Lem Barney thinks that football will be gone in 20 years

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"People often ask me do I miss the game, do I wish I could still play with all the money they're making today. Even with all of that, I'd say, 'Heck, no,'" Barney said. "The game is becoming more deadly today.

"It's a great game, and I think it's the greatest game if you like gladiators. It's the greatest game for yesteryear's gladiators. But in the next 10 to 20 years, society will alleviate football altogether because of how strong it's becoming, how big it's becoming and the tenacity that it already is. And it's only going to get worse."

Barney said he would "feel really bad" if he didn't say anything about what he knows.

Go Gophers!!
 



denguegopher said:
I hope that its played for a lot longer than that. But that thought has inched into the back of my mind too. Its possible that we might run out of companies willing to make helmet. But its just a prediction and we know that they can be very wrong too.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ey-football-will-be-gone-in-20-years/2424499/
Click to expand...

The thought has also been in the back of mind, though I'm thinking more along 30-40 years.

I don't think it will be a result of companies not making helmets but more-so from mothers not wanting their sons to play youth and hs football, which is where all college and pro football players come from.
 


I have two nephews getting into junior high and both will easily be 6-2/6-3 and probably bigger by high school. With their parents help I'm sure, they've expressed zero interest in football and are now excelling in other sports. Any more spinal injuries or lawsuits or God forbid, a death, and I wouldn't disagree with Lem Barney. Agree with station19 more on the time frame.
 

Equipment will change before the game goes away. Exactly how, I'm not sure. But ideas include much softer, bulkier pads and helmets... not just for the purpose of absorbing hits, but making the hits that are delivered less brutal. The combination of bigger faster athletes with smaller, more compact padding has turned players into hardened rockets.
 

Technology will catch up, and with research will come safer pads and helmets.
It's always been a rough sport, that cannot change. Anyone who starts playing it with the idea it's completely safe is delusional.
If people start pulling their kids out of the sport, their kids will be worse for it.
All this head injury stuff will pass, and there will be something else for scared overprotective mothers to worry about.
 

I was always one of the people who would always say that the head injury stuff will pass but now I'm not so sure. I think there is going to be a huge crisis on our hands in 20 years you guys due to the speed of the game and lack of protection for the head. It's already rearing its nasty head as we speak. I know a lot of the research is in its infancy, but I am pretty sure what we hear about football players and professional ones in general is only going to get worse. I watched a documentary on Netflix the other day called Head Games that came out in 2012 and if any of you have access to Netflix I highly recommend it as it has some great stuff in it about the research and how the NFL gave head injuries and concussions the cold shoulder and tried sweeping it under the rug for so long up until a few years ago. It's not just football either, all sports are in the crosshairs when it comes to head injuries. Are we going to prevent them completely? No, but we need to do a major overhaul in equipment and protection with the advancements in training to make people bigger, faster, and stronger.
 




I can't see it happening, there's just too much demand for football. The problem with better equipment is that it leads to players being more and more reckless. What will probably happen is that the game will change. It's happened before. The head slap used to be allowed. The rules were changed to make the game less violent over 100 years ago.

Perhaps football might look a lot different in 20 years, but it will still be there. For all we know, it could be replaced by flag football. I'm not saying that it should, just that there will be changes.
 

Facts:
Head injury rate per 10,000 injury exposures
Boys Football 52
Boys Hockey 43

Guess the next 2?

Girls Lacrosse 39
Girls Soccer 35

Straight from the high school league coaches' online head injury clinic.
It's all sports. Sports are not going away, nor should they.
If girls soccer is almost as dangerous as boys football, where's the outrage and predictors of doom for girls soccer?

tinfoil hat moment: Any idea if some of this is driven by the lawyers behind the big NFL and other head injury lawsuits?
 

Equipment will undoubtedly improve and the game will evolve to some extent, however football is and will be the most dangerous of the popular sports. No where else do you have the size and speed of participants colliding.

You have to keep in mind that our society as a whole is much more concerned about serious injuries in sports and leisure activities.

How many adults and children(of all ages) ride a bicycle without a helmet? It's a big change from years ago.

Look how the popularity of boxing has declined in the last few decades.
 



denguegopher said:
I hope that its played for a lot longer than that. But that thought has inched into the back of my mind too. Its possible that we might run out of companies willing to make helmets. But its just a prediction and we know that they can be very wrong too.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ey-football-will-be-gone-in-20-years/2424499/
Click to expand...



A local H.S. Football Coach has some thoughts about this situation:

http://www.winonadailynews.com/news...cle_77684cf8-cf8b-11e2-bfc6-001a4bcf887a.html
 

Would be shocked if it disappeared anytime soon, especially 20 years. There are just too many people who are both 1. completely obsessed with the sport, and 2. worship those who play it. As long as that continues, football isn't disappearing anytime in the near future.
 

