Pejman Yousefzadeh

Obituary here. As it indicates, Byrne was notable for his late foray into the world of professional chess—having taught philosophy beforehand—and for acquitting himself quite impressively even while losing to the great Bobby Fischer. His attempts to explain chess to the public at large should also not go unnoticed, even if his columns might have been hard to follow for those who did not know the game as well as he did.

Requiescat in pace.

But we do seem to agree—at least somewhat—on how to reduce the number and severity of concussions in the NFL:

“If you want to prevent concussions,” said former Steelers receiver Hines Ward, “take the helmet off: Play old-school football with the leather helmets, no facemask. When you put a helmet on you’re going to use it as a weapon, just like you use shoulder pads as a weapon.”

In other words, don’t evolve. Devolve. Go back to the beginning of the ad. But early in the ad, you can see the sidelines. There’s almost no one there. “It didn’t look like much,” the announcer said. It’s only late in the ad, when the field is full of armored gladiators jackknifing over one another, that the stands are full. No one wants to watch a game that doesn’t look like much.

I don’t think that it would be too difficult to fill the stands if the game devolved in the manner that Ward calls for, and there is no showing that the stands were empty because of the type of protective equipment used in the past by NFL players. Let’s remember the main reason why the stands weren’t filled in the NFL’s youth: The NFL had a very small fan base in its infancy with many doubting that the league would exist for the long haul. College football was king back in the day, and college football had no problem filling the stands despite the fact that the players used the same protective equipment that NFL players used. Additionally, there is no reason why the game wouldn’t “look like much” if it devolved. It certainly “looked like much” to college football fans, and the NFL game sufficiently intrigued and attracted fans to expand the NFL’s fan base, and to keep the NFL around—defying the expectations of those who believed that the league would fold quickly.

Protective headgear is supposed to … well … protect the head of the person wearing the headgear. But paradoxically—as Ward indicates—it is used to encourage players to issue high-speed, violent hits (oftentimes with their heads). Players are assured that they can afford to issue those hits since they and the players they hit are allegedly protected by strong and sturdy helmets. But it may be that we can protect players better by issuing the kind of headgear the NFL used in its infancy, thus deterring players from making the kinds of hits that lead to concussions. A player is not going to be reckless with his cerebral health—or with that of other players—if he thinks that the helmet he and others are wearing will do a poor job of protecting against violent head traumas.

We won’t be killed by a giant asteroid in 2036.

Among the benefits of avoiding Apophis is that my beloved Chicago Cubs will have more time to win a World Series. And Heaven knows they will need it.

Ryan Phillips:

San Diego State head coach Rocky Long told Tod Leonard of the San Diego Union-Tribune that he’s considering not punting or kicking on fourth downs in 2012. Instead, Long is considering going for it on fourth downs inside an opponent’s 50-yard line in order to try and pick up a new set of downs every time.

Kevin Kelley, the head coach of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas has developed the strategy over the years. He claims punting is an offensive failure, and is essentially a voluntary turnover.

Long summed it up this way:

“It makes sense. Additional plays would allow you to score a lot more points. It also puts a whole lot of pressure on the defense.”

“It’s a day-to-day theory. I haven’t decided because we’re getting a feel for it out here. I just read about this guy, and I don’t know if I can do that because everybody in the world is going to say this is not Football 101, right?”

Via Tyler Cowen.