The future of American Football.

[castletonsnob]

With all the concerns about concussions, what do you think is American Football's future? Will it even still exist in 20 years?

[Limity (BLM)]

I think it will. The popularity will ebb, and the NFL will contract. It will be a painful contraction, but the game will return to its roots, be driven by passion and the desire to play, and will eventually flow back to popularity.

If the NFL is smart, they'll lead the contraction, get ahead of it, not get left behind trying to react to it.

As it pertains to concussions, I hope that new training techniques, such as rugby style tackling, and no hitting practices will greatly reduce them. Unfortunately they'll never truly go away.

[Jiren]

Here's the future of NFL

[Hurbster]

Get rid of the body armour.

[Juice]

Technology will help change the game. And protect its players.

[sfvega]

Feb 5, 2017 7:19:00 GMT -5 Juice said:

Technology will help change the game. And protect its players.

Mmmmm....tech can only do so much. Many are advocates of less tech, meaning no helmets and guys less likely to run head first into other guys' heads. The brain is funny in that there's really no tech to be developed that is going to stop the brain from absorbing trauma when you get hit really hard. Hockey has the same problem.

Essentially, you have to legislate a lot of hits completely out of the game, and even then there's still...shit happens. Concussions will always happen and be an issue. But both sports are moving in a great direction to lessen plays where concussions are the highest risk. And fans continue to complain about those very rules.

They say that pee wee football participation is down 20%, which is a big deal. Not only for player pool and going forward, but the fact that most doctors flat out say that kids shouldn't be playing it at all. It will still likely be a sport in 20 years and big business. But the NBA is projected to become the #1 sport eventually. Then you have the fans turned off by the lack of physicality, which had always been a lot of the appeal. And we're still gonna see more and more legends who are sadly in horrible shape/killing themselves from the damage already done. We have not yet seen the bottom of the slope for the NFL's PR, they will probably keep falling quite a bit in the next 5 years alone.

[Juice]

Feb 5, 2017 7:55:17 GMT -5 sfvega said:

Feb 5, 2017 7:19:00 GMT -5 Juice said:

Technology will help change the game. And protect its players.

Mmmmm....tech can only do so much. Many are advocates of less tech, meaning no helmets and guys less likely to run head first into other guys' heads. The brain is funny in that there's really no tech to be developed that is going to stop the brain from absorbing trauma when you get hit really hard. Hockey has the same problem.

Essentially, you have to legislate a lot of hits completely out of the game, and even then there's still...shit happens. Concussions will always happen and be an issue. But both sports are moving in a great direction to lessen plays where concussions are the highest risk. And fans continue to complain about those very rules.

They say that pee wee football participation is down 20%, which is a big deal. Not only for player pool and going forward, but the fact that most doctors flat out say that kids shouldn't be playing it at all. It will still likely be a sport in 20 years and big business. But the NBA is projected to become the #1 sport eventually. Then you have the fans turned off by the lack of physicality, which had always been a lot of the appeal. And we're still gonna see more and more legends who are sadly in horrible shape/killing themselves from the damage already done. We have not yet seen the bottom of the slope for the NFL's PR, they will probably keep falling quite a bit in the next 5 years alone.

Honestly the NFL is probably 2 years away from removing the kick off. that's the first change I see happening. new helmets will probably be designed every couple of years as they update them already.

and honestly who wants to watch humans when you can watch ROBOTS? That's what I am waitingg for. Or that football/lacrosse in Batman Beyond.

[sfvega]

Feb 5, 2017 9:47:37 GMT -5 Juice said:

Feb 5, 2017 7:55:17 GMT -5 sfvega said:

Mmmmm....tech can only do so much. Many are advocates of less tech, meaning no helmets and guys less likely to run head first into other guys' heads. The brain is funny in that there's really no tech to be developed that is going to stop the brain from absorbing trauma when you get hit really hard. Hockey has the same problem.

Essentially, you have to legislate a lot of hits completely out of the game, and even then there's still...shit happens. Concussions will always happen and be an issue. But both sports are moving in a great direction to lessen plays where concussions are the highest risk. And fans continue to complain about those very rules.

They say that pee wee football participation is down 20%, which is a big deal. Not only for player pool and going forward, but the fact that most doctors flat out say that kids shouldn't be playing it at all. It will still likely be a sport in 20 years and big business. But the NBA is projected to become the #1 sport eventually. Then you have the fans turned off by the lack of physicality, which had always been a lot of the appeal. And we're still gonna see more and more legends who are sadly in horrible shape/killing themselves from the damage already done. We have not yet seen the bottom of the slope for the NFL's PR, they will probably keep falling quite a bit in the next 5 years alone.

Honestly the NFL is probably 2 years away from removing the kick off. that's the first change I see happening. new helmets will probably be designed every couple of years as they update them already.

and honestly who wants to watch humans when you can watch ROBOTS? That's what I am waitingg for. Or that football/lacrosse in Batman Beyond.