People dying playing football is nothing new; I remember it 15 years ago when I played and Dr Google reads the range is somewhere in the 10-20 range each year.

If they want to solve some of the injuries get serious about steroids in the NFL. Clearly encouraged by the powers that be. Look at guys like Shawn Merriam, who was rewarded for it... There's a lot of money in 'juicing' now. When the free market catches up (i.e. through suing owners for encouraging such behavior) some violence will be tempered. It's the obvious fix and has been for 30+ years.

The only thing that will kill football is the Roger Goodell style solutions, such as, eliminating kick offs. If that happened I wouldn't give too *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#s about the game. I figure messing with it until it's broken will eventually hamper the league much like it hampered the post Jordan NBA.
 

Schnauzer said:
Equipment will change before the game goes away. Exactly how, I'm not sure. But ideas include much softer, bulkier pads and helmets... not just for the purpose of absorbing hits, but making the hits that are delivered less brutal.
Click to expand...

That seems to me to be the most logical solution. Have the players go back to the larger pads that will slow them down and reduce the violence of the hits.
 

Football protective gear in twenty years may resemble the Michelin Man...

With the competitive pressures to win and with large money at stake, the game has become what it is today - far too violent. Players have become bulkier and faster.

If you want to see college football like it was meant to be played, go see a D3 football game at Saint John's University.
 

Lem makes a good point. Kids are getting bigger, faster, and stronger. Just look at the increase in average height of men and women over the last 30 years. You walk into a high school now and even most of the girls are 5'7" or better. My son ( age 30 ) got married two weeks ago. He is 6'4"
and played FB and BB. I felt like a dwarf at the reception and I'm 5'10" All his HS and college buddies were between 6'0 and 6'5" Even some of the gal pals that attended were in the 5'9" range.
When you have 6' 5" kids running 4.5 40's and weighing 250 pounds or better people are going to
get hurt.
 

Play the game on grass for starters.

The field turf makes the game a step or two faster.
 

The problem is that no equipment can protect from the sudden or unnatural stopping of a head in motion, which is the cause of a large amount of concussions.

What is a concussion?

Concussion refers to a mild traumatic injury to the brain without an associated structural abnormality such as bleeding. It may occur with or without loss of consciousness.

While concussions can occur from direct impact, many occur without any contact to the head. A sudden abrupt stop, such as a fall to the ground or two players running directly into one another without hitting heads, can cause a concussion.
 

Studwell55 said:
Play the game on grass for starters.

The field turf makes the game a step or two faster.
Click to expand...

But still much slower than on the old 'astro-turfs' and one hell of a lot safer.

Most youth, hs and college games ARE played on grass.
 

Let's make the game more interesting and less danger. College football should be the lingerie (legends) football. If there are more women in colleges, and there is role reversal, let's just take it to the next step.
 

Fact is less and less kids may play football, but as long as there is money and stardom, you will always have inner city kids playing football.
 


Schnauzer said:
Equipment will change before the game goes away. Exactly how, I'm not sure. But ideas include much softer, bulkier pads and helmets... not just for the purpose of absorbing hits, but making the hits that are delivered less brutal. The combination of bigger faster athletes with smaller, more compact padding has turned players into hardened rockets.
Click to expand...

The problem is every time they improve the equipment, more players keep getting hurt because the "protection" promotes even riskier play (at least it seems that way). Nobody "form tackles" anymore. Everyone just seems to throw their body at their opponent. I think a lack of solid fundamentals is as much to blame as the state of the equipment.
 

Dean S said:
Let's make the game more interesting and less danger. College football should be the lingerie (legends) football. If there are more women in colleges, and there is role reversal, let's just take it to the next step.
Click to expand...

Somehow the thought of 300 pound guys in lingerie doesn't appeal to me.
 


50PoundHead said:
The problem is every time they improve the equipment, more players keep getting hurt because the "protection" promotes even riskier play (at least it seems that way). Nobody "form tackles" anymore. Everyone just seems to throw their body at their opponent. I think a lack of solid fundamentals is as much to blame as the state of the equipment.
Click to expand...

Exactly - it's the advancements in padding - along with PED usage and much more advanced physical training - that have resulted in much more force being available for hits. The larger the force, obviously the greater the prospect of injury.

The answer may, ironically, be in the decreasing of other forms of padding, such as shoulder and chest pads. A young man is much less likely to violently throw their body at someone if the hit #@#%^ing hurts the one doing the hitting.
 


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