Tackling Techniques News Today

The fact that inevitably, as dave said, someones going to getetty much on every play. theres 32 cathedrals built to this sport. with los angeles soon to come. so you have here, you know, an entrenched sport that we have to figure out how were going to address or fix. frankly, the nfl still remains -- i mean, this dates back to when i was working for them. they still remain absolutely, you know, in a different world, a different planet when it comes to this stuff. i dont understand where on earth...

>> reporter: the announcement stunned 49er fans. >> the sport is important, but its not more important than the individual players and their families. >> reporter: so far this off-season four players aged 30 or under have retired, including patrick willis. >> i pay attention to guys that walking around and they cant play with their kids. >> reporter: guys walking away is a great reminder that life has a bigger picture. bobby wagner tweeted, no offense to anyone but im playing until i cant anymor...

>> reporter: so far this off-season, four players aged 30 or under have retired, including patrick willis. >> i pay attention to guys that walking around and they cant play with their kids. >> reporter: guys walking away is a great reminder that life has a bigger picture. bobby wagner tweeted, no offense to anyone, but im playing until i cant anymore. i love this game too much. >> one question has been, is this a new era to the nfl? and i dont think we can know that yet. but it does seem like it...

As i can play to make this money. how can you walk away? the every day fan is saying you know planning six months and youre being paid all of this money, how can you walk away? its your brain and quality of life thats most important. >> dave the nfl just issued a statement in the past hour in part we respect his decision and wish him well. playing any sport is a personal decision by any measure football has never been safer and we continue to make progress in rule changes, safer tackling techniq...

I dont think so. it certainly will empower others to do the same to be able to walk away and say its okay to walk away. i remember the scariest film that i ever saw was that documentary "big hits and broken dreams" talking about the effects of contact sports on long-term health, i know there are times i think about maybe i should have walked away from the game a bit sooner. >> the nfl says they respect boylands decision and wish him the best. football has never been safer and we continue to make...

Want to give everybody a trophy and make sure people win things. brian, part of the reason i wanted to talk about this. i have done a lot of reporting on the dangers of repeated hits to the head. the nfl and many other football organizations are teaching these things now. dont put your head down when you tackle. just watching that clip, you see this all the time, numerous examples of kids who are leading with their heads. you hear the coach in the clip say, if that kid comes across i want you to...

Coaches. great role models who caught sportsmanship. i didnt hear a word that symbolized sportsmanship. there is a right way and a wrong way to lead. i implore the nfl to get involved with texas youth football association. i implore them to put a stop ta that behavior and put an end to that leadership. the tackling techniques being imposed on the young change. >> i will be interested to see if the nfl gets involved. thank you very much. on saturday and sunday, 7:30 in the morning here on c, this...

One of these lawsuits coming forward? >> well, its true that the nfl over a period of a couple decades really tried to bury the science around this issue. they attacked any neuroscientist who tried to draw a connection between football and brain damage. they published their own studies that denied that concussions were a major injury and had any long-term effects on their players. now that the science is contradicting that, they have been trying to get ahead of that and deal with it all the way ...

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