The spectre of medico legal potential makes me extremely wary of where this study is leading. It almost invites legal query into sports where head injury is a possibility, though as you point out no gold standard research is available, or will ever be.
Sure, but the standard of research put out above is, or makes a very good case to be, equivalent to the standard used to prove smoking causes lung cancer. In other words, there is never any way to be 100% sure but the research is certainly compelling.
My main issue with it is the research conflates any and all RHI/sports together. There is no way that a footballer gets RHIs with anywhere near the intensity or frequency of an American football player. There is mention of a correlation in intensity/volume but the study still essentially equates any contact sport.
Hey I know the games already fucked up anyway so let’s find other ways to really take the enjoyment away from fans.
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" Two studies have provided a window into absolute risk in one highly exposed population, NFL players. In 2017, the Boston University CTE Center published that of the first 111 brains donated from former NFL players, 110 of them had CTE. Using those 110 subjects with CTE as the numerator, and the 1,142 NFL players who died during the study period (February 2008–May 2016) as the denominator, Binney and Bachynski concluded the minimum prevalence of CTE is 9.6% among NFL players (50). Alternatively, Finkel and Bieniek (51) selected for their denominator the 711 players who entered the NFL between 1963 and 2008 and died by June 2014, concluding a 15.5% prevalence was an accurate snapshot of the current prevalence of death with CTE among all NFL players who had already died of any cause."
that’s an insanely high number. 110 of the 111 donated ex-NFL brains examined in that study had Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)
and then this.
Another example of coherence is found in the extreme difference between the number of known CTE cases among males and females. Bieniek et al. studied 750 brains of athletes and non-athletes, and identified 21 cases of CTE, all in males (43). Their experience is consistent with the experience of all other brain banks: while hundreds of male football players have been confirmed to have CTE by Dr. Ann McKee at the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank alone, CTE has yet to be diagnosed in a female athlete worldwide ([81](Frontiers | Applying the Bradford Hill Criteria for Causation to Repetitive Head Impacts and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy)).
Having headed footballs from a young age, I can understand the connection for older generation players.
If you didn’t head those soaking wet leather balls correctly, it was like whiplash at 30 mph.
I don’t see the modern balls causing the same issues, but obviously can’t back that up with any kind of certainty.
I’ve seen close up the effects of vascular dementia, it’s heart breaking, horrible condition to go through or see loved ones go through.
On smoking, I had a partial amputation of a finger in a work accident in the 90’s.
Prior to having it operated on, I told the nurse I was going outside for a quick smoke.
He said I can’t allow that, as it’s a medical fact that healing takes linger in smokers.
I said listen mate, I’ve smoked for 20 years, one more isn’t making a blind bit of difference, back in 10 minutes.
The games gone, can’t even watch the lads head the ball on certain days in training anymore 
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Ok.
World Cup 2030
There will be no heading the football.
Get videos of South Koreas beautiful second goal yesterday (sent to me by my mate)…
A thing of beauty that will soon be outlawed in the game.
Further to the discussion on this topic in the Random Football thread:
This is a very tricky issue which will probably have to be addressed at some point. No parent wants to think that their child is risking serious brain injury for the sake of a sport. It’s all very well saying, ‘The rain sodden footballs in my day were like iron’ or ‘It never did me any harm’, but it’s a pretty clear medical fact that repeated heading of a football is a risky business.
We’ve all grown up with heading being a major part of the game, and we’ve all enjoyed a lot of fantastic headed goals and clearances over the years. It’s very difficult to imagine the game without it.
How does it work at youth level? Is the head given the same status as the hands? What effect does it have on the style of play? What happens at corners?
It might even be good for the game as a spectacle if it stops the long ball hoofing style.
It won’t be good for the game.
Heading the ball will be outlawed in time. Maybe the next ten years. Tackling will also be outlawed. I’m not talking Tommy Smith two footers, but winning the ball back won’t occur. It will be only won back through interception and opposition mistakes. No contact.
