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Comment by amalag | Hacker News Reader

The fact that you have to wear armor to play a contact sport games shows the quality of the game. I watch only the superbowl every year and it tells me why I don't watch the rest of the year. Soccer is just such a nicer sport. The worst that can happen is a leg injury, not cumulative dementia.

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The jury is still out there on that. Heading, in particular, is linked to brain damage (http://journals.lww.com/neurotodayonline/Fulltext/2013/01170... (article paywalled at http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1391907)):

"To the Editor: Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, with more than 250 million active players.1 It is the only sport in which the unprotected head is a primary point of contact when heading the ball. In other contact sports, the deleterious long-term effects of repetitive traumatic brain injury (TBI), such as impaired white matter integrity,2 are well recognized.3 However, whether frequent subconcussive blows to the head lead to TBI remains controversial,4- 5 although evidence suggests impaired neuropsychological function in soccer players.5 We evaluated concussion-naive soccer players using high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which is highly sensitive for detecting alterations in white matter architecture."

Heads can also hit each other or goalposts, for example when a keeper dives for the ball.

>>Heads can also hit each other or goalposts, for example when a keeper dives for the ball.

Aaaajajajajajajaja. Yes, lighting could also strike you.

It's more frequent than you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvSNMrcKR5Q

http://www.insideworldsoccer.com/2012/04/gerard-pique-injury...

Of course it happens. The same way that people get hit by lighting everyday, or that someone wins the lottery every day. But to pretend that in soccer you can get the same kind of dangerous injuries as in American Football is disingenuous.

Getting hit by lightning or winning the lottery happens orders of magnitude less often than getting a concussion in soccer. Don't be disingenuous.

I played soccer growing up and some of the hardest hits I've taken to the head were from heading soccer balls.

There have been studies confirming this. One example:

http://www.newser.com/story/157592/soccer-heading-may-harm-b...

Oh really? http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/14/science/la-sci-socce... flinging your head around, then into a ball which rapidly changes the speed of your head (but not your brain) isn't the healthiest thing to do. Not that this is conclusive by any means, but it's still cumulative brain damage.

"Not that this is conclusive by any means, but it's still cumulative brain damage."

Nice that you could say two different things in two parts of your sentence.

I don't think lack of injury is a great measure of a sport's quality. Otherwise, speed walking would have to be one of the greatest sports out there. Compared to speed walking, those soccer players are savages.

I watch a lot of soccer. Concussions still happen. They're less frequent, but by the same token they're not spotted and treated as quickly as in the NFL.

Soccer? That's like watching paint dry.

Exactly the feeling I get when watching American Football or Baseball. Boring games. Somebody please shoot me.

You must not be american, you don't like commercials.

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