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I hold the escape button down while opening the link, worked this time...I clicked the close button on pop up, it took me to the subscribe page, I clicked back and it worked.
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A 2019 study of NFL players from 1979 to 2013 found their average life expectancy was 59.6 years.
Why do you use the term "privilege?' Might some of the parents just be working class folks who, while making more than the minimum wage, lead modest lives?
You have a good point, understanding of head trauma has come a long ways since 2001. In general the Pats are recognized for being very proactive when it comes to dealing with concussions. Rich Ohrnberger specifically called this out after the Tua injury. The old article in the link provides a very detailed description of what happened to Ted Johnson. While the team made a mistake making him practice after a concussion, Ted kept playing for years after he knew that he was damaged. It is great to see that he has recovered. It is too bad that his blatant anti BB agenda invalidates any of his opinions on talk radio.The story gives context to why Ted Johnson apparently believes BB almost ruined his life by (allegedly) making him play through concussions. I wonder, though, if they just didn't know enough back then in contrast to today's protocols.
(Thanks @Ian for providing the second link.)
Credit cards are the cigarettes of the finance industry.And credit card companies cater to that mindset.
Too many parents expect the schools to teach their kids everything. There just aren’t enough hours in the school day for that. Financial literacy needs to be taught from a young age by the parents in order for kids to the best chance when they grow up. If you’re good with money, you should not need a credit card, for example. Credit card companies do a good job of convincing people they need their products for a “rainy day.” But because so many people do not know how to budget, the interest rates and payments on those cards make it impossible for most Americans to stockpile a rainy day fund.
In about a year or so, I’m going to begin incentivizing my oldest daughter to do “chores,” like pick up her toys and put them away when she is done with them. She will get coins (which will eventually turn into dollars as the chores get more challenging) to put into a piggy bank. Every once in a while, we will empty that piggy bank and take her to the store to buy something so she can learn the value of money.
There is a huge difference in life expectancy between the general population and NFL players.
From the article:
By contrast the life expectancy of a 20-year-old male is to live to around 77 - nearly 20 years longer. Black males overall have a shorter life expectancy though, but that likely accounts for maybe 4 years of the 20 year difference.
Holy crap. Not just about losing so many of the 2001 Patriots, but this stat about the NFL blew my mind.
And that's even with the Brady outlier at 112.
But seriously, when you just turned 60, and your dad died at 59, this stat puts an extra edge on an edge that's already there.
Also, if you think this is another species posting this, you're next. And the next "decade" I'll see, if I'm lucky... dum dum DUM... the 70s.
Better than not seeing them I guess.
Not quite as bad as it looks, at first glance.Go read the actual study and not the butchered opinion posted by the Globe. It gives you better context.
The players in the study were born from 1938 to 1967. Look at the life expectancies from those years.
Sorry to pick the academic scab here, when the first thing that's worth considering is that hey, football does take years off your life (though your plea for a balanced approach is appreciated.) In the same spirit, here's a little more of the financial landscape.The Boston.com misquotes the study. The study states: "All of the men tracked for the study played at least five seasons in NFL or MLB between 1959 and 1988. Their causes of death in the period of 1979 to 2013 were gleaned from preexisting databases and, in some cases, state agency death certificates."
The Study was of players who played from 1959-1988. It was NOT a study of players who played from 1979 through 2013. And yes, it makes a HUGE difference when you're attempting to compare the life expectancies.
An NFL player who is 21 in 1959, was born in 1938. The Life expectancy of black males born in 1938 was 54 years old. A white male was 62.1 years old.
An NFL player who was 21 in 1988 was born in 1967. The life expectancy of black males born in 1967 was 60. For white males it was 68.
It's a matter of putting things into the proper context. Not comparing the average age of someone who died at 59.6 who was born in 1938 to someone born in 2022 who is expected to live to 72 or 77 respectively.
I am not downplaying CTE or any of the other very REAL things that these men suffer while playing the game we watch each week. I just attempting to correct the erroneous context of the Globe article in regards to the study they referenced.
A line from that study that I find interesting is this:
"Yet, studies dating as far back as 1994 have shown that, compared with the U.S. male population at large, former NFL players have lower death rates when all causes are considered, and from cardiovascular disease in particular."
It completely SUCKS that Glenn and Patten died in car accidents at 43 and 47 respectively. It completely sucks that Turner and Myers died of cancer at 35 and 38 respectively. It completely sucks that Jones, Parker and Johnson died before 50.
That 2001 team was special.
Sorry to pick the academic scab here, when the first thing that's worth considering is that hey, football does take years off your life (though your plea for a balanced approach is appreciated.) In the same spirit, here's a little more of the financial landscape.
It's support for the theory of "they had the money to live longer" (very broad strokes description), that they all played 5 years or more. IOW, they weren't 1-year washouts technically in the league on someone's practice squad, they had legit NFL careers. Just picking a random year in there, 1981, the average salary in the NFL was about $91,000 (really quaint low number by today's standards.)
