Heading and dementia

It’s sad that Jeff Astle’s daughter has obsessively pursued this over the years looking for blame . It’s going to have bad consequences for the game we love if we’re not careful.
I coached an under 8s team last year and one of the parents told me their child wasn’t going to head the ball a anymore!!

Is anybody saying that heading should be banned in football? It's not about that, it's about reducing risk where possible. Reducing the amount of heading in training and stopping young children from heading is sensible.

If your company didn't reduce your risk where reasonably practicable, you'd be taking them to court if you got hurt. Why should football be any different. Risk is never zero, but it can be reduced and hopefully stop some people from having an absolutely horrible condition that ruins people's lives.

Quoted from louth_in_the_south

It’s sad that Jeff Astle’s daughter has obsessively pursued this over the years looking for blame . It’s going to have bad consequences for the game we love if we’re not careful.
I coached an under 8s team last year and one of the parents told me their child wasn’t going to head the ball a anymore!!

It is sad, and the relatives are naturally distraught, but they are so personally involved they cannot see the bigger picture of a great life well lived.

I loved to watch Jeff Astle play, apart from when he missed that open goal in the 1970 World Cup (!) and even if we had the knowledge we have now back then, and a club doctor advised him to quit the game, does anybody think he would have listened?

I don't know Jeff Astle's personal life, but presumably, the life he led as a teenage footballer growing up in a certain way would have resulted in him making all sorts of decisions in his life, including his fitness regime, looking after himself in other ways, eating habits, perhaps even who he met and married - in other words had his life been different who knows what might have befallen him, and would he even have the daughter who is now obsessed? It is a bit like Sliding Doors - life takes you a certain way and you cannot turn back time.

I do agree however to take sensible precautions in the future, but the lighter balls today will certainly help.

This debate reminds me of that Will Smith film regarding head injuries and American football;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concussion_(2015_film)

I know its a different sport, but what has happened with the NFL has likely impacted other sports in how they approach an issue previously ignored.

I can see heading being banned in a few years, it is not only heading the ball but the collision of heads that comes with challenging for a high ball or corner.  The game will evolve and people in 50 years will think it’s strange heading was ever allowed, ( similar to barging the keeping into the goal) as Brian Clough said football is a game for playing on the grass not in the air. Look at the Buckley years to see what even a lower league team can accomplish without booting it up in the air all the time. It will mean the end for brick out-house defenders and big physical forwards and mean more skilful players will succeed more often and height will not be such a big factor .

So what about other sports?  Are we going to ban horseracing because jockeys fall off and hurt themselves, what about Rugby, a full on contact sport,, cricket are we going to ban bouncers from fast bowlers, also boxing, can't get much more violent than that.  base jumping!

It's getting ridiculous, how the hell can you play a football match without heading!!

Quoted from 123614

So what about other sports?  Are we going to ban horseracing because jockeys fall off and hurt themselves, what about Rugby, a full on contact sport,, cricket are we going to ban bouncers from fast bowlers, also boxing, can't get much more violent than that.  base jumping!

It's getting ridiculous, how the hell can you play a football match without heading!!

Just use 5-a-side rules and be done with it. Watch the sponsors disappear.

It is so bloody stupid. The people who want it banned for this H&S reason have no concept of the game.

I wonder if we’ll see head protection come into the game…like the Chelsea keeper who fractured his skull. It happens in boxing and that appears to be the comparator here. Just a thought.