Hear me, and fear me, for I have spoken.

Young at risk

A neurosurgeon I was sitting besides at a Waratahs match three months ago gave me the firm prediction that NFL would stop in America within five years, by simple dint of the fact that legal action would wipe out the pursuit with devastating consequences for its practitioners. It seemed a wild prediction at the time. Although I've seen up close some of those consequences, with the cameras rolling, it didn't seem that mainstream America truly cared. Things are changing before our very eyes, however. Just last week, the NFL acknowledged in court documents that a staggering 28 per cent of its players would develop dementia because of repeated concussions. This week, Time magazine has a cover story featuring the death of a 16 year-old football player, with the tagline, "IS FOOTBALL WORTH IT?"

The short answer: probably not, with the growing awareness of the devastating dangers, most particularly when, of 1.1 million high school players at any given time, no fewer than 67,000 report concussions in any given season. And that is just "reported!" As one who played a season at offensive tackle for a high school team in Ohio, defending a Trans Am driving quarterback who deserved nothing more than a smack in the chops – but I digress – I am surprised the figure isn't higher. For beyond the knockout blows, I remember only too well what they call the "white buzz" – the feeling inside your cocoon of a helmet as you took repeated blows from other helmeted players, both during the game and, more particularly, the constant training. And therein lie the latest blows to the game itself, as they realise it is that kind of activity that does most of the damage – not the showstoppers, requiring stretchers, but the constant brain-rattling. This week, the Guardian featured an expert from Purdue University, Professor Eric Nauman, director of the Human Injury Research and Regenerative Technologies laboratory, reporting they had found what amounted to brain damage in football players as young as 14 or 15. They quoted a colleague, Professor Tom Talavage, maintaining that OVER 50 PER CENT of the student football players they had studied "exhibit appreciable changes in brain neurophysiology that can persist for up to two years beyond the time at which the athlete ceases to participate in the sport, perhaps longer".

Of course, when they go on to college football, the brains of many of them never recover. Will the neurosurgeon's prediction come true? I don't know, but with those stats now circulating in mainstream America, you'd have to wonder if any dinkum parent would continue to allow junior to play. Watch this space.

Hackett's back

The AFR reported on Friday that Grant Hackett has now left Westpac – his decision, not theirs – to return to co-hosting duties with Kenny Sutcliffe on Wide World of Sports.

Trash-talking Toni

This week, Rafael Nadal's uncle and coach Toni Nadal criticised the appointment of a woman as the captain of Spain's Davis Cup team. Tell them what you said, Senor. "It eees preferable that [the captain] is someone with a background in the world of men's tennis. I have nothing against her, I don't know what her capabilities are, and I hope she does her job well, but in theory she is a person that doesn't know men's tennis, because men's tennis isn't the same as women's tennis. The truth is that the men's game isn't the same as the women's game on the tactical level, not that one is better than the other."

Quickly! Pass the bullhorn.

Senor Nadal! Senor Nadal!

Do not move. I repeat No Mueva!

You have wandered into a freaking MINEFIELD here, and one step in any direction will see you rest in pieces. Stay right where you are, and we are going to send in a chopper with a medical team to get you out. (Just quietly, though, between us girls, in the Cone of Silence represented by these parentheses, is his point half-fair? Could it be that the men's and women's version of tennis are so distinctly different that, on a balance of payments, it is likely that one with a background in male tennis would have a better grasp of it? No? I thought not, all along! Perish the thought, and let's go for his throat.That miserable misogynistic bastard!)

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz

What They Said

SMH's Adrian Proszenko's opening paragraph after the Manly-Canterbury match: "There was plenty of feeling in this one. You could feel the niggle, the sledge, the hate. And that was just between Manly's senior playing group in the warm up." I wish I had said that, Oscar.

Hawthorn captain Luke Hodge, after being congratulated by one of the commentators for a smother when Port Adelaide were raiding the 50 metres in a last-ditch attempt to potentially score and win the game from way behind: "Mate I was just so exhausted I tripped and fell on the ball."

"I've heard this is Australia's biggest fashion event, it's about football, right?" Geoffrey Edelsten's partner this month, Gabi Grecko, turning up at the Brownlow, a few seconds after the outer portions of her bodice. 