The helmets have come a long way, but as the science guys have said, they protect the skull and not the brain.

What we really need is the football game from Starship Troopers, but also the regeneration laser system for brains.

[Sephiroth]

Machine apocalypse

[Push R Truth]

American Football will only die when the scientists perfect the Mutant League

[Reflecto]

Merge the NFL and Prison Football.

Dead serious.

The helmets and crashes may help, but the same thing may be that people just genetically bred themselves out of it and football's become unsafe at any speed. No matter what technology or rule changes you have, the likely endgame is that human beings who play football are too big, too fast, and can hit each other too hard just by simple laws of physics...and even banning PEDs and giving strict "lifetime bans for any PED" likely won't change it.

With that in mind, the most likely endgame would be calling up from the prison ranks and making the rule "Okay, you prisoners were the best team in the Kentucky Penitentary system? Great. You're now the Cincinnati Bengals, and we'll give you a year off your sentence for every year you agree to play in the NFL...but in exchange, you're doing this KNOWING that you're probably going to have severe concussion issues."

[xCompackx]

Feb 5, 2017 9:47:37 GMT -5 Juice said:

Feb 5, 2017 7:55:17 GMT -5 sfvega said:

Mmmmm....tech can only do so much. Many are advocates of less tech, meaning no helmets and guys less likely to run head first into other guys' heads. The brain is funny in that there's really no tech to be developed that is going to stop the brain from absorbing trauma when you get hit really hard. Hockey has the same problem.

Essentially, you have to legislate a lot of hits completely out of the game, and even then there's still...shit happens. Concussions will always happen and be an issue. But both sports are moving in a great direction to lessen plays where concussions are the highest risk. And fans continue to complain about those very rules.

They say that pee wee football participation is down 20%, which is a big deal. Not only for player pool and going forward, but the fact that most doctors flat out say that kids shouldn't be playing it at all. It will still likely be a sport in 20 years and big business. But the NBA is projected to become the #1 sport eventually. Then you have the fans turned off by the lack of physicality, which had always been a lot of the appeal. And we're still gonna see more and more legends who are sadly in horrible shape/killing themselves from the damage already done. We have not yet seen the bottom of the slope for the NFL's PR, they will probably keep falling quite a bit in the next 5 years alone.

Honestly the NFL is probably 2 years away from removing the kick off. that's the first change I see happening. new helmets will probably be designed every couple of years as they update them already.

and honestly who wants to watch humans when you can watch ROBOTS? That's what I am waitingg for. Or that football/lacrosse in Batman Beyond.

I genuinely do think we'll get to a point where it's entirely played by either full-on robots or Pacific Rim-style mechs. I'd be willing to bet we could make robots that only exist to play football.

[Kevin Hamilton]

In just 20 years? Of course.

Even from there, there'll be changes made, but not to the degree that it doesn't exist anymore. You may see it become more and more like Arena Football where there are high scoring games with little in the way of defense as far as hits and such.

["Trickster Dogg" James Jesse]

Feb 5, 2017 12:29:50 GMT -5 Reflecto said:

Merge the NFL and Prison Football.

Dead serious.

The helmets and crashes may help, but the same thing may be that people just genetically bred themselves out of it and football's become unsafe at any speed. No matter what technology or rule changes you have, the likely endgame is that human beings who play football are too big, too fast, and can hit each other too hard just by simple laws of physics...and even banning PEDs and giving strict "lifetime bans for any PED" likely won't change it.

With that in mind, the most likely endgame would be calling up from the prison ranks and making the rule "Okay, you prisoners were the best team in the Kentucky Penitentary system? Great. You're now the Cincinnati Bengals, and we'll give you a year off your sentence for every year you agree to play in the NFL...but in exchange, you're doing this KNOWING that you're probably going to have severe concussion issues."

So the Running Man, but with less murder and more footballs? I think the last thing the United States is needs is a prison-entertainment complex that serves to legitimate the expansion of the prison-industrial complex.

[Hit Girl]

That ultra violent form of football in Starship Troopers.

[Rican]

It will still be around but its popularity has definitely peaked. They got greedy and oversaturated the market(expansion, the Thursday night games, etc.) I think the NBA maybe even MLS will have overtaken it in terms of popularity in 20 years.

[StuntGranny®]

This is AMERICA! When we have a problem, we acknowledge it, bitch about it, and then somehow make it worse.

But seriously, I agree with the notion that the NFL is on a downward trend. Outside of the Super Bowl, their ratings/popularity will continue to dwindle.

[Toilet Paper Roll]

20 years yes. 50 years or so I'm not sure. I think the game if Jr exists will hardly be recognizable compared to today's sport.

[lildude8218]

they're an ok band but way overhyped

[Magnus the Magnificent]