https://www.wsj.com/articles/could-football-ever-end-1501...

Jason Gay from the WSJ ponders the question. With current players cutting their careers short, to parents not wanting their kids to play and the recent study on head trauma.

It will certainly take a while but the ongoing monthly if not weekly and daily concussion stories do have an impact. Below is a story from a Higher Ed journal. For the record, I believe football is safer than it has ever been, certainly more than when I was playing as a kid. However, there are certainly a lot of nervous parents and I hear it from my sons friend's parents, some of the guys were former former college players themselves. A couple specifically told their sons early no to playing football. Both of these guys told me that their problems weren't concussions, but a string of long term nagging injuries that led to numerous shoulder and knee surgeries.

Again, I honestly think the game, because of the proper equipment and teaching techniques, is safer now than ever, but all of these stories do take a toll. While many suburban districts can weather the storm it is the small and mid size schools that will be most effected. Just look at the size of rosters in football rich northern part of Ohio and you will see what I mean. Again the big suburban schools will not see much of a change, it is the smaller and mid size schools midsize schools. While my high school coaching days are over, my old coaching friends tell me there is a huge drop in kids under 12 playing and all of these news stories along with growing sports like soccer and lacrosse, which in many instances are cheaper to play do have an impact.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/colleg...

If football fades away, what will.happen to all the stadiums and other facilities?

Robo sports!

Soccer. Lacrosse. Etc. Sports with less CTE issues.

Sports are a big business and getting bigger every day. I've read recently that with all the "unplugging" from cable, companies like Apple and Amazon are looking to jump into the sports market for their devices, as delivery syytems are currently in flux. That will likely drive up the bidding and hence, the salaries. There may be some kids and parents who think the big payday is worth the potential injuries. But, kids from more affluent families and ex-players that made their money and lived the nightmare will persuade their kids to do something else.

The part of the study that got my attention was that the big hits and concussions may not be the culprit. It's the persistent blows you take over a long period of time that does it.

For your further consideration:

http://tinyurl.com/yctvg8r4

Despite all the disclaimers at the end of this story, it appears that soccer has it's own CTE issues that might be greater than first thought. Maybe those stadiums could be used for intercollegiate tiddlywinks games. It can cause degeneration of finger joints but there has yet to be study that shows any possible CTE issues. However, more research is needed. ;-)

lol that's funny!! That reminds me of one of the Star Wars movies, I think the second, where someone walks into a bar and they have robot football playing.

I was thinking this: https://youtu.be/j12HgPRJgnY

Or this on a much bigger scale: https://youtu.be/2ixB9k6aijw

Edit: found the Star Wars scene, shows up at the 25 second mark. https://youtu.be/oKxN3EXAkvI

Apparently, The Jetsons were way ahead of their time.

On that show,football was played by robots.

Wish I could find a clip.

For a buck ninety-nine, it's yours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DZocV3sni4

Soccer can easily limit its CTE issues by banning headers outside the box. And, if they really needed to, they could ban it totally and survive easily. (Headers are currently banned for under 11 US soccer programs.)

Football could really be in trouble. My nephew's junior high school dropped football. Just offer flag football now. Town of 40,000+ in New England. This could happen more quickly than we think.

This morning,The Sports Edge on WFAN had on an author who investigated the issue of the long term effect (neurodegenerative disorder) on high school athletes.

According to the author,a number of studies including, one in 2016 by the MAYO Clinic,show no difference in long term mental effects between football players and non-athletes.

This would reinforce the position of a number of experts that other factors like steroids and HGH, not head trauma alone are what contribute to CTE.

One thing the author pointed out was number of women's soccer players,at all levels, who suffer concussions.
He didn't say whether the cause was anatomical or technique.

After reading the linked article, it seems to have nothing to do with the end of football for safety (or any other) reasons. The football boycott discussed (NFL-only, from the context) is directed towards getting Kapernick on a team, not ending football for CTE or other safety-related reasons.