somewhat OT: Biff Poggi & MD highschool football

[Gulo Blue]

1.6% of college football players make it to the NFL.

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/estimated-probability-competing-professional-athletics

Thanks. So if you multiply the 1.6% by the small fraction of high school players that play in college, and consider that more are playing earlier in life when the brain is still developing and more fragile...if rates are 1% of what they are in the NFL, you're talking about a much, much bigger problem.

 

[thewolverines24]

Thanks. So if you multiply the 1.6% by the small fraction of high school players that play in college, and consider that more are playing earlier in life when the brain is still developing and more fragile...if rates are 1% of what they are in the NFL, you're talking about a much, much bigger problem.

I don't think we are many years away from tackle football being phased out until a kid reaches high school.

 

[Gulo Blue]

I don't think we are many years away from tackle football being phased out until a kid reaches high school.

I think Harbaugh has advocated kids playing other things until they reach a certain age.

 

[thewolverines24]

I think Harbaugh has advocated kids playing other things until they reach a certain age.

Good call. Make more kids play basketball. It's the best anyway. :spin:

 

[Michchamp]

Thanks. So if you multiply the 1.6% by the small fraction of high school players that play in college, and consider that more are playing earlier in life when the brain is still developing and more fragile...if rates are 1% of what they are in the NFL, you're talking about a much, much bigger problem.

I think the article posted about the NCAA lawsuit had a stat that CTE rates were similar to NFLers, and it included those who stopped playing after college.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Nobody asked, but I think my favorite record is Jack White's Lazaretto. Musically, it feels like a true spiritual descendant of classic AMERICAN ROCK, and the physical record has a bunch of weird features you won't experience in any other format. One track has an electric and an acoustic lead-in. Which one you get depends on which track you drop the needle on because the first part of that side of the record in double threaded. One side is glossy, the other is flat. The sides are square (most records are rounded.) There are hidden tracks in the labels. Side B plays inside out. And there's a dancing angel hologram if you shine a flashlight on it as it spins.

 

[Michchamp]

that all sounds pretty cool. they can do a lot more with the format to make it interesting.

but I'm not a big fan of Jack White, or the White Stripes. They're okay though.

 

[Michchamp]

my favorite record in my collection is Stevie Wonder's Fulfillingess First Finale. it's an original from the 70's. I also have the copy of Thriller my mom bought in '82. I put that on when MJ died.

I would be surprised if Biff Poggi listens to records... Harbaugh probably does though.

 

[tinselwolverine]

I don't think we are many years away from tackle football being phased out until a kid reaches high school.

Arguably the phase out has been happening through attrition already.

In the early '70s, I played in a Pop Warner type league (it wasn't part of the Pop Warner organization, it was its own organization) called the Vince Lombardi Junior Football League. John Harbaugh was playing in that league at the time and Jim started probably about the year after I left.

There were about seven teams and three were in Ann Arbor - the Junior Wolverines, the Junior Rams and the Junior Packers. I played on the Rams, the Harbaughs played on the Packers and Keith Bostic, who went on to be All American at Michigan and had a pretty good pro career with the Houston Oilers; he played in one Pro Bowl, played for the Wolverines.

Tom Minnick, whose son Jim is one of the Harbaugh's best friends, coached the Junior Packers. Coach Minnick ended up being elected Sheriff of Washtenaw County.

When I look for it on line, it looks to me that only the Jr. Wolverines are left.

I'm guessing parents aren't as enthusiastic to have their kids start playing full tackle football at such a young age nowadays.

EDIT: Check that; looks there are still two Ann Arbor teams, and they're both the Wolverines - the Blue Wolverines and the Maize Wolverines. The league still exists, or remnants of it, and is now named The Downriver Junior Football League.

I recognize the names of some of the teams we played against back in the day - interestingly, there more Junior Football teams in the area, not less - although they're geographically more spread, it looks like.

So if there's a phase happening, it's going slower than I thought.

 

[Michchamp]

So now apparently the league is meeting to decide what to do with Biff Poggi's program, and he's having trouble filling out a schedule because more teams have withdrawn from playing them.

And instead of just shutting up and trying to resolve this quietly, his top assistant went on twitter to accuse the opponents who've withdrawn of being cowardly and racist. link.

SFA was founded by the Catholic Church as a parochial school for poor African American students.

I thought prep athletic scholarships have been banned more or less across the country; I know they were when I was in HS in Michigan. What Poggi is doing in this case seems like it should not be permitted.

 

[Gulo Blue]

my favorite record in my collection is Stevie Wonder's Fulfillingess First Finale. it's an original from the 70's. I also have the copy of Thriller my mom bought in '82. I put that on when MJ died.

I would be surprised if Biff Poggi listens to records... Harbaugh probably does though.

I have some Stevie Wonder on my wish list.

 

[Michchamp]

I have some Stevie Wonder on my wish list.

Everything he did prior to like 1980 is mind-blowingly great.

until I started listening to his actual albums, I mostly knew him from a handful of weaker pop hits, and his TV appearances on Sesame Street and The Cosby Show

But like he won best album 4 out of 5 years in the mid 70's and those entire albums are all great... no filler.

 

[Gulo Blue]

I've posted this before, but if anyone hasn't seen the 1904 concussion protocol at the 1:40 mark of this video, here it is again:


https://www.loc.gov/item/mp73006300

 

[Michchamp]

I've posted this before, but if anyone hasn't seen the 1904 concussion protocol at the 1:40 mark of this video, here it is again:


https://www.loc.gov/item/mp73006300

Nobody could have foreseen, etc. ...

I played football from ages 10 to 15, (early 90's) and nobody warned us about the effects of concussions on the brain. to the contrary, we were encouraged to hit hard, and some of the coaches I had even made us run pointless hitting drills like "the meat grinder" that had nothing to do with teaching technique or skills.

if you got hit hard, you either "got your bell rung" or "had the wind knocked out of ya" and were encouraged to "get back in there" as quickly as possible.

also: almost all the football coaches I had were complete assholes.

 

[tomdalton22]

Nobody could have foreseen, etc. ...

I played football from ages 10 to 15, (early 90's) and nobody warned us about the effects of concussions on the brain. to the contrary, we were encouraged to hit hard, and some of the coaches I had even made us run pointless hitting drills like "the meat grinder" that had nothing to do with teaching technique or skills.

if you got hit hard, you either "got your bell rung" or "had the wind knocked out of ya" and were encouraged to "get back in there" as quickly as possible.

also: almost all the football coaches I had were complete assholes.

My parents wouldn't let me play football. My stepdad would say "you're going to get a brain injury or break your neck". At the time I was pissed, but in hindsight, I'm glad I never played.

 

[Michchamp]

My parents wouldn't let me play football. My stepdad would say "you're going to get a brain injury or break your neck". At the time I was pissed, but in hindsight, I'm glad I never played.

at least I sucked and rarely played in games!