The NFL's average salary in 1981 increased by 14.5... - UPI Archives
The NFL's average salary in 1981 increased by 14.5 percent over 1980 to $90,102, according to the annual salary survey conducted by the league's Management...www.upi.com
In a "That can't be right" moment, the average salary in 1981 for all occupations was 47,700. Wow, it only doubled your income to be a pro football player in 1981! Of course, you got double the average income at a very young age, by definition. 40 was an ancient warrior then, and in the main, still is now.
Trends in Men's Wages, 1981–2014
Social Security Administration Research, Statistics, and Policy Analysiswww.ssa.gov
But still - double the income is a huge apples-to-oranges comparison. (It would be less so in the earlier cohorts, with 1981 pay representing, say, guys born 1959 and earlier. Guys born in 1938 would not vary as much from the mean income. Guys born in 1967 getting paid in 1988, well, couldn't make the 5-year requirement. So really the skew might be more in 1984 than 1981, continuing to the 1988 skew. But I have to sit up a half hour for the statin to settle, so let's look.
1984 league average, $162k
1984 average overall, $48,211
NFL Salaries Up 25%, Average $162,000
National Football League players made more money in 1984 than ever, according to a listing of salaries compiled by the NFL PLayers Assn. and published Sunday by the Dallas Morning News.www.latimes.com
By 1988, the fifth year of the last cohort included in the study, it was
1988 average salaries by team - lowest (TB), $178,300; highest (SF), 280,400
1988 average overall, $50,538
So, on the 49ers, in 1988, you were making an average of between 5 and 6 times the national average.
My point in trotting out this factor is that apples-to-apples would really be closer if you compared to the average man making twice to nearly six times the mean income, for the 80s up to 1988. And I am sure that earlier there were still benefits to being a pro athlete - it was just a percentage multiplier over the average income, not a multiplier of several times the income (quickly ballooning to orders of magnitude difference.)
And even being solidly in the desireable high-income group, these guys were losing years off their life expectancy against the national average.
I was working a lot on ("nearby" perhaps) pension issues around 2008-2014... i.e., I was learning to translate from expert to layman.To add to your point - the NFL players’ pension plan has to file annual reports with the government which are available for public view. The plan actuary needs to make a best estimate of future mortality, which will be based on actual plan experience. The NFL’s actuary used the blue collar version of the latest mortality table. The blue collar version has a much shorter life expectancy than using a table without collar adjustment, let alone using a white collar mortality table which has the highest life expectancy. It’s practically unheard of to use blue collar mortality for highly paid people. For comparison, MLB’s pension plan actuary uses the white collar version of the mortality table.
Read the article on Boston.comI'd like to read this. Is there a way around the paywall other than paying?
I stopped reading the Globe in 2003 after they portrayed a doctored photo from a porn site and said it was American soldiers raping an Iraqi woman. The crooked pol who provided the pic ended up in jail on another matter but the editor who approved it got a new job and a promotion at the Washington Post.The story is what it is. I do wonder how many players on other teams from 20+ years ago are also dead. Is this an abnormal number? Might be something a journalist would look into and add for context.
I also wonder if there is any coincidence that the Boston Globe dropped this article the same day the departure of Xander Bogaerts was announced. Deflect from the Red Sox bad press in free agency to say, look Patriots bad.
Probably not related, but those jizz stains at the Red Sox and Globe also get no benefit of doubt.
Why is Ohrnberger's opinion any more valid than Ted Johnson's? They both played here and by the sound of it they had different experiences.You have a good point, understanding of head trauma has come a long ways since 2001. In general the Pats are recognized for being very proactive when it comes to dealing with concussions. Rich Ohrnberger specifically called this out after the Tua injury. The old article in the link provides a very detailed description of what happened to Ted Johnson. While the team made a mistake making him practice after a concussion, Ted kept playing for years after he knew that he was damaged. It is great to see that he has recovered. It is too bad that his blatant anti BB agenda invalidates any of his opinions on talk radio.
Dark Days Follow Hard-Hitting Career in N.F.L. (Published 2007)
Ted Johnson, a three-time champion, blames brain impairment and addiction on injuries during his career.www.nytimes.com
I’m a pension actuary myself - I’ve heard that joke numerous times (pension people tend to fall in that “extroverted” category as they need to be consultants). The translating from actuarial nerd speak to real human being language is the toughest part of my job! I felt comfortable bringing up the NFL and MLB pension since neither I nor my company work for either of them, but I do feel very comfortable with the thought process that was used to set those assumptions.I was working a lot on ("nearby" perhaps) pension issues around 2008-2014... i.e., I was learning to translate from expert to layman.
In the last three years I have often thought to myself that the idiots who are coming up with our half-witted conspiracy theories all missed the boat. The half-witted crackpot conspiracy theory that makes sense is all about the change in the cost to fund benefits (in a DB plan) if you introduce a significant decrement to life expectancy. Fortunately, those most concerned with half-witted conspiracy theories are also those who are least concerned with actuarial tables, which, after all, are full of facts (which are like kryptonite to those guys.) Still, I'm shocked nobody's gone down the "COVID: qui bene?" road. Of course, the federal end of that is probably more than offset by the number of people driven from the workforce by long covid.
Hey how do you know when an actuary is extraverted? He's looking at your shoes