Saturday, January 29, 2011

Not Only More Injuries; But Retired NFL Players Take More Painkillers

An article showed up earlier today on www.businessweek.com about retired NFL players and opioids. A group of over 500 retired NFL players from 1979 to 2006 were surveyed by researchers, and it turns out that NFL retirees are FOUR TIMES more likely to take prescription painkillers.

This is right in line with our earlier news today concerning the rise of injury in the NFL. Just as society has become an instant place, wanting convenience over quality, even, the instant success world of the NFL and the evolution of NFL players to be bigger, faster, stronger, taller has caused the NFL to become a far more violent, "dirty" game then it was in years past. Sure, players like Jack Lambert, Deacon Jones, and Ray Nitschke put fear into the heart of opposing players in the past, but now, any Joe off the street is capable of paralyzing you for life because he has either been taught to use his helmet as a weapon, or he has decided to do that himself.

Yet, in the process, the tackling techniques of the past have been laid by the wayside. Former stars like Ronnie Lott, Jack Tatum, and Dick Butkus would be ashamed of the majority of defenders today, who struggle to tackle players when they can't punish them with a throbbing helmet-to-helmet hit.

In my e-book Going Beyond, I design a Next-Generation NFL - an NFL that the "Old Guard" could get behind.

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