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Why are idiots better football players?

Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:21 pm
Posted by Smokey Okie
Member since Jul 2024
1046 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:21 pm
It is widely assumed that stupid people are better football players than intelligent people. Why is this?

Teams like Yale, Vanderbilt, Harvard, etc..., jn modern times, don't have good teams and the reason given for that is because they don't allow stupid players to participate. They have higher standards, supposedly, and smart people can't play football very well.

Teams like auburn, that used to regularly put mentally retarded individuals on their team were good at one time. Their school motto used to be that auburn players didn't come to the plains to play school.

Are stupid people stronger, like with stupid strength or something? Can the idiots run faster because their brains don't work right? Are dullards somehow better able to grasp the integral details of football strategy than more intelligent players?

If everything were equal and you had a full team of smart, athletic people vs. a full team of dumb, athletic people, why do the morons always have the assumed advantage?
Posted by Crowknowsbest
Member since May 2012
26186 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:28 pm to
In order to be good at most positions in football, you have to be at least a little reckless. Smart people are less likely to be reckless and violent than dumb people. Obviously that is a huge generalization and doesn’t always hold true.

For Ivy League type schools specifically, the bigger issue is that they are only looking at the top 1% academically, and there are not many people within that subset who have the athletic traits necessary to be an elite football player. When Alabama, Georgia, etc. are open to taking a far less qualified student, that opens of the pool of possible athletic prospects by a huge amount.
Posted by Crowknowsbest
Member since May 2012
26186 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:30 pm to
quote:

If everything were equal and you had a full team of smart, athletic people vs. a full team of dumb, athletic people, why do the morons always have the assumed advantage?

In this example, the smart and athletic people would win, but nobody can assemble a team of that many elite athletes who are also very smart. There aren’t that many people like that in the population.
Posted by Bigbens42
Trussvegas
Member since Nov 2013
7160 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:30 pm to
Reuben Foster matriculated at Bama lol.
Posted by Smokeyone
Maryville Tn
Member since Jul 2016
18677 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:31 pm to
It’s more about putting an emphasis on sports vs just not. Sports at all costs vs academics at all cost.

The goal is to strike a balance. You want to graduate kids and not be in news for stupid stuff and you want compete and win at a high level.
Posted by Summer of Jimbo
Amateur Statistician
Member since Oct 2022
1386 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:31 pm to
quote:

stupid people are better football players


Holy shite Stephen must be an All American
Posted by lewis and herschel
Member since Nov 2009
12389 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:33 pm to
So people talk about the down side to.mental illness or not being well adjusted, which is the goal of mental health is for people to adjust and fit in, not carrying allows for the egos of people to be really good at certain things, sports, politics, ceos etc.... a little narcissim and sociopathic ways tends to put people in the penthouse or prison.
Posted by Quicksilver
Poker Room
Member since Jan 2013
11200 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:34 pm to
Why are idiots better at a sport where they effectively turn their bodies into weapons and risk life altering injury on every play? Great question
Posted by jangalang
Member since Dec 2014
40543 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:35 pm to
Reuben Foster says hi
Posted by Smokey Okie
Member since Jul 2024
1046 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:37 pm to
quote:

Why are idiots better at a sport where they effectively turn their bodies into weapons and risk life altering injury on every play? Great question


So smart players, that attend colleges with high academic standards, don't fully engage in the game of football because they are scared of injury?
This post was edited on 8/1/24 at 4:38 pm
Posted by BevoBucks
H-town
Member since Dec 2022
5247 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:39 pm to
quote:

It is widely assumed that stupid people are better football players than intelligent people. Why is this?
Whoever assumes this hasn’t spent much time around NFL players. There are always freak athlete exceptions, but pro football’s generally a high IQ sport.
Posted by Smokey Okie
Member since Jul 2024
1046 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:40 pm to
quote:

Reuben Foster says hi


Kenny and David Irons could not count to five and stated they didn't know what numbers or letters were.
Posted by Smokey Okie
Member since Jul 2024
1046 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:43 pm to
quote:

Whoever assumes this hasn’t spent much time around NFL players. There are always freak athlete exceptions, but pro football’s generally a high IQ sport.


Okay. You are saying that only the most intellectually developed players from college reach the NFL.

I hadn't considered this.
Posted by DownOnWashington
Tulsa
Member since Jul 2022
350 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:44 pm to
For this generation kids with less resources play outside more compared to a suburb area, and then football/athletics is the ticket for income. If they’ve had to fight a lot with others/domestic stuff then there’s no hesitation for aggression.

I remember those highschool football bus rides to a sketchy part in Houston like Northshore or Hightower and thinking these kids are playing for jobs lol.

Players/familes are still recruited in those sketch areas and paid to move from schools like Katy, The Woodland. Happens everywhere in Dallas/Austin and I’m sure in Florida too.



Posted by Gunga Din
Oklahoma
Member since Jul 2020
2014 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:44 pm to
The smartest people don't play football...

They just post on message boards and watch stupid people play football.
Posted by jangalang
Member since Dec 2014
40543 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:44 pm to
quote:

Kenny and David Irons could not count to five and stated they didn't know what numbers or letters were.

You also made up the Heisman roots.

#NotShocking
Posted by CharlotteSooner
Member since Mar 2016
12339 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:45 pm to
Widely assumed by whom? I've never heard that.
Posted by BevoBucks
H-town
Member since Dec 2022
5247 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:48 pm to
quote:

Okay. You are saying that only the most intellectually developed players from college reach the NFL.
Absolutely. If a guy can’t study film and immediately comprehend/apply corrections on the fly, he better be one of the best athletes on the field. And, sometimes even that’s not enough.

The other guys are just too good and the calls and concepts are too complex. One of your own, Will Anderson, is a great example of the kind of intelligence it takes to succeed in the League.
Posted by Smokey Okie
Member since Jul 2024
1046 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 4:56 pm to
quote:


For this generation kids with less resources play outside more compared to a suburb area, and then football/athletics is the ticket for income. If they’ve had to fight a lot with others/domestic stuff then there’s no hesitation for aggression.

I remember those highschool football bus rides to a sketchy part in Houston like Northshore or Hightower and thinking these kids are playing for jobs lol.

Players/familes are still recruited in those sketch areas and paid to move from schools like Katy, The Woodland. Happens everywhere in Dallas/Austin and I’m sure in Florida too.


That's something to consider and a very good point. Maybe that is why genuinely poor and destitute players in times past, not what we consider poor today, were so tough.

Just as an example, since I am an Alabama fan, let's consider Bear Bryant. He came from horrible desperation and abject poverty that saw him and his mother selling vegetables on the side of the road out of the back of a horse and buggy rig. Many of the more "well to do" kids of the time turned their nose up at him and his kind.

He didn't have shoes to wear, literally didn't own a pair of shoes, when Bama recruiters drove up to get him from Moro Bottom.

He was a great college football player though and even took the field with a completely broken leg.

I think your theory is the best one I've seen proposed so far.

This post was edited on 8/1/24 at 4:59 pm
Posted by Smokey Okie
Member since Jul 2024
1046 posts
Posted on 8/1/24 at 5:00 pm to
quote:

Widely assumed by whom? I've never heard that.


You've never encountered the argument that teams which belong to schools with low academic standards somehow have a great advantage over those with high standards?
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