Facemasks may make football more dangerous

American football is quickly becoming the most popular sport in the U.S. as television ratings consistently show and continued to show with this year’s Super Bowl. The sport has reached a crossroads as a significant problem in the game has reached new heights.

As the game has evolved, so too has the damage to the head and brain of football players. While improvements to the players’ helmets and changes in the rules have been discussed, an interesting idea has been introduced by some of the sport’s most influential figures.

Penn State’s legendary head coach, Joe Paterno, is just one of many football greats that believe the facemask should be taken off of the helmet. “I’ve been saying for years, we should get rid of the facemask… It’s a weapon, guys are fearless.”

Mike Ditka, long-time coach of the Chicago Bears, agrees with Paterno, “If you want to change the game and get it back to where people aren’t striking with the head and using the head as a weapon, take the mask off the helmet.”

The instant reaction to these comments is: removing the facemask exposes the player to increased risk of injury. To truly understand the problem, those trying to solve it must trace the origins of the problem.

Football is a much different sport compared to 50 years ago. The rules have since changed to favor passing and high scoring to please the fans. Also evolving over the years has been the speed, size and overall athleticism of the game’s players.

This combination of changes has created some of the most violent human collisions as players are now converging upon the ball like never before. Compounding the damage are larger, more padded helmets that reduce the feel of impact on a player’s head.

Long time sportswriter Vic Ketchman accurately summarized the situation with a comparison to boxing, “Anybody in boxing could’ve told them about the negative effects of increasing the size of the boxing glove. The more you pad the hand, the harder the blows are to the head.”

Without fear of injury to their face or head, defensive players have turned themselves into head-first missiles in their attempts to make tackles. The removal of their facemask would cause these players to think twice before launching themselves at a player with the crown of their helmet and to instead use their shoulders and arms to make fundamentally sound tackles.

With these changes, it is probable that their would be an increase in the amount of external facial injuries, but perhaps this is a change that the sport of football needs to make to decrease the amount of serious life-changing brain and spinal cord injuries.

National Pro Hockey

This game was copyrighted in 1985, and was donated to the Museum in 2005. It was created by the Sports Action Game Company, Ltd.

The box (pictured on the left) is 33.5cm x 26cm x 5cm. Along with the board, this box holds over 500 components for this game.

The game board is a 50.5cm square and is pictured on the right. It folds in half. It is made of thick cardboard and covered with printed paper. Pictured is a hockey rink with the goal areas and other zones marked on the rink.

Various areas of the board contain information about progress of the players of the game. National Pro board Note: There are 20 pawns (2.7cm x 1.5cm) included. These blue and red chess pawns are NOT used as counters on the "ice rink" as shown in the illustration on the right. They do not go on the "ice rink" at all, but are used to mark out the play styles and to whom the puck moves too. (Our thanks to an alert viewer who pointed this outl.)

Two sets of included dice are used in the play of the game. The dice are standard 1.5cm square dice.

Along with the other components, there are 500 playing cards. These cards feature the name of a well-known hockey player at the top of the card. The balance of the card includes statistical information about that player's performance during his career.

Play of the game involves the interaction of the information on the cards, the position of the counters, and the chance factor created by the dice.

Drug Test Collector in Braun Case Says He Followed Protocol

Dino Laurenzi Jr. has a bachelor’s degree in athletic training, a master’s degree in sports medicine and another master’s in business administration. He is the son of a pharmacist and runs the rehabilitation services department at a health care facility in Kenosha, Wis. He is active in his church and a mainstay in Pleasant Prairie, his hometown.

Since 2005, Laurenzi has also collected more than 600 urine samples from players in Major League Baseball, a later-life bit of work that has thrust him into a firestorm over Ryan Braun’s successful appeal of his 50-game suspension for testing positive after a drug test taken in October. Last week, Braun became the first major league player known to have his suspension overturned. Braun successfully argued that Laurenzi’s decision to store the urine sample at his home as he waited for a FedEx outlet to open did not comport with the letter of the protocols laid out in baseball’s drug-testing program.

Braun, recognizing that his legal victory did not remove suspicions that he had indeed cheated, held a news conference last Friday during which he all but accused Laurenzi of mishandling or tampering with the urine sample, which ultimately showed very high levels of synthetic testosterone.

“There were a lot of things that we learned about the collector, about the collection process, about the way the entire thing works, that made us very concerned and very suspicious about what could have actually happened,” Braun, who did not name Laurenzi, said Friday at the Brewers’ camp in Phoenix.

Braun offered no evidence and failed to make clear to the public what baseball officials and Braun’s representatives agree on: Braun, when making his case to an independent arbitrator, never argued that he or anyone else had details that Laurenzi tampered with the samples, deliberately or otherwise.

FIFA Online Sports videogame for PC System

FIFA Online is a sports video game for PC, system requirements and release date to be announced later. FIFA Online brings the total soccer experience to Korean online game players for the first time ever. The online game delivers a combination of precision gameplay, deep customization and pure soccer authenticity. Intuitive gameplay allows players to command every move on the pitch with pinpoint accuracy. The responsive control allows for easy passing, shooting and tackling, enabling players to trap, shield and dribble like a world-class soccer star.
FIFA Online Sports, screen, image, pc EA SPORTS FIFA Online, which is available in both matchplay and career mode, delivers a comprehensive roster of official licensed leagues from the world of soccer with an unprecedented level of real clubs, kits, stadiums and players. Exclusive features to EA SPORTS FIFA Online include community features such as in game chatting, online persistency such as custom teams, tournament rankings, with levels and auto match-making corresponding to each user’s playing ability.

USC men’s water polo team survives overtime thriller

High drama and USC men’s water polo home games have rarely gone together over the past few years.

But with the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular season title on the line, that’s exactly what the packed house at McDonald’s Swim Stadium got — senior driver Justin Rappel hitting on two dramatic scores late in the game — as No. 1 USC edged Stanford 13-12 in overtime early Saturday afternoon.
Daily Trojan | Eric Burse

Daily Trojan | Katelynn Whitaker

On a 37-game winning streak at home that spans nearly five seasons, the Trojans have rarely dealt with late-game pressure, but the No. 3 Cardinal (19-2, 6-1) proved hard to handle.

Rappel and the Trojans (21-1, 7-0) dealt with ferocious Stanford offensive attack and defensive pressure all game. Unable to stop Stanford after holding them to a single goal in the first period, the Trojans were forced to counter with some offensive fireworks of their own.

Senior two-meter Jordan Thompson played what USC coach Jovan Vavic called “the best he has ever played for us,” scoring four goals and firing up the Homecoming Weekend crowd, who were hooked on the energy the senior was bringing to the pool.

Arabic online sports game portal launched

Empire of Sports Arabia Beta, a joint venture developed by French games developer F4 and du Media Lab, allows players to join the site, create an avatar, and then compete in online sports games, including skiing, tennis, bobsleigh, track and field, football and basketball.

The site also allows players to join online communities, chat with other players, join teams and buy and trade avatar items. The game area is based around cities, with the site featuring a new ‘Arabia’ city with architectures and cityscapes from the MENA region. The Arabic site will build on the success of the existing English and French service, which was launched in December 2008.

“In the spirit of healthy competition, adventurous fun and sharing, Empire of Sports Arabia presents a new opportunity for avid gamers and sports fans to connect and compete in an engaging, compelling fashion,” said Raghu Venkataraman, Chief Strategy and Investment Officer of du.

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