"It was a very emotional day for Scottish people and the whole country and the whole of the UK – it was a big day. The way it was worded, the way I sent it, is not really in my character. I don't normally do stuff like that. So, yeah, I was a bit disappointed by that ..." Andy Murray appears to go to water, or worse – weak as piss? – after taking a bollocking on social media for his outspoken tweet of last week supporting Scottish independence.

Sea Eagles NSW Cup coach Luke Williamson on ABC Grandstand takes the yellow jersey in the 2014 Tour de Australie Mixed Metaphor comp and may be hard to catch from here: "He's been thrown into the coal face."

I'll smoke what FIFA president Sepp Blatter is smoking: "Since the reforms, we have had an exemplary organisation in ethics ... we have two chambers ... with independent chairmen. We are the only sports organisation which has this independent body for ethics ..."

Michel Platini on being asked to return a £16,000 watch the Brazilian Football Confederation gave out to FIFA members: "I'm a well-educated person. I don't return gifts. If the [FIFA] ethics committee was not pleased, they should've told us that four months ago in Brazil, when we received the watches." Platini, by the by, voted for Qatar to hold the 2022 World Cup.

FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger: "My personal belief is that the World Cup 2022 will ultimately not take place in Qatar [because of the heat]." Qatar is hot? Bloody hell, why weren't we TOLD?

Paul Azinger targets Rory McIlroy as the key to Europe winning the Ryder Cup: "This Ryder Cup is very straightforward; beat McIlroy, win Ryder Cup. I'm targeting McIlroy, I want him to know he's being targeted and I want us to go all William Wallace on his ass."

All Black five-eighth Aaron Cruden on being suspended by the team: "I made a poor decision regarding the limits of my alcohol intake. I am deeply embarrassed by this lack of judgment and have never been more disappointed in myself."

Just retired Knight "Waltzing" Matt Hilder looking back on the impact of Nathan Tinkler and his troops on the club: "People came into the club and had never stepped foot in the town before. All of a sudden they're telling people who'd been there for 20 years what to do. It didn't sit very well with me. But who was I to say anything?"

Time magazine's front-page question, focusing on the devastating statistics of damage from concussion: "Is football worth it?"

Nick Cummins, aka "the Honey Badger" on a possible comeback to Super Rugby from playing for a soft drink company club in Japan: "It's on the cards. It comes down to an agreement with my Japanese club and what they are going to say; if it's something that can be in the best interests of Coca-Cola and myself." From caricature to Coca-Cola in just 10 years.

Headline in Friday's SMH: "VICTORIA BECKHAM SPEAKS AT THE UN". Shoot me.

Team of the Week 

The Swans. A measure of just how far they've come is the lack of hoopla this time, for making their way through to the grand final. Very matter of fact. These days, the heavy emotion comes when they don't make it, not when they do. They play Hawthorn on Saturday.

Lance Franklin. Looking to become the first player in 89 years to win back to back VFL/AFL premierships with different clubs. Has emerged this year as the superstar of the game.

North Queensland Cowboys. Another year, another controversial finals exit – their third in a row – after controversial refereeing decisions.

Patrick Hunt. The Sydneysider has been appointed chairman of the Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA) technical commission.

Mitch Marsh. Playing for the Perth Scorchersin the opening match of the Twenty20 Champions League in India on Saturday, he needed to hit successive sixes off the final two balls of the day to beat the South African Dolphins and ... wham, bam, thank you Ma'am ... did so!

Woy Woy Rugby Club. Won the central coast premiership beating minor premiers Ourimbah 36-12, after knocking out regular winners Avoca and club champions Terrigal on the preceding two Saturdays. Third Grade also won. Congrats to team and coach Paul Gooley. Last year they did not win a single match in all three grades.

Terapii Nikoro. The young centre for Leeton Galloping Greens rugby league side was badly injured last Sunday in the Group 20 U/18 grand final – damaging his C3 vertebra – and is in St Vincents for treatment. Leeton has set up a fund to help with medical bills, which you can Google.

Matt Priddis. Third Eagle to win the Brownlow Medal.

New England Girls School. Announced its intention to institute a school-wide concussion management program later this year, with symptom checklists and computerised testing as part of the students' regular PE classes. Leading the way in Australia.

Old Iggies Colts. Playing the Mosman Whales Colts in the grand final, they were down 28-nil and, frankly, had been lucky to get to nil. But then they came alive, and ended up 28-all at full time, before scoring three tries in extra time to make it 47-35.