Let's Fix Professional Football

Let’s fix the concussions in football problem. This may seem like the opposite of a solution. I’ll admit it’s counter-intuitive. Here’s what you do. Take away protective gear. Let them have a jock strap and maybe shin guards but that is all.  

Football players are the most concussion prone athletes in sports.  These guys are so padded and protected they begin to feel invincible. When your body is so shielded you have little fear of using it as a battering ram. A full speed collision is not such a painful proposition.  

Stated clearly, the theory is this: When your body is not padded and cushioned in every conceivable spot you will use it in ways you wouldn’t were it not padded. This results in much harder collisions with greater consequence. The no padding theory works for a number of reasons. One, you won’t find guys still playing 15 or 20 years after their college career is over. Two, the hits will be less devastating. Three, players will be much less likely to leap into the air to make body sacrificing catches. Four, when your head is unprotected you are much more careful with how you tackle and collide.  

My theory that less protective equipment would actually be safer comes from watching Rugby. Those guys are TOUGH!  They wear very little protective gear. The only head gear they wear is a sort of cloth helmet that looks like the helmets worn by the football players of yesteryear. These are only worn by certain players and not everyone who is eligible to wear one does.

There is another thing I think should be done to make football a less injurious sport. End the use of pain blocking injections. If you can’t play because of pain then don’t play. Pain is your body telling you something is wrong.  If a guy doesn’t have access to powerful pain blocking drugs that allow him to continue playing though injured, he won’t end up with a more grievous injury.

So, what do you think? Am I wrong? Tell me why I’m wrong. I’d love to read your thoughts on this topic. I’d enjoy exploring it further and in depth. Comment your responses, if you’d like.

Wanna Hangout?

Everybody likes to hang out. Well, almost everybody. I suppose there are a few people who don’t enjoy hanging out. Just being with friends or loved ones with no particular agenda except enjoying each other’s presence may seem like a waste of time to some, but I believe it is vital to human well-being.

Christians call it “fellowship”. Many families have a “family night” or a “reunion”. A group of friends may call it a “cookout” or a “party”. To a sports fan it’s “Tailgating”. Whatever it’s name, people need to spend time with each other just “being”. This is part of how we develop a sense of belonging. It helps us feel “connected”.

So how can you build connection with a group of people who are far away and in different places? Way back in primitive times, before the internet, somebody invented circle letters. Everyone in the circle wrote about what their family was experiencing then sent it to the next person in the circle. When the envelope came back around they could read what was happening in the lives of all the others in the circle, update their own letter, and send it on.   It was great for the time, but limited in effectiveness. Then came Facebook. This is an improvement over the circle letter because it allows a nearly instant connection. If a group of friends wants , they can write short “letters” to each other that can be read and responded to instantly. And more than one person can respond at the same time. This is wonderful for helping to build connection but it is limited to text based communication.

Enter Google +. This wonderful invention by the people at Google Inc. allows up to nine people to interact with each other over long distances like never before! Google + Hangout allows my wife and me, who live in Indiana, to vist with my brother and his family in FL, Mom and Dad in GA,  and my two sisters, who live in different cities in SC! It is indeed wonderful! At Thanksgiving this past year we decided to designate Tuesday evening as “hangout night” for our family. I’m so glad we did! Even though we are separated by hundreds and hundreds of miles, our weekly visits are bringing us together  in a way that letters and phone calls never could. A “hangout” is the next best thing to actually being together. 

Of Cowards And Heroes

American folklore and culture is full of proverbs and other wise sayings. I’m not talking about Biblical Proverbs but wise sayings that use interesting word pictures to communicate a message. I love quoting them when I’m asked for advice…or even if I'm not asked. 

Last week I wrote about Ben Franklin’s proverb about vinegar and honey. This week I heard someone say “It’s better to be a live coward than a dead hero.”  I disagree. Nothing inspiring has ever been done by someone afraid of failure. It is such a small way to live.  As Patrick Henry, the famous statesmen once said, “Give me liberty or give me death!”  I feel sure the late Statesmen would’ve been appalled at a proverb calling us to cowardice.  Likewise, no one has ever said “I was so inspired by your refusal to act.” Or “I’m so proud I stood by and did nothing!” What would we think of Victoria Soto,  the teacher at Sandy Hook, who died shielding her students, if instead she had climbed out of a window to save herself and left her students inside to face the gunman?

So what about “Better safe than sorry”, “ Make love not war”, “Time heals all wounds”, "He who hesitates is lost” or “ If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Are these good proverbs? Are they right sometimes and wrong other times?

Is caffeine bad for you?

Do you get tired of the conflicting health headlines? Are you suspicious of the claims of health potions energy drinks, diet pills and cure-alls? Is it all lies and half-truths or are they telling it straight? It’s too bad there’s not an easy answer. Here’s a video I found on TED.com that shed’s some interesting light on this subject. It’s well worth the 12 min it takes to watch.

http://www.ted.com/talks/molly_crockett_beware_neuro_bunk.html

You can find Dr. Crockett's profile and credentials by copying and pasting the following link in your browser. 

http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?mc536

How To Argue and Win

Perhaps you’ve heard it said that Politics and Religion should not be discussed.  I personally have decided to stop listening to political talk shows. Both sides, conservative and liberal, have a really hard time remaining civil. In nearly every political discussion in the media there is one or more of the following: name calling, accusing the other side of heinous motives, yelling, interrupting each other, attempting to monopolize the conversation, etc. Politicians themselves are guilty of such things. During election campaigns we call it “mudslinging”. This often includes subtle and not so subtle twisting of the truth.

Religious discussions are often just as ugly. Christian people often get very angry with each other over pretty minor details. There are literally hundreds of Christian denominations in the United States. These divisions are created and maintained because we can’t worship with people we believe are wrong. Some denominations refuse to let pastors ordained in other denominations to speak in their churches. Some will not observe the Sacred Rite of Communion with those who do not agree with them in nearly every detail. It is not uncommon to hear people verbally look down their nose at fellow Christians with whom they disagree. We Christians are a pretty dogmatic bunch and we’re fond of declaring “we can’t both be right”. We fail to recognize that we could indeed both be wrong.

              

           In all our religious and political huffing and puffing I fear we fail to change anyone’s mind. As Ben Franklin famously said “A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.”  We would do well to apply the wisdom of this statement in all our attempts to convince. And don’t forget the words of King Solomon, “A soft answer turns away wrath.”