Originally Posted by
Section 107
I am so glad as a society we have moved past the fists part and now have the NFL and the NHL.
and UFC. and Fight Club - ooops, forget that last one. (Dang, someone is gonna punch me now. nice!)
And yet it was college football way back when:
With little protective equipment, players sustained gruesome injuries—wrenched spinal cords, crushed skulls and broken ribs that pierced their hearts. The Chicago Tribune reported that in 1904 alone, there were 18 football deaths and 159 serious injuries, mostly among prep school players. Obituaries of young pigskin players ran on a nearly weekly basis during the football season. The carnage appalled America. Newspaper editorials called on colleges and high schools to banish football outright. “The once athletic sport has degenerated into a contest that for brutality is little better than the gladiatorial combats in the arena in ancient Rome,” opined the Beaumont Express. The sport reached such a crisis that one of its biggest boosters—President Theodore Roosevelt—got involved.
Over 100 years ago.
'Merica!