I just read somewhere, maybe in Bottom Line, that former NFL players are 64% more likely to suffer from dementia over time, than their non-NFL counterparts. Seems like I've heard the same thing about boxers. Repeated head-knocking: not good.
When you view professional or even high level college games, you are seeing the end result of years of "weeding out" the injury prone. Only the very tough make it that far and each one of them is always one play away from retirement.
They also have good equipment and get excellent medical care when they are injured.
"Toughness" is a composite of many qualities; speed , strenght, durable connective tissue, quickness (related to but not the same as speed), coordination, agility, bone density...
-- Edited by BigG on Saturday 19th of February 2011 08:56:15 PM
No kidding, Hayden! ... I saw a video close-up recently of an NFL quarterback being sacked. The speed and ferocity of it was appalling! I'm amazed they're not all dead from the horrific trauma of it. :(
Hindoo, I was standing near a football stadium once in the off season when the team bus for the U of Florida football team drove up and off loaded the players. We're talking BIG. As in gawk at them because you can't help it and you just hope they don't get mad at you for your rudeness big.
It's amazing to me there aren't more injuries in football.
Earth to Razorsharp: He's a basketball player. They're ALL gigantic. ... Seriously, one time I encountered the entire University of Kentucky basketball team in a restaurant near my house. Egads! I felt like one of Swift's Lilliputians!
I happened to flip the TV channel and saw a game with Orlando Magic's center Dwight Howard. The guy is gigantic. He is 6'11' but his shoulders look broader than most people are tall. If I were in the same room with the guy, I am pretty sure I would just stare at him even though doing so would be rude.
