Willie Wood Made the Most Memorable Play of Super Bowl I. He Has No Recollection.

[HughBeaumont]

33. Like I always said to my sister: "Sports are great. Then you turn 30."

That was about the time recurring back/shoulder/knee pain started happening to her. She had been playing basketball from 8th grade to college. Before that, she was in gymnastics from the time she was 8 and suffered her share of breaks and sprains in that. She can't stand for long periods of time and has trouble lifting heavy objects. For the longest time, that's what I had to take trips down to MD for. Any time she needed something moved or assembled, I had to do it.

Then I look at the example of my dad, who took up powerlifting in his late 20s/early 30s. He was like Superman to me. Now at 69, he has early stage Parkinsons, has mobility problems, walks with a hunch and has slurred speech.

These are two sports that one would think are relatively safe compared to the constant slamming of football, but just seeing the damage done makes me grateful I didn't take up sports as a kid and stuck with band.

I officiate roller derby - some of the hits these women take are brutal. I saw a particularly nasty fall in November and waved the medic over almost immediately. Her head bounced off the concrete and the helmet she was wearing was a hockey helmet, not even near enough to have lessened that impact. She had to be gurneyed out and her neck and body stabilized.

It's high time we took this problem seriously, but it isn't going to be easy to tame football.