Originally Posted by USA Today article

As far as longtime sports broadcaster Bob Costas is concerned, the future of football in the United States is clear — and bleak.

“The reality is that this game destroys people’s brains," he said Tuesday night.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion at the University of Maryland, Costas, who hosted Football Night in America on NBC for more than a decade, said the sport could collapse over time, barring a development in technology to make it reasonably safe. He said the decline of football, which was once “a cash machine,” is the most significant story in American sports.

“The cracks in the foundation are there,” Costas said. “The day-to-day issues, as serious as they may be, they may come and go. But you cannot change the nature of the game. I certainly would not let, if I had an athletically gifted 12- or 13-year-old son, I would not let him play football.”

Originally Posted by DanT (Post 13207132)

It's kind of sad that some people don't see the appeal of a game that packs less than 60 minutes of action into 3.5 hours of TV, with referees throwing flags all over the field, except on scoring plays that are eventually overturned on review, all run by owners that demand taxpayers build them facilities. Sure, it can result in long-term brain damage along with other chronic diseases that take away your life expectancy, but what a game, huh!

Originally Posted by BDj23 (Post 13207142)

All while our favorite team never wins us a Super Bowl.

Originally Posted by Jamie (Post 13207171)

I think if you're able to look at the situation objectively it's been pretty clear for a while that football's days are numbered. Once they can reliably test for CTE in living people it will start a spiral at the end of which football will either not exist or be a fundamentally different game. I'm not saying it'll happen tomorrow or next year, but if it doesn't happen within 20 years I'll be surprised.

Originally Posted by hometeam (Post 13207173)

Or maybe, if we are lucky, we will return to an age of personal responsibility. That would be neat.