Football Folly

I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything at all

I got no means to show identification
I got no papers show you what I am
You'll have to take me just the way that you find me
What's gone is gone and I do not give a damn
Empty stomach, empty head
I got empty heart and empty bed
I don't remember

Peter Gabriel 1980

           Preamble: When I wrote this blog two years ago, it didn’t exactly go over so well with some people.  2 or 3 defriended me on Facebook, and a few others came up to me after to “discuss” it.  Please understand, especially with the following blog post, that I’m just a guy who writes down my opinions, and whatever else comes to my mind, in the middle of the night.  It’s nothing personal.  I have absolutely no idea which kids play football and which don’t (seriously), and I’m not saying you’re a bad parent if you let your kids play football.  Plus, as with all my blogs, I could be wrong.  In fact, I know specifically I was wrong once, in 1973.

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So imagine you and your spouse go on vacation. You leave your two kids with your trusted nanny and come back 10 days later.  She comes up to you and says, “Great news! I wanted to make sure that the boys got enough exercise, so for about 30 minutes each day I had them run headfirst into the basement wall.  After that we spent another half hour having the kids run headfirst into each other.  The only bad news while you were gone was they seemed to be having some difficulty doing their math homework…”  You’d call the police, right?  Welcome to youth football!

70 years ago we thought smoking was good for you.  Doctors were pitchman for cigarette companies.  30 years ago we thought a diet sky high in carbs with no fat was the way to go.  And up until the last few years we blissfully ignored what was happening to retired NFL players, until the evidence became too obvious to ignore.  Forget about the joint replacements and orthopedic injuries, a huge amount were getting CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).  Basically, they got hit in the head so many times and with such force, their brains degenerated and aged rapidly.  This is some really nasty stuff; depression leading to suicide, major memory loss, confusion, etc.  It’s all there, and this time the players are not keeping their mouths shut.

But I know what you’re thinking.  My son isn’t 295 pounds and doesn’t run a 4.2 40.  This is true.  But the younger brains are far more vulnerable and susceptible to concussions.  Google it.  Also, there’s just no way to play the sport safely.  They found out that even for players without true, identifiable concussions, the constant jarring of the brain still led to the disease.  I’m now reading where some neurologists are recommending kids younger than 15 don’t play football.  I have a much better idea; kids under the age of 95 don’t play.  Seriously, I’m reading that the effect of two kids running into each other at full speed with their helmets on is like dropping a bowling ball on their heads.  Enough already.  Just stop.

Look, I know people who played football when they were young who are now doctors and lawyers, and as smart as can be.  I had a case a few years ago where the other lawyer was a starter on Tom Brady’s Michigan team his senior year (for the record, he told me that he had no idea Brady would end up one of the best players of all time, that he had great accuracy but no other skill that stood out).  Nor am I saying that if your son has ever played football he’s doomed.  He’s not.  I’m sure he’ll be fine.  But let’s not take unnecessary risks.

I realize there’s a certain level of hypocrisy here.  I’m a type A male who likes violent entertainment.  I love watching the NFL.  I can’t get enough of the UFC.  I like violent movies.  My wife lasted about 5 minutes watching The Walking Dead, while I’m a fan.  The more gory a way we can kill a zombie, the better.  But I don’t want your kids in particular to get hurt.  There’s just a ton of stuff nowadays for kids to do to help them reach their potential.  It doesn’t make sense to me to do something that might lead to the opposite.

Have a good night everyone.

JR

Guess Again

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
clinical, intellectual, cynical.

There are times when all the world's asleep,
the questions run too deep
for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
but please tell me who I am.

Supertramp 1979

  When I was young I had the luxury of making emotional and incorrect decisions at a fairly consistent rate.  Now that I’m older and responsible for other humans, I don’t have the option of getting things wrong.  The stakes are too high. That’s why over time I’ve embraced completely the idea of basing virtually everything on objective evidence.

  This idea began about 30 years ago when I started reading a baseball writer named Bill James.  He was the forefather of what is now called “analytics” in sports.  Basically, instead of guessing based on incomplete information (“Who’s better, Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds?”), it sought to answer definitively every conceivable question in baseball, using primarily math and logic.  We no longer had to guess what made a winning baseball team, we could simply look at every single team in history and see what factors the winning ones had that the losing ones did not.  Opinion was out, fact was in.  Unsurprisingly, the teams in all sports that have embraced analytics have greatly outperformed those that don’t.

That’s how I run my life.  In everything.  I have zero interest in alternative medicine based on anecdotes and opinions. I want double-blind controlled studies from an unbiased source to see what really works.  I want to see evidence for as much as I can in my life.  I watch less politics then I used to, because I have no interest in biased, prearranged sound bites.  Anyone with a basic level of math competence, and the desire to do so, could see that in the past presidential election neither the Romney budget plan nor the Obama plan had any chance of working.  I embrace the grind of figuring these things out.  Looking at the numbers, and not the ideology, gives you a huge advantage when it comes to things like investing, health, time management, etc.

I want to be Spock.  I want to be a Vulcan.  There’s enough time and opportunity in life to be emotional, let’s be logical and figure this stuff out.  The advent of computers and the internet has made the ability to lead an evidence based life pretty easy.  We can gather massive amounts of information in all the relevant areas we need, quickly and in any hour of the 24 we choose.

  I hated Obama’s campaign theme of “hope”, and it had nothing to do with the fact that a Democrat was saying it.  It had everything to do with the fact that I do not want to hope good things happen; I want to know good things will happen, because I looked at the evidence, acted based on it, and eliminated the risk.  

  I especially want to know everything about people, for various reasons.  I have no interest in hearing agenda based nonsense on how people of different races, cultures, religions, etc., should act.  I want to know the actual numbers on how they do act. 

  Everything in life can and will be figured out.  I won’t live to see it, but we’ll eventually learn how to stop cells from aging and be immortal. The math, evidence, and facts will solve everything eventually.  In the meantime, I’ll use what’s available as best as I can.

  Have a good night everyone.

          JR