Risk aversion will ruin everything.
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I doubt that. In that case all contact sport would be outlawed, as would all martial arts, horse racing, cricket, anything with any element of danger.
I’m agnostic about it, never having seen a game in which it was oulawed, it’s hard to judge. It would be the biggest revolution in the sport since the introduction of the offside rule, and would change the game immeasurably.
@RedOverTheWater
How does a heading ban work in practice?
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I’m being a bit nostalgic and a bit pessimistic.
But I am also being realistic.
And yes
Boxing will be banned and eventually robot jockeys will win the Epsom Derby
On robot horses.
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Crossing the road should also be banned as evryone says it is the most dangerous thing!
Sorry, I am an old so & so, but there are far more things allowed that are dangerous to young uns health, especially in regards to diet etc that affect a far larger group.
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It’s an occupational hazard. Cant see how the rule can be changed without it totally detailing the sport.
the point that there are far more dangerous things to kids is irrelevant.
look, this isnt a sprained ankle, or a splinter… we are talking about real evidence the constantly heading the ball especially at a young age is a serious issue… it will be banned in junoir football in the future, because its a seriously dangerous practice.
collisions, head knocks and falls are all a part of football as well, but injuries resulting from them are an accident. an ‘occupational hazard’ if you like. sending a kid out to smash their head as a tactic? no thanks, and i really dont get the ‘games gone’ rhetoric.
i dont know how it will end up translating in senior football. but its not like a rule will be introduced in 2027 outlawing heading the ball.
im as opposed as anyone to changing the game…
banning heading from junoir football also has the upside of changing the game to a foot dominated exercise, and that can only be a good thing.
have alook at the state of the professional game anyway, theres much worse shit ruining the spectacle than trying to figure out a way to reduce head trauma… id start with …in no set order;
- time wasting in the last 20 minutes ruining the game
- too many games, with teams closing games out before as soon as they can…(imagine a rock concert stopping half way through becuase the headline act had to save themselves for another show…thered be an outrage)
- feigning head injuries
- manhandling players in the box
- the list goes on
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Why don’t we ban breathing, that would surely lower the risk of people developing lung cancer!
Yeah, and why don’t we just let people drink cyanide if they want to. It’s their choice. Bloody nanny state!
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trying to give it some serious thought and perhaps the game can slowly transition to an alternative, whereby the use of a high ball could be still an option but limit the use of the human head, its a tough solution to try and find as most goals scored aerially in the box are using the head, it is ironic though that if you took the heading ability out of the occassion it would encourage more volleys and overheads, and who doesnt love looking at that Van Basten special, or Di Canio… Zidane in the CL…so many great goals created by not using your head, but instead a skillset more apt…
i then got to thinking about the greatest aerial goals scored without using your head… and one springs to mind that is probably the most pleasing one to the football world at large, and also a solution to our problem;
…
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Maybe a form of ‘Petr Cech’ headgear is the answer… No more flowing locks, no more dreadlocks, no more Harvey Elliot shit hairstyles type to have to look at though…
Could even implant a steel plate into the contraption so the ball becomes faster than a shot. A diving header would become a danger to any unfortunate supporter in the stands that gets it full ‘cannonball trajectory’ in the face…
Like someone mentioned above, it is a problem (or not.?), that authorities want to ignore… Saying that, it would be good if someone could organise and carry out a thorough investigation though, because unlike a chemical spillage, that is obvious and immediate to all, heading the ball seems to be a long drawn out affair, between impact and slowly decaying resultant damage.
With the u11s I coach, heading the ball is permitted, as my kids are a year above the ban - the kids a year below are not allowed to head it (free kick) and that will stay in place as they progress through youth football.
I was quietly disappointed by this. I was hoping it would just be removed entirely. We can moan about ‘the game is gone’ all we want, but there is now loads of evidence of what football impacts do to a developing brain. And teaching heading technique doesn’t get us off the hook. It’s the forehead - the frontal lobes - that we need to protect.
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