I understand completely. When I announced I was going to make the first descent of the Grand Canyon in a low volume kayak, among the kinder things I was called was "stupid," and "crazy." I had made an assessment of risk and felt that I could manage it. I might be wrong, but I had a damned good chance of proving it could be done. I know exactly what motivates these people and I don't call taking high, but manageable, risks as "stupid." Stupid is taking on risks where you either haven't assessed the risks or you are incapable of assessing them and choose to ignore them. The act, per se, is not "stupid." "Stupid" to me is taking a motorcycle into today's traffic. Why? It's because you don't hold the risks in your own hands. You're trusting thousands of people around you surrounded by tons of steel - and a large portion of them are, well "stupid." When I fully realized that, I quit doing it. I think just dismissing these athletes by calling them and what they do as "stupid" just demonstrates lack of insight. In the last week, a young man from a good family here, who had to play a couple of years at a small college before he transferred to Bama to play mostly ST committed suicide because he realized that he was losing it mentally from past concussions and didn't want to live through it. He was in his early '30s. So, is playing American-style football "stupid?" Probably 99.9% of the world's population would answer "yes." It's all a matter of one's perspective. Life with no risk would be, IMO, like a life of eating Pablum... YMMV...