death of american football predicted, nation rejoices!

[twoeleven]

CTE, the concussion crisis, and an economic look at the end of football

in twenty words: parents sue schools for bashing their sons' brains out. schools bail, talent pool dries, america benefits but hick towns screwed.

Comments

[lhn]

Though even as someone born without the sports fan gene, the vision of campuses and workplaces becoming more productive in the absence of football strikes me as them going off the rails. Some other sport would take over, just as football and basketball have taken advantage of baseball's slow fade.

(This could be Twenty20 Cricket's big chance!)

That said, it's possible that the new sport could do its drawing outside of academia, which I'd take as a win even if I don't know if it would be financially for the schools. (Running farm teams for the pro leagues just doesn't strike me as a university's core mission, profitable or not.)

[twoeleven]

the author's point about campus productivity seems reasonable to me: football weekends have become forgotten weekends, at least at the big state schools. sure, there will always be sports fans at colleges, but they wouldn't have de facto official sanction, nor the strength of numbers to make such problems. i'm nowhere near the first to observe the corrosive effect of drinking on relatively-isolated groups: past a certain point, the more people drink, the less interesting stuff there is to do, and so the greater excuse to drink to relieve boredom. (there are other causes of course, and the argument is simplified for effect.)

(Running farm teams for the pro leagues just doesn't strike me as a university's core mission, profitable or not.)
it's not possible for me to agree more. i think the author exaggerates a bit: high schools and universities bailing from football will start to squeeze the talent pipeline. If the NFL is still profitable at that point, they'll start their own minor league system... and among the clauses buried in contracts for kids (and parents) with dollar signs in their eyes to sign will be broad indemnification for injuries, the player knowing the risks of the sport, and undertaking them voluntarily to reap the potential rewards.