Players aren't obligated to fight. There are usually just a couple of guys per Team that are fighters. They DO really want to hurt each other. Broken cheekbones, broken noses, broken jaws, concussions, bloody nose, ... are often the result of fights. My definition of the term staged fights in the NHL is where two fighters agree to have a fight and it's not just part of the normal flow of the game or due to something else that's happened during the course of the game. I think the main reason there are not more injuries during fights is that it's not an easy skill especially on skates. Here's a good article on the role of the enforcer in the NHL (three part series is long, but very informative)...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/sports/hockey/derek-boogaard-a-boy-learns-to-brawl.html?pagewanted=all

Do you seriously think hockey fights are fake? Some of them are staged, which to me is stupid, but even those are real fights. I like some fights, but due to concussions, it won't be long before it's mostly out of the game.

They each landed a lot of square, bare-fisted blows for them not to end up suffering concussion, brain damage, skull fractures, death, etc.

It is very much like soccer players and their diving theatrics. I would go so far as to say it's cruel that the players are obligated to pretend to fight, even if they are good at pulling their punches.

True, but if done right a little mystery could also spark curiosity, with me at least.
Some of those posters smack you upside the head so hard the studios could almost be charged with assault with a blunt instrument. The resulting concussions could easily explain our nation's terrible viewing habits. ( as I try and fail to look innocent while standing in line to buy a ticket to 47 Ronin)

The saddest part is that the damage from the ones he didn't dodge was cumulative---the Parkinson's is, to my recollection, not the "pure" variety---but rather, a post-concussive variety.

Really Harlequinn.... have you ever treated a concussion?

Oh, I'm sorry, by "treat" do you mean, "applied a poultice of herbs and prayed really hard?" or are you actually saying that you practice medicine in the twenty-first century? Please, please tell me that you are not a medical professional who believes the victim of an accident must be fine because they are conscious.

I guess I should just be excited that someone agreed with me about the kid's head actually touching the ground.

Yeah, it's hard to really tell and the vid is only thirty seconds long but certainly trying to diagnose the severity of an injury is a little more insane than accepting the fact that a little kid (or anyone for that matter) can potentially be seriously injured after getting hit by a person six times their size riding a skateboard.

That would be quite pathetic, wouldn't it...

I bet if I were to do this, I could get at least 110 no, a black eye, a slight concussion and, on a good day, a shattered testicle.

Teenager? She looks more like thirty-five. In her defense is she concussed?

⛺ not so much a leap...more like a concussive, self-inflicted charge at full speed into the side of a obelisk ☁

Fishing by explosive is a great way to kill everything in a lake. You throw a few sticks of dynamite in, the concussion kills everything within a few hundred metres, the fish float to the surface and you scoop them up.

It's illegal in almost every nation on Earth.

It's also an excellent way to destroy ecosystems. But China doesn't care much about that.

how do you imagine that working exactly? all the bus drivers i know have literally zero experience with concussed deer and the "calming" of said deer.

Chin blow carries mechanical force from mandible directly to the skull with no soft tissue shock absorption along the way--and the direct mechanical force of the blow translates to fore-and-aft movement of the skull WITHOUT any rotation absorbing the energy---skull imparts blows force directly to soft tissue of the brain as the inertial mass of the brain leaves it standing in place, being sloshed through the normally cushioning layer of cerebral spinal fluid to make direct mechanical contact with the inside of the skull (albeit through the layers of the pia, mater and dura) ----forebrain and probably including midbrain structures---and then whipsaws backwards with a contra-coup impact on the back the brain as the head snaps back. (occiput/visual centers)

The mechanical impact of the brain tissue on the inside wall of the brain probably causes (now I'm guessing, but it's an informed guess) the neurons to respond to the blow with a mass ionic depolarization/electrical potential trigger---and concussion.

If he's only averagely unlucky, he'll also have a intra-cerebral/parenchymal micro bleeding---and if he's really unlucky, he'll keep getting in that ring and he'll end up like the NFL players with serial concussions or like Muhammed Ali. A demented, Parkinsonian cripple.

Don't get hit in the head.

"the teen’s injuries included “concussion, skull fracture, collapsed lung and a lacerated liver.” He's ok but he FUCKED himself sore for weeks! He's lucky is what he is...

yeah ptsd is a very broad term and covers more than shell shock. but it certainly downplays the severity and problems associated with a large or repeated concussions to the central nervous system.

LOL easy, tiger. You've obviously missed the tongue in cheek reference and are way more emotional about this than I care to be.

I really have no interest in trying to convert the unintiated into the delights of football, ignorance is always a bad starting point, and lets be honest its about as likely as me coming to appreciate american football. I make no claims about that sport other than it is as rife with the diseases that plague high value professional sports as any other.The point is this video is not representative - you could find a hundred more videos where legs are broken by tackles. Doesnt mean thats part of the game or a reflection of anything more than a natural statistical by-product from the sheer quantity of games played all over the world.

take this video for instance - the guy is obviously playing on the fact that a deliberate hand to head (usually a punch) is an immediate red card offence, which puts the opposing team down to ten men and in all kinds of trouble. Its kind of akin to putting a cash bounty on tackling concussion prone players - within the game, but barely. Not very sportsmanlike.

As to the provenance of 'american football', it would make more sense to call it rugby, that being the original inspiration. But again, it obviously means more to you than it does to me so i'll pass on that debate.