There have been two dozen suicides among professional football players in the last 25 years. Yesterday, that number went to 13.
Dementia is a common denominator. Dementia is caused by head injuries. There are lots of head injuries in football, so footballers have more cases of dementia than chess players.
Soccer players often have their brains damaged, mostly from hitting the ball with their heads. Parents of soccer players will nod approvingly as their children damage their brains. No matter how often they’re warned, some parents, possibly because their own brains were damaged playing soccer, still encourage their children to play soccer.
The fact is, sports are a distraction. But, brain-damaging sports like soccer are worse than insane.
There’s a less obvious problem with soccer. Brain-damaging sports make lesser evils seem good. Soccer is such a hurtful waste of time that it makes other wastes of time look respectable. “The toy soldiers that I carve from dried carrots may not be valuable, but my hobby is not as bad as playing soccer.” “I’m building a garage out of old tires. It won’t pass the building inspection, and I’m going to have to tear it down as soon as I’ve finished, but it’s a lot better than playing soccer.”
There may be truth to the rumor that a pornography producer replied to criticism of his occupation by saying, “Am I that bad? I don’t let my kids play soccer and permanently damage their brains.”
