The NFL will be gone in 30 years.

I wonder how long this can go on. How do parents let their kids get into football at a young age knowing the consequences?

Will schools be liable for long term damage? I mean look at the over the top safety regulations for the pole vault- the padding, extra padding, pole weight and the coach, officials, school are responsible.

When will football be regulated to its death.

Not the main point of his thread "And, add in Title IX, axing some football programs" but I don't recall hearing of any college football teams disbanded by Title IX. But I may have missed something.

I am waiting for Penn and Teller to do a special episode of Bullsh@t to dispell all of the myths.

The NFL makes the most money out of all other sports in the US. So this idea that it will not exist in 30 years is crazy.

No notable football programs have been cut by Title IV. Other notable sports programs have been cut in order to keep football teams scholarships fully funded.

And smoking cigarettes has had a "smear" campaign running against it for several decades now and have their prices raised so high due to deterrent taxes, yet plenty of new people continue to smoke every day.

It is going to take a lot more than the fear of concussions to discourage America's youth from wanting to and actually playing football. And I for one am happy about that. Long live the NFL.

how do the landing pads, and even helmets take away from the pole vault? The sport is still about getting over the bar, there's just safety precautions to prevent injuries. I know I'd rather land on 3 or 4 feet of padding than a pile of sawdust like in the old days.

But professional football is here to stay and will remain popular. The fact that parents are forbidding their kids from playing does not mean those same parents dont wanna watch the games on TV. And so long as there is an audience, the game will stay.

perhaps the only thing that can end the NFL is a succesful class action lawsuit by former players that forces the NFL to file for bankruptcy. But rather than end professional football, it will simply open the way for other well monied individuals like Vince McMann to start a new league.

Heck look at MMA. Most sane parents would never let their kids participate. Yet the sport is growing.

Human beings have bloodlust. They used to jam the colisseum to watch Christians being fed to Lions.

I'd watch flag football with just wide receivers, Qbs and DBs. Heck, i'd watch Randy Moss go poop

The point is- they keep trying to make it safer. I coach HS and many local schools are considering dropping the PV because you have to keep adding padding and the rules are crazy. The area covered is much bigger than the pit which is huge. It's just a pain.

But the main point was that they keep adding safety features. How can they do this in football?

Helmets are very expensive and schools don't have money to pay for basics and NO the concessions and gate won't pay for MOST HS's.

I think you'll see it dwindle in HS's before you see the NFL go- it's business.

I'm fine with that. Lets face it-- football not only destroys those who play it, but it doesn't do much the rest of us. People pay far more attention to what happens in football than they do to how the country is run, why our healthcare system is crumbling, and any other number of real issues. Not to mention the fact that the public is asked to heavily subsidize stadium construction in most NFL cities, despite the league turning out huge profits, including during a recession.

I suspect you're wrong, since over the years people have said various things would destroy football, and yet here it is, as successful as ever. My kids will never play, and I'm planning on not watching anymore, but the game will survive my mini-boycott.

The average life span for a football player is about 70, and they suffer various brain disorders into middle age.

Football is HUGE. The money for football is HUGE. The notoriety that good football players at all levels get is HUGE. This is NOT going away any time soon...certainly not in 30 years...no freakin' way.Yes there are parents who prohibit their kids from playing football, but there are then others to step in and take their place. My current first-hand experience is this...my son will be in 7th grade in the fall, and so the kids who will be in fall sports are making those plans now. There are so many boys in his grade that are going out for football that it is amazing to me...kids that aren't even 5 feet tall yet and really ought to be running cross country are going out for football. I've heard some of the parents say "I'll let Johnny play in middle school, but then in high school when the tackles are more violent, I won't let him." I say this is BS. If the kid becomes a football star in middle school, the vast majority of parents would allow him to continue that into high school.NFL is here to stay.

Yawn... this is an old story; read

From Grantland.com February 2012:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7559458/cte-concussion-crisis-economic-look-end-football

From the New Yorker, October 2009:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell

What does lacrosse have to do with this? If you are saying it will over take football then your entire argument is questionable. Lacrosse is a regional sport popular among young men from a certain SES. It will never have national prominence. Plus it is every bit as dangerous as football.

A lot of things will be gone in 30 years.

One thing that has oddly not been mentioned in the talk of concussions is that many of the early artificial turf fields were basically rather thin fake green surfaces atop hard concrete stadium floors. There's more protection and insulation or whatever now. But one would have to think that having one's hard bounce off those hard surfaces quite a few times had something to do with the delayed effects of brain damage we're seeing. So it's all not intrisically part of the game.

Track, as we know it will gone in 30 years. Not football.

Colleges have been using title IX to cut track programs so they can keep their football program intact.

You will see fewer track facilities kept up so they can pour the money into football as budgets go to only revenue generating sports.

The issue with football is that they are too padded and less cautious when throwing their bodies around.

Going back to leather helmuts will actually help as players will stop leading with their heads.

Football will be here for a while.

The big problem in the past was people trying to play through concussions. The readily available imaging technology today can make football way safer than back in the day when a team dr would give a player a once over and send him back out with scrambled brains.

We will be under water from global warming, so water sports will take over.

I agree with the op in so much as we've seen the peak of football. I know I used to enjoy the violence back when I was less informed on the permanent damage it was causing to its players. Now every hit raises the question as to how much brain damage it caused, and i'm left wondering if it's okay to celebrate. Not nearly as fun.

Its going to take a lot to snuff out the entire sport, though.

Many people here on letsrun are white middle class and up from rich suburban areas. Many stars in the NFL are the complete opposite. Just because some rich white kid, who will never receive a NCAA scholarship, let alone make it anywhere near the NFL except in the stands, parent's don't want their son playing football, doesn't mean that those who are actually athletically gifted and can actually make the NFL will stop playing. At the end of the day, sure certain NBA players may have bypassed football, but we see the same thing with certain NFL players bypassing the NBA or MLB.

The notion that everyone has the ability to be good or just that some rich white kids will stop playing football means the NFL will die is outrageous. Get real.