Announcements like this seem to be coming once a week now. If this keeps up, at some point we’re going to reach critical mass on the need to change concussion protocols for football. Which is why if anyone at the NCAA had half a brain on the subject, he/she’d be feverishly working on getting ahead of the curve to save the sport.
Fortunately for Robinette, he’s got a real future ahead of him outside of football. Best of luck.
Get The Picture 
The NCAA has been diligently working on percussion protocols as well as dedicating significant time and money on concussion research and other activities critical to the health and welfare of the student athele–naw i can’t even type this out without laughing….
Where are they going to find the resources to do this when they are dedicated said resources to making sure a kid didn’t get a free lunch and spending money on lawyers to protect their racket–um I mean–business model?
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Not even just the NCAA, obviously the NFL has a lot at stake too. You’d think the two would pool resources and figure something out. I used to think people saying that the game could be dead in 10-20 years were way overreacting, but I’m starting to see the possibility on the horizon now.
I remember when Robinette got dinged in their game against SC, was scrambling and got hit from the side then as he hit the ground, his helmet whacked the turf pretty hard. You could tell his bell was rung, he kept shaking his head like he was trying to shake off cobwebs. It was right before they played us and I remember reading somewhere he had missed the entire week of classes the following week because his symptoms were so bad. I wonder if he’s still having residual effects, or if he got dinged again during spring practice, or if he just decided it wasn’t worth the risk with medical school at stake. Regardless, best of luck to him.
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This concussion issue is only going to grow larger and louder as more studies are completed and the results are put forth. There are several options the NFL and NCAA could take to reduce the rate of incident of concussions, but that would take away the ESPN highlight films. I fully expect both the NCAA and NFL to do very little regarding this subject.
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I agree Skeptic. We have finally seen the tip of the ice berg bobbing to the surface. We really don’t know how big everything below it is. I think stories like this have the potential to destroy the sport entirely. I have already seen it at the younger levels where mamas are not letting their kids play football.
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Tic Toc, the NCAA/NFL fiddles while football burns to the ground. Millions for lawyers but not a penny for concussions. Correction unless a court orders it. All the new helmet technology that you see on the internet and the NFL won’t let them be used because the manufactures have not paid a tribute the mob er NFL. The NCAA needs to mandate that all schools have to use the new helmets by a given date whether or not they can get a deal from the maker. Athletic equipment should be chosen for it’s ability to protect and not by how much the school gets for free or gets paid to use. Screw Nike, Reebok and all of them.
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Concussions may not be the only issue here. Some “experts” blame repetitive subconcussive impacts as causing very significant damage: http://time.com/3611146/football-head-impacts-can-cause-brain-changes-even-without-concussion/ or https://www.bu.edu/cte/about/frequently-asked-questions/
I don’t see how you can stop repetitive head impacts in football. And helmet design doesn’t seem to be the answer either.
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Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! Please send in your money as soon as possible so that you can continue building your lifetime points! It’s a good investment for the future! Football isn’t going anywhere!
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I love football – pro, college, high school. I love Monday Night Football. I love Saturday CBS SEC football. I even love Tuesday night ESPNU MAC football. I just wonder as this concussion agenda keeps bubbling up, will this end football as we know it? I really don’t see the padding technology in the helmets keeping up with the speed and size of the game. Also, I’m not sure of the fidelity of the “hard hit” sensor technology they talk about putting in helmets. Scenario – Your favorite team is playing in the national championship down 4. On third and goal, your Heisman Trophy QB takes a shot and the sensor says he has to come out, but there’s nothing visibly wrong with him. Your true freshman QB has to come in on 4th and goal with the CFP NC on the line. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for the safety of our young men, but the potential for a complete change the face of the game is significant. This is not going away.
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I have had a long held belief that the primary factors that led to the growth and popularity of football (demographics, the suburbanization of America, changes to the American work week, technology improvements) would eventually lead to its decline from its perch as the nation’s most popular sport.
The player safety concerns will speed up the decline. Football is the only major sport that is completely dependent on the “school” system for the teaching of the game and development of talent.
While a majority of the top basketball players are members of their high school team, it is not a requirement to get recruited for college. If Jaylen Brown didn’t play at Wheeler this season but was still playing AAU, he would still be in the development pool.
Bryce Harper quit playing High School baseball as a sophomore. The top soccer minds this country believe that it is detriment for the best soccer players to play for their school teams and they should stick with clubs and academies. The top talent for individual sports like tennis, golf, and gymnastics probably should avoid competing at the school level.
But once a kid gets to the middle school level in football, it is pretty much all about school. Yes there are 7 on 7 leagues, passing leagues, etc, but it still revolves around the school. Eventually, we will see entire school systems drop football. Someone or many someones will sue a school system for long-term effects of injuries. There will be school systems that will no longer be able to afford or be willing to provide insurance. The pay for play costs for individual players will become so expensive that some kids will not be able to play. Can you imagine if one or two or several talent rich but cash strapped school systems (think DeKalb or Gwinnett) decide to drop football because costs are simply too high?
If the talent pool slowly dwindles then the popularity of the game will dwindle slowly too.
Don’t think it can’t happen? Ask boxing. At the beginning of the 20th Century, boxing was one of the top 3 most popular sports in this country in terms of attendance and fan/media interest. The others were baseball and horse racing. These were still the most popular sports in 1950. Heck as recently as 30 years ago boxing still had a lot of popularity – Tyson was just starting out. But the injury concerns hastened the decline of a sport already losing out to economic changes, technology changes, demographic shifts, etc that had diminished the talent pool.
We are at PEAK football probably have been for awhile. It will still remain popular but it will not be the #1 sport at the middle of this century.
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I found that to all be quite thought provoking. Nice. And it will be futbol that passes by the NFL; I ‘m nearly certain of that.
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