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Football and Dementia

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Methuselah said:
I played football until I was 40. Centre-half and centre-forward. Lots of heading and all with the old, heavy football. I have always been pretty good on 'general knowledge' crosswords but now, I look at a clue and know that I know the answer but can't remember it. I do, about an hour later. I think (hope) that its just a symptom of getting old, My Dad never played much football and his memory deteriorated as he got older.
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Think that touches on the main reason for the increased cases. The heavy ball that players used to head. I don't think given the lighter balls used now that the future will see the same numbers.
 
kenada_blue said:
Wonder why Boxing isn't brought up?
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Probably because it has always been there with boxing. 'Punch drunk' has been a recognised phrase connected with boxing for 100 years or more. When I was growing up in Liverpool (1940's) a common term for anyone who was a bit 'slow' was a 'header the ball'. Never heard this term used outside of Liverpool but it seems that the dangers of heading the old ball were recognised too, in those days.
 
Methuselah said:
Probably because it has always been there with boxing. 'Punch drunk' has been a recognised phrase connected with boxing for 100 years or more. When I was growing up in Liverpool (1940's) a common term for anyone who was a bit 'slow' was a 'header the ball'. Never heard this term used outside of Liverpool but it seems that the dangers of heading the old ball were recognised too, in those days.
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Totally. But it's the idea that it's a seems to be a surprise a sport where head impact happens could have some long term effect that's an eyebrow raiser.

The dementia side in football seems to be a very tiny percentage stemming from ex professionals in the 70+ age range. So the idea of now having blanket reviews and stopping children/teens heading the ball based on people who played professionally from the 1940s onwards is pure panic for no real conclusive evidence.

This is entirely different from Rugby or the NFL where generally you're getting your brains smashed in most games.
 
Just digressing. Anyone looking at old football team photo's, may notice the ball, which is usually at the front, is made up of segments (like an orange) with a leather 'button' at the top and bottom. This ball was banned by the football authorities after several players died after heading the button. Not sure when this happened but think it was before 1900.
 

There's a lot of dementia about these days.

Nobody mentions mad cow disease any more after the government failed to protect us by controlling farming methods in the 80s. Odd that.
 
Methuselah said:
I played football until I was 40. Centre-half and centre-forward. Lots of heading and all with the old, heavy football. I have always been pretty good on 'general knowledge' crosswords but now, I look at a clue and know that I know the answer but can't remember it. I do, about an hour later. I think (hope) that its just a symptom of getting old, My Dad never played much football and his memory deteriorated as he got older.
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Sounds like you're in good shape. When you look at the crossword and think 'What's a crossword?' is when the problems start.
 
I think the points made about the footballs themselves are valid. Older footballs were much heavier, especially when wet.

I also think the fact that modern footballers are generally more physically in shape might also help - Greater distribution of the shock itself, perhaps?

In any case, looking into the effects is absolutely the right thing to do and I think it is something that can be mitigated at youth level without too much negative impact on the professional game.
 

I was going to write something but I've forgotten.


..oh yeah

Lee Smith said:
that heading a football in the 50's/60's/70's "on a wet Tuesday evening in Stoke" would have had a much more detrimental affect on a player than it would today.
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Some footballs when wet were just better looking medicine balls. Also if you were unlucky (and I was many times) you would make contact with the stitches and just be left with a massive imprint on your forehead.

And this was in the 80's! Although perhaps we just had hand me down balls...
 
The binman chronicles said:
I was going to write something but I've forgotten.


..oh yeah



Some footballs when wet were just better looking medicine balls. Also if you were unlucky (and I was many times) you would make contact with the stitches and just be left with a massive imprint on your forehead.

And this was in the 80's! Although perhaps we just had hand me down balls...
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True story this. When we were courting, I had arranged to take her indoors to the pictures one Saturday evening. During the football game that afternoon, I had headed the 'lace' on the ball. The imprint, in bright red on my forehead, was still visible on the Saturday evening. Her indoors refused to go out with me so we stayed in at hers.
 
I’m sure the scientists have considered this but I’ll speculate nonetheless.

Could it be that footballers, generally, are naturally fit and many have kept themselves in good shape, therefore reducing the risk of heart disease, some cancers, type 2 diabetes etc? So they’ve got to die of/‘get’ something.
 

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