Well, Lewis Hamilton will not be winning this race. Max Verstappen will not be winning this race. And Charles Leclerc will not be winning this race.
Just caught up with the rugby highlights as I had to go out at FT. I have to say, the better team lost that, although England should have won it easily in normal time if Farrell hadn’t squandered so many (for him) easy points. Ford should have taken over second half, he would have been fuming if Farrell had missed that last one or if France had won it. The 6 Nations might turn out to be quite interesting this year! All credit to those French lads for finally testing the England bulldozer.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...world-cup-rugby-union-dementia-special-report Rugby World Cup winner Steve Thompson has early dementia and CTE at the age of 42. I read this just now and all I felt was “OOOF”. It’s very upsetting and shows that sports need to have greater regulation on concussions. I have not read a lot about rugby in this area and just sort of assumed that it was a big issue just from the nature of the game. I didn’t really consider that training to run headfirst into other human beings consists of more running headfirst into other human beings. Sounds like it’s just as much of a meat grinder as the NFL.
More so I would think. Rugby players are on the field for longer each game than NFL players, spend a greater amount of time in (often violent) contact with other players, and most importantly, wear little or no protective head gear. It’s true that Head Injury Assessment is now an established part of the professional game, but lower down the pyramid there must be far less care taken, and that worries me a lot.
Steve Thompson, England hooker, has early onset dementia and can’t remember the 2003 World Cup tournament. 42 years old!!! Even with the concussion rules that now exist in Rugby, maybe it’s time for head protection to be considered at all levels. Although how that would help with the brain shaking tackles is anyone’s guess. A lawyer representing 7 ex RFU players “believes that up to 50% of ex pros could end up with neurological complications in retirement”. A similar lawsuit in the USA ended with a £550 million settlement, which led to changes in training and tackling techniques in NFL.
The changes in training and tackling technique in the NFL are probably little more than window dressing. And rugby may ultimately have to wrestle with the same issue: it may simply not be possible to make a sport so reliant on hard physical contact safe. And then fans of the sport have to figure out for themselves how willing they are to cheer it on knowing the ramifications. Not that American football/rugby are the only sports grappling with it. Hockey has a major problem; football had major problems in the past, and because of the inherent time lag, it's unknown whether changes (such as no longer using a concrete slab for a ball) will minimize that in the future. But with rugby/the NFL, the violence is such an inherent part that it's hard to imagine how you reduce the head injuries. Helmets seem to have very little impact...in fact, hard-shell helmets add impact.
The pit straight at Silverstone is to be renamed the Hamilton Straight. Which will make a lot of people go absolutely crazy, so in my mind, great news (regardless of the fact it’s very well deserved).
Well deserved given his achievements in the sport. The upset it will cause certain sections of society is a bonus.
I’ll be driving down that on Thursday evening for the Xmas light show..... I know how to treat my wife and grow-up kids
I’ve never agreed with sports people getting knighthoods for achievement in their sport, but as they are given out for that, he definitely should get one.
