Are the blows to the head more damaging in the NFL than boxing?

[New England]

Maybe in terms of individual impacts NFL collisions are worse, but over a career how many times would an single player get knocked out cold? How manytimes would they sustain a concussion and then carry on taking multiple blows?

I think the cumulative damaging effect of a boxing career is worse than any major sport

guys are knocked out all the time in the NFL, high school, and college.

returing froma concussion was commonplace until recently. as long as you don't display any outward signs, you can still go back out there with your bell rung.

[New England]

it will depend on the athlete, the career. i tend to lead toward a long boxing career being worse for your brain, but it's really going to come down to individual careers, and biological predisposition toward head trauma.


some boxers take a hellish beating in victory and defeat. bobby chacon. antonio margarito.

i think that's worse than anythign you see in the NFL. that said, you play close to 20 games a year in the NFL. you might fight three times a year today.

mauybe you fought 5-10 times a year in the recent past, or 20 times a year before the modern era.

[mathed]

Football: some 275 pound guy running at top speed with no fear at all because he is in pads dives at you with all of his body weight and crushes you in the head, you fly 5 feet off the ground and end up on your back.

Boxing: you get hit in the head by a guy no more that 15-20 pounds bigger than you tops who has a padded glove on.

I think you can just look at the shear number of concussions that occur in football. Admittedly, I am a big football freak too so I watch most of the games every Sunday and there are at least 2 or 3 concussions every week across the league.

[Tom Cruise]

Football: some 275 pound guy running at top speed with no fear at all because he is in pads dives at you with all of his body weight and crushes you in the head, you fly 5 feet off the ground and end up on your back.

Boxing: you get hit in the head by a guy no more that 15-20 pounds bigger than you tops who has a padded glove on.

I think you can just look at the shear number of concussions that occur in football. Admittedly, I am a big football freak too so I watch most of the games every Sunday and there are at least 2 or 3 concussions every week across the league.

So spread across how many players is that?

Think about how many boxers get hurt (ie stanky legged, booty dewed) and carry on taking punches on every card you watch?

How many knockdowns do you see? and knockouts? How many people have died in recent American Football history from blows to the head?

"In the journal article entitled "Boxing -- Acute Complications and Late Sequalae," Hans Forstl, M.D. and his team of researchers in Germany reported that there have been an average of 10 boxing deaths per year since 1900. Of these deaths, over 80 percent were due to head and neck injuries suffered in the ring. These injuries included ruptures in brain vessels, epidural hemorrhages and subdural hematomas, in which bleeding occurs in the brain."

http://www.livestrong.com/article/50...ge-statistics/

I just dont see it. Obviously boxing has become a lot safer but stuff like this still happens. And Am football has gotten safer too i'm led to believe

[Tom Cruise]

Also i think you have to take into account the weight draining in boxing. Cutting 10-20-30lbs and then taking punishment to the head is unique to combat sports and worst in boxing

[Mick6]

That's a really good question. I'm guessing boxing causes more long term brain damage than football if you have long enough careers, but football players have many other long term disabilities like their backs and knees.

I love football (American). It's my favorite sport and always has been. It's ok if others around the world don't understand why Americans love it so much. I don't understand the appeal of your football. I really like boxing... Love it when the best fight each other. Unfortunately, we very seldom get that.

[mathed]

So spread across how many players is that?

Think about how many boxers get hurt (ie stanky legged, booty dewed) and carry on taking punches on every card you watch?

How many knockdowns do you see? and knockouts? How many people have died in recent American Football history from blows to the head?

"In the journal article entitled "Boxing -- Acute Complications and Late Sequalae," Hans Forstl, M.D. and his team of researchers in Germany reported that there have been an average of 10 boxing deaths per year since 1900. Of these deaths, over 80 percent were due to head and neck injuries suffered in the ring. These injuries included ruptures in brain vessels, epidural hemorrhages and subdural hematomas, in which bleeding occurs in the brain."

http://www.livestrong.com/article/50...ge-statistics/

I just dont see it. Obviously boxing has become a lot safer but stuff like this still happens. And Am football has gotten safer too i'm led to believe

That is just a rough guess, and a conservative one at that. I saw two guys get KO'd on the field last week....one player's arms did this weird thing where they were up in the air but the guy was completely asleep on the field.

These guys have pads on and there are numerous rules in place that are supposed to prevent head injuries but take a man like Wes Welker for the Broncos....he has had like 3 concussions over the last year and a half; Aikman, former Dallas QB, retired due to 3 or 4 concussions; Cecil Shorts, WR for Jacksonville.....2 concussions over the last year. The list could go on all day.

Then you also must consider all the other potential injuries, torn ACLs, pulled hamstrings, broken ribs, crushed fingers from helmets to the hand, torn biceps, torn triceps, high ankle sprains, etc. Whenever you have a full body force type impact that can be directed at any part of the body (head, chest, ankle), nothing is going to compare to that over the course of a career. Imagine being hit by a small car several times a game.

Boxing is deadly enough because the force is being directed to the head (usually) but in terms of the force of the impact, football is going to pack more of a punch, so to speak, on a per impact basis. It's just the physics of it all....bigger players with an added 25 pounds of gear on, running at full speed using their entire bodies to hit you. There is more mass involved, more velocity, more momentum and you can easily get hit from the side or something when you are not even paying attention.

[mathed]

That's a really good question. I'm guessing boxing causes more long term brain damage than football if you have long enough careers, but football players have many other long term disabilities like their backs and knees.

I love football (American). It's my favorite sport and always has been. It's ok if others around the world don't understand why Americans love it so much. I don't understand the appeal of your football. I really like boxing... Love it when the best fight each other. Unfortunately, we very seldom get that.

I saw a report on Showtime with one of the Denver players and they were asking him about weed usage in the NFL. He said that TONs of players smoke (he guessed about 80%) because they don't want to take pain killers all the time. HE was saying that people on the outside (fans, press, etc.) would be blown away if they had the chance to hang around in the locker rooms because of all the pain pills these guys have to take on a daily basis just to be able to keep playing.

That is why these football players go off the deep end sometimes, they get addicted to painkillers and other scripts and it leads to other mental illnesses or severe withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop. They often find it easier to dulll the pain with weed, no withdrawal symptoms.

[gratz_the_king]

this hit ended both players careers instantly and left them with severe head injuries. i believe one of the players was left paralyzed as well

i dont like football or watch it very much (and im american), boxing is the only sport i watch. however theres no doubt that it can be a very dangerous sport.

i think id rather take a few punches from the hardest punching heavyweights than get hit like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEccmg4JRbE

[SterlingStained]

its the equipment specifically the modern nfl helmet.

they basically weaponized it.

nfl players are using their heads/helmet to dive straight into players knees and heads.

if the nfl went back to leather helmets they would decrease their injury rates by half.

nfl players dont know how to tackle properly. they just dive with their heads straight in.

they need to look at rugby players. they know how to tackle properly and i bet rugby has a far lower injury rate than the nfl.