Sweep sweep
The soccer crowd are going to have to ban heading the ball, hapes of lads walking around who can’t remember their own name.
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Definitely took a few years off the Danish centre halves lives Saturday night.
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I havent watched Shearer’s programme, does the new ball still have the same effect ? It’s as light as a balloon … or was the gist of it all the old lads who were heading a brick were hard done by?
Ryan Crotty signing in from the Bledisloe game.
I see former Glasgow Celtic player from the Jock Stein era, Jim Brogan passed away recently. Yet another soccer player who lost his retirement years to dementia from heading a soccer ball. When are the soccer authorities going to face up their concussion epidemic and ban the heading of soccer balls?
Former Celtic and Scotland player Jim Brogan, who had been suffering from dementia in recent years, died yesterday at the age of 74.
His older brother, Frank, was already on the books at Parkhead when Jim was signed by then manager Jimmy McGrory from St Rochs in 1963 and they made two appearances together for the first team before Frank, a striker, moved to Ipswich Town.
Jim’s breakthrough came at the age of 19 when he and Frank were selected to start in a 1-0 defeat by Falkirk at Brockville. He would go on to spend 12 years in and out of the first team, not establishing himself as a regular choice until the 1968/69 campaign. His perseverance was rewarded; he made 341 appearances for Celtic, winning seven Scottish titles, four Scottish Cups and three League Cups as well as appearing in a European final.
His versatility both helped and hindered his progress. He could play at full-back, in the centre of defence or in midfield with equal facility and he was able to back up his skill with an aggressive approach which made him a favourite with the fans.
It says much for him that he would go on to replace not one but two Lisbon Lions. Initially, he took the place of sweeper John Clark and then, once the late Tommy Gemmell fell out of favour in 1971, he became the club’s first-choice left-back.
That same year he won all four of his Scotland caps, making his debut against Eusebio in a 2-0 defeat by Portugal and also playing in the 3-1 loss to England at Wembley, a game he competed in spite of suffering a hairline fracture of the leg. It proved to be his annus mirabilis as he was also voted the runner-up to Aberdeen’s Martin Buchan as Player of the Year by the Scottish Football Writers’ Association while Celtic won the league and Scottish Cup double.
The previous season also provided Brogan with his biggest disappointment when, having nullified the threat of Leeds United’s Allan Clarke and Mick Jones in the semi-final of the European Cup, he was part of Jock Stein’s side which lost 2-1 to Feyenoord after extra-time in the final at the San Siro Stadium in Milan.
Unfortunately, he sustained an injury during the first minute of that match but, having missed out in Lisbon three years earlier, he was determined to play on and did so for the full two hours, although his effectiveness was reduced.
Brogan scored just nine times for Celtic, with his most memorable goal being the header from Harry Hood’s cross for a last-minute winner over Rangers at Parkhead in January, 1972.
He lost his place to Andy Lynch in 1975, the year in which Rangers prevented Celtic from winning a tenth successive title, and was released that summer, although not before Stein allowed him to captain the side in his final appearance, a 2-2 draw against Rangers in the Glasgow Cup final in front of 70,000 supporters.
Brogan tried his luck in England with Coventry City before returning home in 1976 to end his career with Ayr United. He retired in 1978, establishing Jim Brogan Enterprises and becoming a millionaire with a number of public houses in Glasgow and the Falkirk area.
However, he suffered from dementia since the early Noughties, a condition his family believe was caused by repeatedly heading the ball during his playing career.
Former team-mate Jim Craig, pictured inset, part of the European Cup-winning team in 1967, paid tribute to him last night.
“Jim was a very good player but it was 1968/69 before he became a mainstay alongside Billy McNeill,” he said. “He was one of the most enthusiastic players I ever lined up alongside and he had a mouth on him, which you needed to have in order to survive in our dressing room.
“Jim could hold his own in any argument and he was a real talent. I can only extend my best wishes to his family.”
sweep sweep sweep
Soccer buries the head in the sand with it comes to its concussion problem. You see it with soccer types here. They throw barbs at rugby union, a sport which takes the issue of concussion seriously and has proper protocols. When there’s a serious instance of concussion in soccer like what the Liverpool goalkeeper Karius suffered in the European Cup final last season, when he was made play on, he just becomes a figure of ridicule.
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Jesus thats terrible sad altogether.
Doesnt appear to be much interest in the story on here. But Glasgow Celtic appear to have reverted to being a Scottish team this season. Of course concussion is only a topic of discussion when it comes to some sports. Youd want to really dislike your kids to allow them to head a football repeatedly
Every contact sport has the potential for serious head injury and concussions.
I saw a fella get sparked out in a game of basketball. An elbow down the top of the head.
Jim Brogan is the latest in a long list of former soccer players who ended up with early Alzheimer’s attributed to repeated heading of the ball. Why are the soccer authorities not confronting this life threatening risk that their sport carries? Two possible solutions here. Outlaw heading of a soccer ball or introduce the compulsory wearing of protective headgear.
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Agreed. And not just contact sports. You wouldn’t know that from TFK though
Is the ball lighter these days mate?
That’s mitigated some what by modern footballs. Those old mitres were heavy and held the wet.
I think there are conclusive studies to show heading a football repeatedly over the course of a career at say centre back does have repercussions.
You can’t take heading out of it. Unfortunately there’s a stigma attached to wearing headgear or gumshields in soccer. Most lads wouldn’t wear shin pads given the choice.
Much lighter, you’d end up buried to your waist heading one of those old mitres u-10s
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A stigma wearing headgear or gumshields in soccer? There was a stigma to wearing helmets in hurling too. Real men apparently didn’t wear them. The GAA got serious about player welfare and put an end to that nonsense.
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Are there any other sports that expect you to use your head to make contact with a moving object in an effort to move that object on.
It’s really really dumb when you think about it.
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Well there was when I was playing. A lad I played with wore gum shields as he spent a fortune getting his delf done, the poor cunt got dogs abuse for it, teammates and opposition.
That was long winded way of saying “head a ball”.
None that spring to mind, although I’ve headed a fair amount of kickouts in my time