A "headliners" panel on Day 1 of the IMG World Congress of Sports examined the increased concern over safety and the effects that concern is having on sports and the industry. Jordan Brand President Larry Miller said that not only is such concern good for athletes, but it is also an opportunity for his company. Brown: “It’s great that player safety is now being talked about, because if you think 10 or 15 years ago, that wasn’t even being discussed. It was just, ‘Hey, you shake it off and get back out there.’ The other thing for a company like us is, it’s an innovation opportunity -- an opportunity for us to figure out ways to try to innovate to help make the games safer. And that’s one of the things we continue to focus on.” But Flames President Brian Burke voiced concern that, in the well-intentioned bid to improve safety, the game itself may be going soft. Burke: “It’s a big problem for us. Full-contact sports are under siege. Registrations in boys’ hockey are down; registrations in youth football are down. Fortunately for us, girls’ registrations are up, so the net hit to the sport is not that dramatic. We have a full-contact sport starting at a young age where hitting comes into the game and a lot of parents are saying, ‘We don’t want our kids to play this game.’ … The irony about kids and contact sports is most of us chose contact because there was contact. That’s something that’s being lost. We’re at risk of having a generation of bubble boys. Some people like contact sports and chose contact sports because there is violence in it.” Newly appointed NCAA Exec VP/Regulatory Affairs Oliver Luck said, “At the college level, one, we’re taking player safety much more seriously. But, secondly, we’re also looking at the effect that our rules at the college level have on the youth sport. We’re doing a lot of research on the dangers of early-sport specialization, so if you’re 12 years old and only playing soccer, you may be a better soccer player but a worse athlete. But there’s clearly a laser-like focus on health and safety of the student athletes.”
