Caveman Sports Have No Place In A Healthy Life
Contact sports, in the guise of AFL or rugby, are coming under increasing scrutiny in regard to head knocks to players. The truth is that modern human beings are not designed to crash and bash into each other at speed. We have, obviously, evolved away from the need to do so in the natural world. Survival does not call for such behaviour these days and that has long been the case. It is, rather, recreational pursuits in the form of team contact sports which have become the unhealthy danger in recent years. The professionalism and commercialism within these sports have motivated players to become bigger, stronger and faster in pursuit of material rewards. The resultant clashes between these modern day gladiators are fuelling an increasing amount of brain injury diseases showing up in past and present players. Is it a situation where caveman sports have no place in a healthy life?
The Dangers Of Contact Sport For Modern Humans
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) can only be determined post-mortem via examination of brain slivers under the microscope. A recent 4 Corners program on the ABC has revealed some 33 past AFL players have been confirmed as suffering from CTE. 14 of these past players took their own lives in reaction to their undiagnosed CTE symptoms. These include depression, migraines, severe mood swings and volatile behaviour issues in their lives.
“Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease that has been linked to repeated head injuries. Repeated head injuries may take the form of concussion (mild traumatic brain injury) and/or hits to the head that do not result in concussion symptoms, called subconcussive hits. Individuals with CTE can experience a range of changes in their mood, behaviour, and thinking skills that can interfere with their normal or working life.”
Will Parents Allow Their Kids To Play Caveman Sports?
You can imagine mums and dads seriously reviewing their kid’s participation in these contact sports. This despite the positive associations long held around children playing team sports in Australia and globally. The demands now put upon those playing these sports, like AFL, NRL and rugby union, are flagrantly intense, especially as the kids get older. It is the commercialism underpinning these sports driving the increased physical and athletic demands placed upon those involved in playing these games. It is often hard to remember that these are recreational games. Too much emphasis has been put upon these contact sporting contests via sponsorship and the behemoth that is sports gambling in the 21C.
The History Of Team Sports
Team sports are not something that have been around forever. In actual fact, they are a fairly recent thing, which was concocted in the 19C at public schools in Britain, the leading one of which was called Rugby. To cut a longish story short, these elite schools for the wealthy formed competitive teams and played each other for cups and pennants on a regular basis. Eventually, these games filtered down to working men, who did not have the means to remain amateurs and thus professionalism entered these sports like football (soccer), rugby (union became league) and new sports like AFL (Aussie Rules) emerged in places. On the back of this, businesses entered the fray, often, to pay the wages of the professional sportsmen. Sponsorships were born and this has led to a flood of money commercialising every aspect of these lucrative sports. It is the tribal support of the fans and members for these sporting clubs which differentiates them from many less well-endowed sports. Football teams inspire the passions of supporters like few other recreational pastimes in the modern world. It was the American NFL teams that brought in nick name identities for their teams based on pre-modern inspirations like fierce animals and savages. Tigers, lions, redskins, and the like, with team mascots dressed up to incite the home fans. These soon spread to places like Australia and elsewhere.
Professional Football Contains Real Risks For Player Brain Health
Sport and athletic prowess are at their core about glory. Young men and women seek to perform at their physical best to win plaudits from those around them. Despite all of humanity’s intellectual and technological advancements over millennia it is these actions of our animal bodies which capture the glorious appreciation of billions of fans. The World Cup for soccer is on at the moment and its inspiration for billions is there for all to see. Running fast, coordinating rapid movements and scoring goals thrills fans to an amazing degree. The glorious game is a description long applied to football. Although not really a contact sport in the full application of that defining adjective, soccer still falls foul of brain injury problems in its call for ‘heading’ the ball. This action has been shown to result in conditions like CTE, especially after a lengthy career of practising such skills. Professionalism demands full time coaching of players in all the necessary skills demanded by the game. Parents and young players themselves will now have to weigh up the odds of the likelihood of developing a deadly brain disease as a result of their football careers or stints of playing these contact sports.
What Are The Odds Of Getting CTE?
If 33 cases of CTE have been found so far, it is highly likely that the actual figure is far higher. How much higher? Ten times that? I mean, hundreds of thousands of young men have played football over recent decades. And now, young women are playing the football codes as well. Even if we are talking about hundreds of players having developed CTE it is still a small percentage in comparison to the popularity of these games at amateur and professional levels. Of course, that is no relief for those who have developed the condition and their families and friends. The AFL has spent the last decade or so banning football acts causing head knocks during games. Bumps, tackles and rough play causing head knocks and concussion are now penalised via suspensions. Unfortunately, in a contact sport like AFL it is almost impossible to outlaw these instances out of the game. Accidents do happen in a sport which thrives on collisions. An example of this is that it is still legal for a player to knee an opposing player in the back of the head in a marking contest. Indeed, the high marking feat is an admired icon of the game of AFL. Fans of the sport would spit the dummy if this too was banned by the officials running the game. You can see the conundrum that a contact sport finds itself in when attempting to solve this brain health crisis facing its much beloved game. The reality is that caveman sports have no place in a healthy life.
To Play Or Not Play, That Is The Question
So, young people and their parents are going to have to weigh up the odds, as to whether the risk is worth it. The chance of a glorious life endowed with riches versus a debilitating and deadly brain condition. Do you feel lucky, punk? Unfortunately, as with most things in life there are no guarantees either way. I will mention that I personally used to play footy as a junior, as I am sure many did. At one point in time, I remember playing for 3 different sides, which meant training and playing every day of the week for a couple of hours – I loved it. I was a solid lad and, therefore, played for an adult amateur team in addition to a couple of junior sides in different competitions.
My admission here is about conveying that I know what it is like to love playing footy and how making a potentially more healthy choice to opt out completely would be a tough one to make.
The Death Knell For Caveman Sports
Can the game of AFL be sanitised enough to make it safe from developing CTE or some other form of brain disease? In my view it seems unlikely. A contact sport is all about that physical contact. I suppose turning the game into touch footy, where tackles are a thing of the past, may be the fate of AFL but that will be a huge shift to make. If caveman sports have no place in a healthy life this may well be the only future for contact sports. Perhaps, this falls into the same category of other unhealthy pastimes and habits like smoking and boozing. Do we let each individual make their own call on such lifestyle choices or do we outlaw them on their behalf in their best interests? The former position is only tenable if each individual truly understands the health risks they face via their behaviour. Addiction rears its ugly head here and we all know how addictive nicotine and alcohol are. Playing footy can be pretty addictive too in the way it makes you feel. The intensity of crashing and bashing about at high speeds is exhilarating on the footy field. Perhaps, it can be tempered by modified rules, as the AFL is attempting to do right now? It will be interesting to see what emerges in the long run.
Soft Swans Fail In Contact Sport Contest
“The Swans are soft. You cannot rely on them to turn up when the going gets tough. Jake Lloyd was brushed aside by Cam Rayner so often he must have thought that he had died and come back as a curtain. Harry Cunningham was so busy trying to body Charlie Cameron he forgot to go for the ball. If he didn’t hate John Denver before, he sure does now. The Sydney defence was never up with their opposing forwards and paid the price on the score board.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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