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Concussion talk dominates the world of football these days. Awareness of the head injury is at an all-time high and teams are taking more precautions than ever to help players avoid them. The NFL has been in the news constantly regarding concussions and usually for negative reasons. The league was just forced to payout $765 million in a lawsuit settlement to former players. Now there’s a new book about to hit shelves that accuses the NFL of concealing information about the horrible effects of repeated blows to the head.

For the most part the concussion movement has taken place over the last decade, but it appears that one newspaper from way back in 1905 was way ahead of the curve:

Concussion news from 1905 newspaper: “But you can’t reform football.” pic.twitter.com/lkNlQX4zXs

— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) October 9, 2013

One can conclude from that small excerpt that the effects of concussions were very clear even more than 100 years ago. They didn’t have the technology at the time to say that concussions will lead to TBI or PCS, but commonsense told them that blows to the head were very bad for the human brain. So the notion that the NFL may have denied the effects concussions have on the brain make the league seem even more ridiculous and evil.

Related: With Money In Mind, NFL Considering Playoff Expansion for 2015

I’m of the belief that the game of football needs to have a waiver system in place moving forward. No matter the level of the game, players or parents need to sign off and say that they will not take legal action against the institution putting on the games. Football is a dangerous sport. If you play it, there’s a good chance you’ll never be the same. That can be physically and mentally.

Playing football is now just like smoking cigarettes. The dangers are well known. If you choose to participate, do so knowing that the consequences could be life-altering. They were saying in 1905, for crying out loud.

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