Wyzga On Words

Mothers, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Football Players...It's The Helmet.

I don't watch televised football.

And about all that's left to enjoy at the stadium games is the tailgating.

Maybe it's an occupational hazard having worked on football helmet injury cases, but it is simply too difficult to listen to all that smacking around and wonder which neck will be broken or which brain will be injured with the plethora of inferior helmets on the field.  The helmet is supposed to be designed to protect the neck as well as the head.  In many cases, helmets worn by NFL players are archaic - to say the least - and there is little oversight or help for the players.  “This is our livelihood,” Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. “It’s one of the biggest decisions we make.”  

As I've written previously, the NFL is on notice about the self-regulating National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment ("NOCSAE), inferior helmets, concussions, head injuries, and neck injuries.

Football, The Concussion Crisis & Litigation

Some Good News For Lawyers Who Tackle Football Helmet Head Injuries

The Point Of Litigation's Impact On Football

College Players Move Concussions Into Court

Lawyers Suit Up To Take On NFL About Football Helmet Head Injuries

The Focus Group Saw It Differently And That Changed The Game Strategy

and yet,

"Despite Risks, NFL Leaves Helmet Choices in Players' Hands" is today's latest reminder from Sam Borden writing for the NYimes.  Excerpt.

"Even as head injuries have become a major concern, the N.F.L. has neither mandated nor officially recommended the helmet models that have tested as the top performers in protecting against collisions believed to be linked to concussions. Some players choose a helmet based on how it looks on television, or they simply wear the brand they have been using their whole career, even if its technology is antiquated. As a consequence, despite lawsuits related to head injuries and the sport’s ever-increasing speed and violence, some players are using helmets that appear to place them at greater risk.

One of the issues the NFL faces might be its long-term partnership with Riddell. Click here to read more. 

 

You may also be interested in reading A. O. Scott's review of "Head Games" a just-released documentary by Steve James focusing on football, hockey and women's soccer and "the widespread incidence of head injuries that threaten the well-being of competitors at every level, from youth leagues to the pros." 

Cynical Or Schmaltzy, The Olympic Stories Still Inspire Us With Universal Truths.

Like my neighbor's birthday party, it's all over but for cleaning up the trash. 

What will we remember of the 2012 Olympics? 

Each one around the globe will have his or her own story to tell.  And yet there are the Universal stories - those stories that we homo narrans collectively recognize as true because they capture universal truths no matter whether we live in Alaska or Afghanistan, Jersey or Jamaica.

Take a moment to read Frank Bruni's recollection of some Olympic highlights that remind us of who we are when we are our best selves in "The Soul of the Olympics."  These athletes gave us something to savor, like the friends and family enjoying tiramisu birthday cake together last night.

"The Water Doesn't Know How Old You Are."

What does it take for a swimmer "of a certain age" to win an Olympic gold medal?  Dara Torres was profiled on June 29, 2008 in a NYTimes Magazine article, "Olympic Swimming."

Some would argue that Torres, a 5-time Olympic swimmer has had all the breaks.  And then some.  The naysayers might carp that she has syphoned luck from those of us too timid, poor, undecided, uncoachable, or not blond enough to make the grade. I say different.

Thumb-tacked on a wall in my closet is a tattered magazine clipping with a photo of Torres embracing some of her teammates after they won the silver medal in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay final in Beijing.  Torres' words reach out to me from the photo:

"I've been old before.  I was old when I was 27 and got divorced.  I was old when I was 35 and couldn't get pregnant.  I was really old when I was 39 and my father died.  But when I was 41 I woke up in a dorm in the Olympic Village in Beijing and I didn't feelold.  I felt merely - and yes, happily - middle-aged.  'The water doesn't know how old you are,' I'd been telling anyone who would listen for the prior two years."

Torres is now 45.  The big question is whether she will make her 6th Olympic team.  And why not?  The water doesn't know how old she is.

No matter who we are and no matter where we are, the [fill in the blank] doesn't know how old we are.   You ride, you run, you swim, you farm, you do whatever makes you grow from the inside out: what happies your Soul and makes the world a more joyful place for you in it.

To anyone who asks my (Midddle-Earth age) I say, "I'm old enough to know better and young enough not to care."  That and Torres' story keep me logging the dreams.