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ODE sports columnist opposes brain damage

10/15/2010: A courageous UO student journalist decides to kill chances of ever getting a job in sports, points out:

… long term brain damage is more likely the result of hundreds of sub-concussive collisions. According to a recent ESPN.com article, “Studies have shown a first-string college football player in a given year experiences between 800 and 1,500 blows to the head of a G-force greater than 20. That’s the equivalent of about a 20-mph car crash each time.”… It’s bad enough college football players don’t get fairly compensated for putting their bodies on the line every Saturday. (Do you really think Kenjon Barner’s scholarship and monthly stipend is adequate payment for the thousands upon thousands of calendars sold at the Duck Store that bear his likeness? Or for being a part of the product that will sell a multi-million dollar TV rights deal next winter? Please.) But to put the health of 20-year-old amateur athletes, most of whom will begin a career off the gridiron once their college career ends, in jeopardy … for a game? That’s just abusive. …

It’s not just a game. Coach needs a new $20.4 million contract real bad.

Compare this tough piece to the pablum RG reporter Rob Moseley printed on this incident.

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