This is the start of the year where high school football becomes a bit deal for a lot of people, and its of course closely followed by parents and siblings who have family members playing football. That's fine, and to be expected. It's also the season where old alumni follow the games of their old schools, including high schools, and of course universities.
One of the things I've noted before in regards to this is that the best evidence is that American football has a hideous head injury rate. Frankly, playing football is very dangerous for youth. It simply is. It amazes me, as an observer, how adults will worry a great deal about injury from activities that a person is highly unlikely to be injured at, and not at all from one where the injury rate is high. I've heard, for example, parents worry about kids becoming interested in shooting sports, but at the same time feel that football is just fine. A person is much more likely to be injured playing football that shooting or hunting.
I'm not campaigning for something here, but I'm making this post to note that the National Football League has released a study that finds 30% of its players will suffer from Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, with the suggestion being that this is due to game related head injuries. To be fair to the NFL, almost every single player in the NFL was a college player and a high school player before that.
Now, I'm not saying that we should ban high school football, or college ball. But as a person who is so disinterested in football that I just can't follow a game no matter how hard I try, I have to admit that every time I see a young person I know suited up in a football uniform, it inspires concern in me.
Seems pretty self evident that the head injuries associated with this sport are a present danger to the players, and that needs to be addressed right away. No amount of grid iron glory will seem worth it when a person starts to suffer neurological deficits.
1 comment:
As a lifelong football fan, specifically for one NFL team (LOL!), this is a topic I'm quite familiar with. Injuries have always plagued football. I think one of the reasons for this is the number of people on the field at any given time (11 per team, 22 total during a single play). Additionally, football is an extremely physical sport, with bodies essentially crashing against each other. Due to the simple physics at play, there are bound to be injuries...a body in motion crashing into another body in motion, both of them absorbing the forces of the other and coming to a stop, almost always at some awkward position of the body of one or the other. Knee and leg injuries are constant as are arm and shoulder injuries. However, the issue of head injuries has become more and more of an issue over the past several years and one that the NFL and all levels of football have had to deal with. Not that head injuries didn't happen before that, it was simply a matter of not understanding that head injuries were happening but the effects of them were not being seen until many many years later. There are numerous former NFL players that have had early onset of dementia of various forms, other neurological issues, depression, and even suicide. This doesn't take into account the number of high school athletes that have suffered some sort of issue as a result of head injuries. One of my friends was participating in practice for his college football team prior to the start of school for his freshman year and suffered two concussions (this was more than 15 years ago), one right after the other. His coaches made him sit out and not participate in the practices. He was not enthused about this idea, but it probably saved him from suffering any more serious injuries or long term effects of the concussions. The NFL has been working hard (though probably not hard enough) to create a culture of "heads up" tackling in the lowest levels of pee wee football through college and the NFL. There are heavy penalties, both in yardage during a game and fines for individual players, when a defender tackles a "defenseless" receiver and/or tackles by leading with the head. It is an uphill battle to change how someone tackles when they have done so in a certain way for so long. But, if the culture changes and the technique of tackling changes at the lowest levels, the younger players will play in such a way as to prevent many of the head injuries from happening. However, I don't think this will eliminate all of the head injuries that happen. My two cents for what it's worth.
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