NFL Medical Consultant Tries A Little Damage Control: Says Football Is safer Than Riding A Bike

Yahoo Sports- "There are more injuries to kids from falling off bikes, scooters, falling in playgrounds than there are in youth football. It’s never been safer. Can we improve? Yes, we have to do better all the time to make it safer, but I think if a kid is physically able to do it and wants to do it, our job is to continue to make it safer. But it’s much more dangerous riding a bike or a skateboard than playing youth football."


“I really believe that [football has] never been safer," Maroon said Tuesday. “The rules changes, the safer tackling techniques, the medical management of concussions [are] so much better than [they ever have] been in the history of the sport.”

I may surprise a few here. I wholeheartedly agree that playing football is safer than riding bike or a skateboard. Assuming, of course, that those actions are taking place on a grass field with 11 kids trying to put the crown of their helmet through your sternum.  This is like when you first start to drive on your own and your parents are super worried and say something to the effect of "be careful, you could die out there". Of course you respond with "yeah well, people die falling down the stairs too" or some other clever retort. Yeah, both could potentially be hazardous, but I think it's safe to assume one is more dangerous than the other. I respect the NFL Supervisor of Damage Control, or whatever his title is, for shitting on my lawn and calling it fertilizer. Football is safer than bike riding in the same way that unprotected sex with a stripper is safer than jerking off. When you involve physical contact with others your actions instantly become more high risk. Especially when those 'others' may not having the finest of intentions. Didn't this guy play youth football? If he actually believes the words that are coming out of his mouth than I am counting this as a point for biking and skateboarding. Maybe those high school headshots are finally starting to take their toll. Hey Maroon, how many fingers am I holding up?

Hey, maybe it's a situational thing. Where is the kid riding his bike? Is he going all Evil Knievel and trying to hurdle a canyon? Is he skateboarding on a metal beam 550 feet in the air? I suppose that would make football the safer option. Don't try to tell me about the new tackling techniques, or the improvements upon equipment. Kids tackle exactly the same as they always have, they are probably just disciplined more for doing it the wrong way than they were in the past. People in general are also much faster, stronger, and thus, dangerous now a days. It's called athletic evolution buddy. You think Junior Seau would be dead if he spent his life riding in the Tour De France? You think Eric LeGrand is in a wheelchair if he grew up idolizing Tony Hawk? When you flat out fabricate 'facts' you look like you are struggling for answers. Maybe it's just time to admit the dangers of playing football. It's not going to put the future of the sport in jeopardy, I don't think anything could at this point. However, we are all better off knowing just how life threatening it can potentially be, even if that means there are a couple less youth football programs.