I absolutely love old-timey things that are able to presciently comment on current events. It shows that there's a connection to our past no matter how much we think we may have evolved as society. With the massive amount of attention being paid to concussions in sports, specifically in the NFL, it's amazing to think that anybody was seriously aware of this issue a generation ago. After all, the crux of the outstanding Frontline documentary League of Denial is that the NFL neglected the serious nature of concussions and the dangers present to professional football players in modern times.
But believe it or not, people were aware about the dangers of concussions in football 108 years ago in 1905. Take this newspaper clipping that comes to us from the Tweets of Old Twitter account with an assist to Don Van Natta of Outside the Lines about "Reforming" Football.
Incredible. There were serious discussions about aboloshing football at the turn of the century because of injuries. Dozens of players died in the early 1900s due to football injuries and no less than Teddy Roosevelt led reforms to make the sport safer. Who would have thought we'd still be having largely the same debate about football safety, concussions, and reforms to the sport more than 100 years later?
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About Matt Yoder