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by antasvara
1750 days ago
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My theory is that boxing's effects are clear and obvious, whereas football and rugby have portrayed themselves as more safe in the past. The NFL spent years keeping CTE research down to prevent people seeing their concussion issues, where boxing literally has people getting knocked out in the ring. People tend to be more accepting of sports when they own their issues and cater to their specific viewers. People who have a problem with concussions and violence just don't watch boxing, so boxing doesn't have to pretend that head injuries aren't an issue. They may not publicize the CTE aspect of the sport, but I don't think they're hiding from it to the same extent as rugby and the NFL. As an aside, I will point out that MMA has mandatory medical suspensions in place after fights that are usually longer than the average football player's stay in the concussion protocol. That's not to say that MMA is better for your head (because it most likely isn't), just that the sport recognizes that concussions are an issue, and that the only thing that fixes them is time. |
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We're talking about a disease that is somewhat similar to many other diseases of the brain, that much like Alzheimers, cannot even be diagnosed in living people yet. Not playing sports doesn't guarantee one safety from whatever CTE is either [4].
I'm no medical professional, but this is a topic near and dear to me. I've done quite a bit of research and talked with medical professionals about it. It's really an "up in the air" kind of thing, in my opinion. I will say that the average person and the media seem to think it's a much bigger deal than the medical professionals I have spoken with (all of which do research in this area at one of the top 20 hospitals in the US (Vanderbilt)). Who is right? I fear only time will only tell.
I do think more steps need to be taken to make sports safer. Whether or not CTE, concussions, head trauma, etc. is as bad the media claims is debatable, but I cannot see any of it being a "good" thing either.
[1] https://www.bu.edu/cte/about/frequently-asked-questions/
[2] https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/Fulltext/2014/01000/Is_Ch...
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30169776/
[4] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190620153548.h...