Bob Costas on why he was removed from the Super Bowl broadcast

[Ohiogal]

Among other things, from his comments on concussions and CTE among football players ....

“You cannot change the basic nature of the game,” Costas said at Maryland, via the Washington Post. “I certainly would not let, if I had an athletically gifted 12- or 13-year-old son, I would not let him play football.”

Costas called out those who are trying to ignore the facts around the issue, too, clearly making his stance on the issue known — if that wasn’t obvious before.

“There is this crazy notion that you hear on talk radio and some right-wing sites that this is just another left-wing conspiracy to undermine something that is quintessentially American,” Costas said, via the Washington Post. “There’s a word for things like that, there’s many words. One of them is bulls‑‑‑, because that’s what that is.”

and more

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/bob-costas-confirmed-removed-super-bowl-broadcast-due-comments-concussions-cte-nfl-224951021.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. I'm glad Bob made his money and is free to speak the truth

Our new national pastime causes brain damage. Too many people seem ok with that, but it needs to be said. His heart was always in baseball anyway.

[aggiesal]

13. Besides, ...

The Superb Owl was on CBS, and Costas works for NBC and HBO.

Baseball is our national pastime.
Football is our national passion.

[getting old in mke]

21. My first thought, too, but

The article was about being removed from last year's broadcast on NBC.

[walkingman]

2. From what I see there are a lot of brain-damaged people out there. Not sure it is from football.

[olegramps]

3. Did all of the Republican constituency play football? Is that the explaination for their stupidity?

[Marcuse]

5. It could be coincidence.

[Dave Starsky]

8. That guy's head is a natural helmet.

And anyway, in order to have brain damage, you actually have to have a brain to damage.

[Scarsdale]

9. He looks like

Daddy Warbucks!

[47of74]

17. He and Steve King make Iowa look so fucking bad.

[ashling]

18. LBJ used to say that Gerald Ford

played too long without a helmet.


Referring to the fact that he was a center for Michigan, John Henry Faulk said that GF spent too much time looking at the world upside down and backward.

[Paladin]

4. Thank you, Bob Costas.

Head and shoulders above the rest of the sports pimps, as usual.

[FakeNoose]

6. Kick

Maybe a former football player can speak up more about this, somebody like Senator Cory Booker.
He was never in the NFL but he probably knows a few of the pro football players.

[Submariner]

10. Jim McMahon

would be a couple of obvious spokesman.

I watched him razzle and dazzle everyone when his Bears crushed my NE Patriots in the 1985 Super Bowl. He seemed like a fun class clown kind of guy enjoying life. I saw him again about a year ago and the poor guy's mind is shot. Can't remember shit, and at the time was doing mind exercises each day trying to slow down the memory loss.

I was going to mention William Perry, the Refrigerator as a spokesman, but he has deteriorated too much for that role.

[SunSeeker]

14. Wow. The MSM does not talk much about players' mental deterioration after they leave the NFL.

The brain deterioration seems almost universal among former NFL players. Scary.

[NCjack]

7. Follow the money trail, and you will see why Bob was removed from the SB broadcast. nt

[Scruffy1]

11. Pro football is just violence porn.

What the big money knows its the real reason it exists. The actual playing time is actually about ten minutes out of three hours, about an hour of commercials and half time. It was pretty much a junk sport until the instant replay cam along to fill up the time. I played it some when I was young, but wouldn't do it again.

[magicarpet]

12. Give them Bread and Circuses and they will give the multi billion dollar owners....

....free coliseums and sports stadiums for even more Bread and more Circuses.

Fuck the gladiators they are the cannon fodder for the multi million dollars games of human brutality and glorious macho alpha male entertainment.

Let the games begin and never stop,.. the more blood and injury the better just pass the societal cost to someone else and have them pick up your tab for your sadistic entertainments and joys.

Hold my beer,.. watch this body slam as I toss this midget to the other side of the room and bounce him off the opposite wall.

We are here to excite and entertain,.. what good wholesome American fun.

Let's bring back bull goring fights, cock fights, and dog fights,.. the entertainment industry has certainly earned its rightful place in a free capitalist society. Supply and demand,.. they beg for blood,.. we deliver without hesitation,... because a free market economy is sacrosanct and paramount and the American way.

[hueymahl]

15. Costas is talking out of his ass

If what he says is true, then he deserved to get yanked because he is repeating junk science claims without perspective. The one quote statistic I saw in the article is the definition of junk science: "... of 111 brains of NFL players examined by a neuropathologist, 110 were found to have CTE." This so-called evidence of CTE has repeatedly been debunked because it does not measure what it purports to measure. It is being held up as proof that football causes CTE. Each of those brains studied were studied because the former owner of the brain or his family suspected brain damage. It is kind of like saying out of 111 suspected shooting victims, 110 had been shot.

Don't get me wrong, repetitive head impacts, from any source, is not good for you. There are many studies that show that. However, There has been no peer reviewed, scientific study, to my knowledge at least, that shows that football in particular is more dangerous that soccer or hockey, for example. Nor have their been any studies that show that recreational football players are more likely to develop CTE than the general population. Similarly, there have been no studies, to my knowledge, that shows that playing football or any other sport recreationally leads to an increased likelihood of developing CTE. Put another way, there is no evidence that football harms our youth. There are starting to be studies that lend evidence to the argument (but do not prove) that CTE MAY be more prevalent in pro football players, but there are none that show that people who did not play pro football (including those that stopped in high school or college) are at greater risk for CTE.

To the contrary, there are dozens of scientific articles that discuss the health benefits of sports, and football in particular. For example, a National Institute of Safety and Health study last updated in 2017 showed that NFL players had a death rate of 46% less than the general population, despite having a disproportionate number of "obese" former lineman that would normally increase the death rate of the whole group.

Another study assessing the long-term neurologic disease incidences of former football players versus members of the chorus, glee club or band. It suggested that high school football players from between 1946 and 1956 were not at an increased risk for dementia, Parkinson’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) more than 50 years later.

So folks, do what you think is best for your kids. But if you are going to make wild claims like Costas did, please educate yourself first as to what the science shows. Don't be like the anti-vaxing crowd that clings to an idea without any scientific proof because someone told you a cool story. This is a far more complicated story than the media likes to portray.

[BeyondGeography]

16. ...

[hueymahl]

19. ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan

[BeyondGeography]

20. ...

https://thepioneeronline.com/36402/sports/youth-football-participation-on-the-decline/

[Maxheader]

22. Contact sports...

I'm glad the nfl refs are watching closely...head to head contact, etc..

I don't know the answer..People like violence...cage fights,,?

Has anyone noticed the news keeps showing more blood and gore?
And violence caught on vid...people drool...You don't think this shit
has any influence on unstable people?

I can't watch it...change channels..