Concussion concerns: 'If you worry about injuries you won't play well'
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PORTLAND, Ore. – Terry Wagemann has concerns about his son playing football. He’s worried he might get a concussion.
Michael Wagemann, who plays for Wilson High School’s junior varsity team and has hopes of playing college football, says he doesn’t really think about concussions, even though he’s been hit hard before.
“I just love the sport, I dream of going to the NFL and all that stuff,” Wagemann said. “When you’re out there if you worry about injuries you won’t play well, so you have to push it to the back of your head.”
President Barack Obama recently joins scores of concerned parents who worry about long-term brain health in football players young and old. Obama told The New Republic magazine that if he had a son, he’d have to think “Long and hard” about letting him play football.
Numerous players have sued the National Football League over its approach to head injuries, the most recent being the family of the late Junior Seau. In a suit filed Wednesday, Seau’s family accuses the league of hiding the dangers of repetitive blows to the head.
Seau suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, from repeated blows to the head, before he committed suicide last May.
Michael Wagemann and other aspiring football greats were practicing their form at a no-contact football camp at the Barton Football Academy on Sunday. He said he had his own head injury scare last year.
“I got the ball, as soon as I got through the hole [I was] smacked by this big linebacker,” he said. “Everything went white for a second, and I was like ‘oh.’ And then the game ended and I was wondering where I was for a bit, and who did we play.”
Wagemann said he took a memory reaction test, and everything checked out fine.
“Almost every year, every game he goes down I sit and worry ‘is this going to be a serious injury or just a small little scrape or bruise,’” said Terry Wagemann. “So I think sports recognizing there is risk makes it safer for players. At the same time, everything we do in life has risk.”
This may bother some of those who are "safety minded".... Football has become such a lame sport with all these "safety" concerns being constantly added to the game that they might as well just outlaw the game and get it over with. This country has turned into a bunch of sniveling crybabies! My friends in England laugh at our football saying,"It's nothing but a p_ _ _ ies game for little girlies." I quit watching it years ago myself as it just doesn't have the energy it once did. What's next? Are you going to stop boxers from hitting their opponents head? Make it illegal to choke out an opponent in MMA? If you're scared that you might get hurt, then don't play the game in the first place! And if you do play, don't cry when you get hit! Sports are a compitition, not an event. You don't just participate in sports, you enter to win! Anything less ruins the game and makes it a dance show like professional wrestling. Second place makes you the first loser!
Life is dangerous, stepping outside your front door is dangerous, hell getting out of bed is dangerous, if yoiu want to be safe wrap yourself in bubble wrap and lock yourself inside a padded room. Football is a dangerous sport baseball is a danegerous sport everything we do has an element of risk involved so instead of living in fear we just try living. All these players suing the NFL what a crock you knew the sport was dangerous when you signed up sorry no case for you. the famile of junior seau suing the NFL sorry this is a dangerous sport and he played it WILLINGLY and we payed him a crapload of cash to do it no case for you.
Gee, guys. Worrying about brain damage takes all the fun out of huffing paint.
Forget the lawsuits. Forget the proof.  Just realize that these people are real people, with real lives, with real families.  What game is worth disorders or even death?  I'm sorry, but in my opinion, none.
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I played for a short while.   I didn't like the feeling after the 'hits'.   I went to school with Fred Dryer, Haven Moses, and other names you might recognize.   I lived in the same neighborhood with many of the Chargers and other NFL players.  I knew them.  They trusted those that managed them. Â
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Look at Mohammad Ali today.  That man was one of the all time greatest in the ring.  Today, 'licking a stamp' is difficult.  I didn't like Ali because of his arrogance, but he was talented and gifted.  Now he is not.Â
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We need to move beyond âgladiator sportsâ where the lions tear the Christians apart.   All sports have risks:  Be it sky diving, scuba diving, skiing (Sonny Bono), flying (Amelia Earhart), race cars (Dan Wheldon) . . .
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But this âsportâ, where you punish another player leading with your head is an obvious area of improvement.    Â
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Letâs make the game safer. Make rules to outlaw head and neck injuries.  Let the game survive on creative finesse (which it has) rather than spectacular collisions. Â
@NorthernBlackBear To make folks like you happy we should just outlaw the games in general! "Creative finesse"? It's not a ballet or "professional wrestling"..... It is an actual sport. The goal is to win, not to look good. If you don't like the way the game is played then just simply stay away from it! You drop many names like you are the most known personality in sports, ever. But you know nothing of them. They competed because they love the sport! If you knew them, you would know that..... Ask Larry Czonka if he has any regrets. Joe Frazier, Gearge Foreman, Kenny Norton, Sonny Liston and Leon Spinks have all fought Ali and I personally have not heard any of them, including Ali, call for more laws or rules to their sport! Since you are obviously just a spectator, why should you be making any rules?Â
 @NorthernBlackBear BRING BACK THE COLISEUM.
 @TreeWizard  @NorthernBlackBear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97U6u-YkSC0
The irony in all of this is: most football players start in the pee-wee league and move up from there. By the time they've reached the NFL, most have already played 15+ years. Now, it seems that these players are suing the NFL because they believe that it is the NFL's responsibility (or liability) to protect them.
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Two things come to mind with that: 1) Sue the NFL because they have the $$$. 2) What about the previous YEARS that these players played in pee-wee, middle school, high school and college? Are we to believe that the concussions only come about once they enter the NFL?
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In the tragic case of Junior Seau, the family is suing the NFL. I would ask them: when did he first start playing football? And throughout all the years PRIOR to playing in the NFL, can one prove that he never once suffered any sort of concussion?
@GeauxOSU If you don't worry about the concussions, you die young, live with dementia, or put a bullet through your heart so scientists can study your brain.
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 @Mechanic what brain?
Aren't you forgetting why you're in school in the first place? I always thought it was to learn, not to be part of that minuscule percentage that actually makes it to the NFL or any other pro sports team. Good grief, kid, get an education first, then worry about what you will do, or be able to do, athletically. Money isn't everything!Â
A lot of them are in school because of sports.
Terry Wagemann has concerns about his son playing football. Heâs worried he might get a concussion.
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Well, the Father may soon realize this is nothing compared to the fear of when his kid starts driving and then legally drinking.
I really don't want to see anyone get hurt, but I don't want the NFL to go to flag football either.
@old_dollor But in flag football they don't wear helmets and still collide with each other so we'll have to "safen up" flag football as well..... Perhaps make pro football out of Madden's video game?
"The previous comment is loaded with sarcasm and is intended for audiences with a good sense of humor only."
 @old_dollor Seems like there is an all out attack on masculinity lately.
@randomdude Thanks.
@randomdude Yeah, it is football not table tennis.
 @randomdude  @old_dollor "Cuz we are great baby"
 @Mechanic  @TreeWizard  @old_dollor lol, The comparisons you are trying to make show your ignorance.
I like when it's made up to me.
 @TreeWizard  @randomdude  @old_dollor Yes, you're losing.  But every once in a while we'll make it up to you.  =)
@TreeWizard @old_dollor If by "we," you mean women, you are correct. I don't see anyone requiring men to get transrectal ultrasounds, trying to make Viagara illegal, or making you get a letter from your mommy if you want a vasectomy or to buy rubbers.
@TreeWizard *snicker* You may be right. : )
 @old_dollor  @TreeWizard   We are not losing, we have pretty much lost.Â
@TreeWizard @randomdude You've met my wife. hehehe. I hope we are not losing.
 @randomdude  @old_dollor There is a war of sexes going on and we are losing.Â
 @TreeWizard  @old_dollor Sorry, don't get the reference, but dig the avatar!