NFL still considering scheduling options, Week 18 unchanged

Yeah @Bronco. We all know where you WANT to go with this. Do you have no shame?

According to one study on U.S. high school and college football in the National Library of Medicine, fatalities averaged 12.2 per year, or 1 per 100,000 participants, and that's not including lifelong bodily injuries.

It's a rough sport. I played and had my bell rung several times. If I had a son knowing what I know today, I'd encourage him to play soccer instead.

Just out of curiosity, are these fatality figures similar for rugby?

A complete and thorough investigation needs to be conducted as to what caused an otherwise healthy 24 year old man to suddenly go into cardiac arrest.

Here's a possible cause:

"Buffalo Bills' Damar Hamlin's heart was most likely healthy before collapse - The right hit at the wrong time may have triggered a rare phenomenon known as commotio cordis, heart experts suggest."

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cardiac-arrest-causes-buffalo-bills-damar-hamlin-rcna64020

A potential cause of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's jarring collapse and cardiac arrest — witnessed in real time by millions of viewers of "Monday Night Football" — was immediately recognized by heart experts who also happened to be watching the game.

While there are several potential causes for Hamlin's cardiac arrest, cardiologists suggested that a rare phenomenon called "commotio cordis" was to blame.

In such cases, "there is nothing wrong with the heart," said Dr. Hari Tandri, the director of the cardiac arrhythmia program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. A healthy heart, when hit with blunt force at a specific time, Tandri said, can launch into an abnormal and potentially deadly rhythm.

A spokesperson for the American Heart Association, Dr. Comilla Sasson, an emergency medicine physician in Denver, said: "It's not about how hard of a hit it was. It's actually about the timing of when the blow happens."

Normally, the heart pumps oxygen-rich blood throughout the body about every second. There is a rhythm to the process, keeping the blood flowing at a healthy pace. But every time the heart beats, there is a tiny moment — less than a fifth of a second — that makes it vulnerable to the force of a projectile, such as a hockey puck or a baseball, that can lead to a chaotic and potentially deadly heart rhythm.

It is in this exact moment, experts say, that a blow to the chest in the exact right place can launch an otherwise healthy person into cardiac arrest. The heart's electrical system malfunctions, and the heartbeat rhythm goes haywire.

If there are no interleague games on the final weekend (Weekend 18) and I am pretty sure there are not (the plan was to have all divisions have intra-divisional games on the last weekend), then this is really just an AFC problem. Let the NFC stay on its normal schedule and the conference winner gets two weeks off before the Super Bowl; the AFC teams will all get a bye week while they make up this Bengals-Bills game but the conference winner will get no bye week before the Super Bowl. Having a rest right now for all potential playoff teams will produce better football in January than a planned rest for just the conference champion the first weekend in February.