pro football players are dying young
 

i think they could have asked me this question rather than spending money on a research program. i could have told them that 350 lb players who overexert themselves are likely to die young.

i am a fan of both football and boxing and i actually have come to the conclusion that boxing is a safer sport than pro football.

i wonder if anyone would give thought to 2 ideas. a weight limitation on players of around 300 lbs or an idea that i like better a fat percentage level limitation of around 20%. certain sports like football are going to be dangerous to your health and longevity but it seems like there could be some safety factors built into the sport. i just can't imagine being 350 lbs and running around on a football field in 100+ degree weather. it also doesn't make sense to me that a player who weighs 350 or so lbs does a lot of aerobic training.

And they should slow down those damn Indy cars. I mean do they really need to go 200mph?

I think Sports Illustrated did a story about this a few years ago: they profiled retired-NFL players, including some relatively younger (late 80s, early 90s) players like Joe Jacoby, discussing the long-term negative effects on their health (chronic pain, loss of functioning, more serious issues, etc). Interestingly, knowing now what professional football would eventually do to their bodies, almost to a man they all said that they still would do it all again in a heartbeat...

i think there was a movement on to slow down indy cars a while back. i do know that the speeds at indy are significantly lower than land speed records so maybe there has been a movement to slow down the cars.

i don't think anyone is surprised by the admission from ex- players that they would do exactly the same thing all over again but that doesn't mean that steps cannot be taken to put limitations on weight or fat to improve a players safety. i don't think that either limitation would affect a viewers enjoyment of the game.

the reason players take steroids is to enhance their size and performance but that did keep those drugs from being banned.

Cars attempting to break the land speed record don't have to turn or run 300-500 miles. NHRA Top Fuel dragsters, funny cars, and pro-stocks all run faster than Indy cars. The physical forces on the driver while turning at too high a speed has been a problem in the past. When IRL was first starting up they attempted to run at Texas Motor Speedway and an entire race was canceled due to intense G-forces placed on the drivers. This has since been fixed and IRL now runs at Texas.

As long as players continue to get bigger and faster the prolonged health of a professional athlete will be shorter than the Average Joe. I doubt many players would tell you it wasn't worth it on pay day.

I actually heard the opposite. I heard steriods make the size of their member shrink.

Probably the same reason pro wrestlers are dropping dead - steroids + 'other' drugs + stress = heart attack at 45.

All they need to do is install a restrictor plate. It solves everything, especially boring races!