NOT so long ago, Australian football was happy to promote the physical aspects of its collision sport. We told the north Americans about our players riding the bumps without padding ... and eagerly paid a high-profile US identity to say, "I'd like to see that."
More recently, although it seems the "The Bump Is Dead" headline has done a fair few laps of newsrooms during the past two decades, that bravado has been replaced with fear ... and frustration.
It was 2005 when Port Adelaide premiership coach Mark Williams declared 2004 Norm Smith Medallist Byron Pickett "was almost to the point he couldn't talk; (he was) distraught, not sure what he's going to do with his football career, not sure if he can play again."
"Choppy" Pickett was the poster boy for the "Bump Is Dead" headline. The AFL tribunal, in taking issue with Pickett's bone-jarring bumps, had - as Williams put it - made Pickett "unemployable". A year later, Port Adelaide moved Pickett to Melbourne where he managed 29 AFL games in two seasons.
The breaking point - not just for Pickett but Australian football - was the bump on James Begley in a pre-season Showdown ... a bump that tormented Begley long after Pickett had completed his six-game ban.
Today, Williams - moved by the medical reports on how football legend Graham "Polly" Farmer suffered from the head knocks he took on the field - would endorse banning the bump. He recently led the way on changing football rules to protect players with the outlawing of front-on contact.
Brownlow Medallist Patrick Dangerfield is at the latest fork in the road with the bump. His split-second decision to bump Adelaide defender Jake Kelly in the opening-round clash at Adelaide Oval on Saturday has sent the Geelong midfielder-forward direct to the AFL tribunal - and turned another fresh page in that thick book on the demise of the bump.
Many will acknowledge Dangerfield was playing to the theme that Australian football heavily promoted in the 1990s when the AFL was eager for people to say, "I'd like to see that!"
But the adding of Kelly to the long list of AFL players suffering concussion and most likely to find a lawyer on his door step eager to include the 26-year-old defender to a class action against the league makes the game's custodians very, very nervous.
The game's dialogue has changed.
Where AFL coaches - as noted with Williams on Pickett in 2005 - would emphasise Australian football was a highly physical sport prone to accidental injuries, they now speak of occupational health and safety.
"We are trying to do the right thing; look after the players," said Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks. "First and foremost is the health of the individuals."
The old guard will groan ... "It's a man's game remember!" (All apologies to AFLW players such as the courageous Chelsea Randall for echoing this old mantra).
Those who fear Australian football being further watered down as a contact sport will argue, "What was Dangerfield to have done? Stepped away to give Kelly a clear path for a damaging kick through the centre corridor towards the southern goal at Adelaide Oval?"
And those who have watched other sports, particularly American football, fear billion-dollar lawsuits from players suffering the long-term consequences of repeat concussions will appreciate why the AFL is nervous.
Dangerfield's tribunal hearing will be as significant as those endured by Pickett. Unlike Pickett, Dangerfield is rarely short of words. But now he is caught between defending his right to play next weekend - and his obligations as a union leader at the AFL Players' Association to protect the players' future claims in the slow-brewing legal challenges on concussion.
Prepare the "Bump Is Dead" headline for another lap.
