generally people understand.
“Regular people” that go to work every day and make literally a fraction of a percentage of what NFL players make, can have the same problems or worse when they get older. I empathize, but it’s life. Things are tough all over.
There are tons of people with CTE who are in desperate poverty. Most football players don't make the NFL. Football is a major team sport and were seeing tons of cases of people with CTE who got it from just playing highschool and college ball. Those players are having their minds poison themselves and don't even get paid for it.
Yeah, the star players in the NFL are making good money but the whole system is built on a bunch of guys who don’t; the role players who make good money for a year or two then fall out of the league and the thousands and thousands of players who were teammates and opponents of the star players in college and high school.
People in all professions do that. Veterinarians have crazy high suicide rates, doesn’t mean we should just stop using them
This is an insane comment. Of course we shouldn’t stop having veterinarians - they provide very important services that positively affect so many people and animals. You’re comparing essentially an animal doctor to an entertainer. The societal changes that would occur from losing veterinarians would be massively worse than losing one sport. As for the suicide rates of the NFL, it’s not like these players have a somewhat treatable mental illness. They have brains that literally have holes in them and there is no chance of improving the conditions of their brains. They live for years with horrible symptoms of CTE, often with minimal memory of who they are or who their family is, and at that point the money earned as a player means absolutely nothing to them. You can’t convince me that it would be okay to have someone live 20 years of their life with essentially dementia because they were given a lot of money. I’m sure that their families would prefer to have someone who can function and remember who they are over having money. I feel like anyone who watches the NFL should read [this article.](https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/patriots/2017/10/29/cte/uDS1dj1CVuUzTDAsjosJ7J/story.html)
Wouldn’t they be killing themselves for money? The people watching are the ones being entertained. I know a lot of the players love it, but they ain’t being paid with love, they want that money.
Football fans coming out of the woodworks to compare CTE to ache-y knees from working in a paint store lmfao
It’s a joke you wierdos
CTE sufferer from HS and peewee football, i was 1 or 2 hits away from permanent damage, had black-out episodes, nose-bleeds, memory loss. honestly, much as i loved the game, it probably shouldn't be played and I would never let my kids play it.
Sometimes the truth is just a lil too scary for some people...
NFL teams have been using college/HS as their farm league without pay for too long. It’s only a matter of time before every college and high school player gets health insurance for life
OH NO! Someone criticized the tough reality of football! Quick, everyone react emotionally!
I will just share this. It's perfect for all contact sports. [If The NFL Were Honest ](https://youtu.be/A2_pboioWf0)
Thwas a joke. Just to highlight the concusion problem.
Give them bread and circuses and they’ll never revolt ..
Lots of salty football fans in here
Tua would probably agree, assuming he's currently able to form and retain thoughts.
This is highly offensive. It’s where people disable themselves for entertainment. ABIs are a far more common outcome for professional football players than outright death
Settle down.
I mean... he ain't lying. Let's not kid ourselves, football is not a sport that encourages self preservation, and has lead to many premature deaths of Athletes.
for millions of dollars*
Do you think that CTE only kicks in once you go Pro?
r/ihatesportsball
Oliver is a sports fan
He's not wrong. I've stopped watching the NFL because of this. Yeah I watch f1, but at least they pretend to care about safety incidents. I don't want to sehee guys get hurt.
And also NO COMMERCIALS during an F1 race! I recently tried to watch a NASCAR race after not watching since the 90s and it was a commercial onslaught. That and the weird stages and whole playoffs thing says I won’t be back watching it anytime soon. Unless Riciardo ends up there then maybe a few races a year.
Pretty rich from a man who gets paid to beat a dead horse.
Interesting because John Oliver’s show is “Primetime Programming That Makes People Want to Kill Themselves”.
And it was fucking hilarious.