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posted by janrinok on Monday May 27 2019, @09:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the being-unfit-is-good-for-you dept.

Science Magazine:

The men competing in the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) are some of the most elite athletes in the world. But their death rates differ markedly, a new study of thousands of former pro athletes has found. Former pro football players had a higher overall death rate than baseball veterans and were felled by cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative illnesses at strikingly higher rates than their MLB peers. On average, the football players died 7 years earlier than MLB players, the research found.
...
The 517 former NFL players who died during that 35-year period did so at an average age of 59.6 years; the baseball players at 66.7 years. By far the largest cause of death for the football players was heart disease: It was listed as a cause of death for 498 of the 517 NFL players surveyed. By contrast, brain disease contributed to just 39 of those deaths. Among the former MLB players, there were 431 deaths, with heart disease listed as a cause in 225 of them and neurodegenerative disease in 16.

Data analysis.

Hmm, could it be sublimated guilt over their mistreatment of nerds in high school?


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  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday May 27 2019, @05:58PM (1 child)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Monday May 27 2019, @05:58PM (#848217) Homepage

    I've played American football, Soccer, and Basketball, and would say that American football is typically more intense and explosive while being less sustained. Sports like soccer and basketball are more about the endurance and finesse and less impact and brute force. Much of the appeal of American football is its violence, and when that gets attenuated or goes away outright, so will the sport itself. American football players have a reputation for being big dumb meat-heads but there is a lot of strategy in the game and plays can be highly technical and micromanaged on an individual level -- whereas in soccer and basketball there's more improvisation and a less rigid flow. You also have a greater degree of specialization in American football, you have big-ass linemen and puny-ass running backs, where as in sports like soccer there's less variety of physique. Even in basketball, if you were a layman watching a team, you likely couldn't discern who was playing what position because of the degree of improvisation and overlap.

    Another way to think about it is if you're a wrestler or boxer adapted to how you best win matches. Do you expend a shit-ton of energy up-front hoping your assault will overwhelm your opponent, or do you play the long game and moderate your energy expenditure?

  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday May 27 2019, @09:26PM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday May 27 2019, @09:26PM (#848275)

    I quite enjoy your American Football and I have often wondered what sort of game it would be if the teams were allowed only a limited number of substitutions per match.

    So, 11 players on the field, and 4 (or 6 maybe) substitutes. If someone is subbed off, they can't come back on. No offensive teams and defensive teams, the eleven players on the field play both sides of the ball. (Is that the right term?)

    Also ditch the helmets and pads, which would go a long way towards reducing concussions.

    Not that my proposal would be popular, because the result would be a completely different game I would think. No fat blokes for a start.