DELL COMMENTARY: Are we running out of Super Bowls?
The whispers can now be heard across the room. The fears can be felt in every corner of the country.
The Super Bowl turns 50 years old this Sunday amid a growing narrative it will never live to celebrate its centennial.
This is not idle gossip.
The list of current and former players who said they will not allow their sons to play includes quarterbacks Troy Aikman, Kurt Warner, Drew Brees and Terry Bradshaw.
Though he has no sons, Brett Favre said he would do the same. Even Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson agreed.
No more NFL? No more Super Bowl?
What once was considered a sacrilegious thought has changed into a doomsday forecast by former players supported by data that participation at the grassroots level is diminishing.
"I wouldn't be surprised if football isn't around in 20, 25 years," former Pittsburgh Steelers Antwaan Randle El recently told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Fears of concussions and other injuries interspersed with NFL players retiring early have given this argument legitimacy.
It makes watching Carolina's Cam Newton in this Super Bowl all the more intriguing because he is taking more chances and playing more daringly than any quarterback in league history.
Newton is a bright, articulate young man who has proven to be quite an entertainer to go along with his football skills.
But there is a concern. Can we protect Newton from himself?
Newton plays with the daring of a trapeze artist without a net. He is known for somersaults that often have him landing on his head or neck, leaving us to breathe a sigh of relief it didn't end with a catastrophic injury.
Newton does this more often than needed, but he is young, incredibly durable and strong and doesn't seem affected. At least for now.
Quarterbacks are not immune to brain injuries that have afflicted players at other positions.
Last July, four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Kenny Stabler died. His autopsy showed Stabler had stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease believed caused by repeated blows to the head.
Stabler played in the NFL from 1970 to '84 and won the Super Bowl with the Oakland Raiders in 1976. He is the seventh NFL quarterback found to have CTE.
Henry Lawrence, Manatee County's most successful NFL player with three Super Bowl victories, blocked for Stabler. A former offensive lineman, he is constantly dealing with some physical ailment from his playing days.
"One day it might be my knees or an ankle, foot or back and then my head," Lawrence said. "When I played, I had a couple of concussions and had my bell rung a few times. Back then they gave you smelling salts and put you back in the game. I have a lot of headaches these days. I go to meetings today with former players and see the older guys walking with canes and rollers and half can't get up without any assistance."
More than 100 former NFL players have been diagnosed with CTE, including seven members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Fewer parents are allowing their children to play football and a significant number of NFL players are ending their careers prematurely.
Nationally Pop Warner participation dropped 9.5 percent from 2010 to 2012 losing 23,612 participants according to an ESPN Outside The Lines report. The number of male high school football players has fallen 2.4 percent to 1.08 million from 2010 to 2015.
It's up to the NFL to save the game by making it safer despite outcries from football purists who want more bone-crunching hits. It is moving at a snail's pace.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, at his annual state of the league address, downplayed the fear with an argument you would expect to hear from a grammar school student.
"There is risk in everything. There is risk sitting on the couch," he said.
Yes, he actually said that, but maybe his couch is 100-yards long with goalposts.
On players retiring early because of safety concerns, Goodell said: "if you lose your passion, maybe it's time to move on."
Last year, 19 NFL players age 30 or younger retired from the NFL. Four year previous the number was five. Since 2011, there have been 69 players retire at age 30 or younger.
So enjoy the Super Bowl and a match made in heaven between Cam Newton and the crafty veteran Peyton Manning, who can't seem to walk away from the game.
It's a great spectacle and we love it. We just don't know how many Super Bowls are left.
Alan Dell, Herald sports columnist/writer, can be reached at 941-745-7057. Follow him on Twitter @ADellSports
This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "DELL COMMENTARY: Are we running out of Super Bowls? ."