Comment by monkmartinez | Hacker News Reader

Comment by monkmartinez | Hacker News Reader

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> By the time they are 40 or 50 they might be a vegetable or have committed suicide, but honestly how is that different than any other job?

The premise of your question is deeply flawed. It is radically different.

How many "young men" end up with broken bodies well before they make it to the big show? We just had a very young man at Univ. of Arizona (Kerr's alma mater) retire from basketball at 19 years old due to a 3rd tear of the ACL.

How many TBI's does it take before we end something that is clearly bad for society? You can't legally double leg tackle a guy standing on the corner, nor can one legally ingest many substances. Yet, society allows this "trade off" because it is sport. The logic falls flat on its face.

We allow a lot of things that are bad for society and even impact larger groups of people just as negatively. Cigarettes? We let people work jobs that break their bodies over decades. Manual labor?

It's how the world works. These guys are at least getting rewarded for doing it....

Cigarettes? We don't allow minors to legally have them, further they are taxed and regulated at great length. Also, there is a massive educational aspect warning everyone about the risks. Show me that with the American Football, please.

Manual Labor? Ever heard of OSHA, MSHA, NIOSH, NIST? Just a few of the agencies looking after the well being of folks working manual labor. I work in a glorified blue collar job, we are regulated very tightly. We have presumptive cancer laws and you can't perform our job as a minor... most don't make it until they are well into their 20's.

Don't disagree with any of that (I said in the first post kids shouldn't play).

But adults? If we start making more rules about what adults can or cannot do with their bodies we're gonna have to start drawing very arbitrary lines.

I agree that the adult aspect is not binary... however, American Football would not exist without allowing children to play as it stands now. Furthermore, the "owner class" of the state sports associations, NCAA, and NFL would stand to lose a great deal of money if children were not allowed to play.

Let's see if we do the right thing.

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