{"id":411,"date":"2017-04-09T08:04:26","date_gmt":"2017-04-09T12:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/?p=411"},"modified":"2017-04-09T08:04:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T12:04:26","slug":"the-film-the-nfl-doesnt-want-you-to-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/2017\/04\/09\/the-film-the-nfl-doesnt-want-you-to-see\/","title":{"rendered":"The Film the NFL Doesn’t Want You to See…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s no wonder that the National Football League doesn’t want you to watch “The United States of Football”<\/a>…What is amazing is the number of interviews<\/a>, hours and footage Sean Pamphilon<\/a> spent putting this together…It is simply brilliant…<\/p>\n

Intended to explore the violence and physical contact in the N-F-L and football in general, the film underscores two problems facing the game…Numbers are dwindling and just as importantly, should we let our kids even play the game…<\/p>\n

These are not issues the National Football League wants to tackle, if you’ll excuse the pun…<\/p>\n

Google ” dwindling football numbers”<\/a> and the articles jump off the page….Granted, not many of those playing youth football will ever see the National Football League but if fewer and fewer kids are even entering the pipeline, eventually the product will suffer…Conversely, if you search “increasing numbers” of sports like soccer<\/a> and lacrosse<\/a>, the results are equally startling, but in reverse…<\/p>\n

The images Pamphilon presents are gripping…Intriguingly, Pamphilon struggles with his own son’s desire to play football and credit him for including it in the film…What parent would encourage their son or daughter to take part in a game that might leave them crippled, physically or mentally, \u00a0at some point in their life?…Now, this isn’t to say that other sports aren’t dangerous also…Concussions in soccer from heading the ball are on the rise…Heading<\/a> the ball is a fundamental, natural part of the game and as participation increases, so will (head) injuries…<\/p>\n

Developmentally, players are not ready to take shots to the head at the ages that they start playing sports…A recent article in The Guardian<\/em><\/a>, for example, talks about eleven being the starting point for allowing players to head the ball, and only then in a game, not (extensive) practice…Pop Warner<\/a> starts at age 5!….How can this be?….The lower limit for weight is 35 pounds!…How is a kid at that weight possibly ready to have his\/her body subjected to the contact of football…Sometimes he\/she’s playing with kids twice his\/her weight!…Look at the age\/weight classes, it’s staggering…Even at the “varsity” level you could be playing with someone seventy five (75) pounds heavier…That’s an astonishing disparity…<\/p>\n

Sean’s first project, “Run Ricky Run”\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0was part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series…it drew critical acclaim….then came “Bountygate”<\/a>\u00a0…Ask the people of New Orleans how they feel about Pamphilon…Now “The United States of Football”…Never let it be said that Sean isn’t afraid to face an issue head on…I’m waiting for his next endeavor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s no wonder that the National Football League doesn’t want you to watch “The United States of Football”…What is amazing is the number of interviews, hours and footage Sean Pamphilon spent putting this together…It is simply brilliant… Intended to explore the violence and physical contact in the N-F-L and football in general, the film underscores […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}