Catching up with Catacombs

I'm not the only one who does this, am I? Sometimes it takes me a lonnnnnnng time to get around to reading my National Geographic mags...but I can't cancel the subscription. This stuff's too good.

I had the house to myself long enough one day this week to enjoy the February (2011, I should point out) issue with the cover feature, Under Paris. The authors - experienced cavers - explore the city's Catacombs and tunnel life, describing Paris as a "city with a subconscious." Some National Geography mag articles never seem dated.

Unfortunately, the February issue was eerily timely, too, with its focus on traumatic brain injuries in sports - especially football. The article was sadly too relevant after 16-year old Ridge Barden died of injuries sustained after a hard hit in high school football game in upstate New York last week.

Sigh.

What kind of reading are you catching up on this week?

This Game Has Gone On Long Enough

Reading Terry Pluto's feature on Bernie Kosar, I thought, a dedicated journalist could use this to show how a narrative piece can tell an engaging story without crossing the line into PR. But not me, not today. What struck me was that Kosar, at age 46, has trouble standing up and sometimes struggles to find the words he needs to express himself. 

According to Pluto, Kosar (who played his last professional game in 1996)  "has dealt with the aftermath of concussions suffered while playing. There are some headaches, some brief memory loss, some occasional involuntary twitching." Kosar says, "I struggle sometimes to say exactly what I want when I'm tired." 

Folks, that's called brain damage. The Alabama High School Athletic Association defines concussion as "a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by a blow or jolt to the head that can range from mild to severe and can disrupt the way the brain normally works."

Look, I know virtually all sports are contact sports. Serious injuries happen on every kind of court and field everyday.  But football is special. Football players experience more brain injuries than athletes in any other sport (according to The American Journal of Sports Medicine). 

The phrase "crush your opponent" was made for football.  

If you want to foster violent behavior, encourage boys and young men to learn that might is right and bigger and meaner is better, by all means, get thyself to the nearest football field and cheer on the home team.

I love sports, but football isn't very sporting, really. 


How many middle-aged men with seriously beat-up bodies and overly-thumped heads do we need to see before we evolve away from smash-mouth football?

Are you proud to say bashing heads is our American pastime? I'm not. I suggest we return the word 'football' to the Brits (and the rest of the world) and until we can come up with something a little more sportsmanlike, play their game. Who knows? Once our brains (and our bodies) are taking less abuse, we might figure out how to make entertaining commercials year round, rather than just during the Superbowl.

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Additional reading on concussions in sports

Concussion in High School Sports, CDC, May 25, 2010

http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/headsup/high_school.html

The Impact of Concussions on High School Athletes, Committee on Education & Labor, May 20, 2010 

http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/2010/05/the-impact-of-concussions-on-h.shtml

Study: Kids Competing Too Soon After Concussions (and second impact syndrome can be fatal) 

Time Magazine, January 2009

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1873131,00.html