I gave almost every post on this thread a like. Not because I necessarily agreed with the post in full or in part, but because the discussion of this topic is absolutely essential if high school football is to continue.
Yes, we must have studies with no agenda other than science.
Yes, we have to continue to demand the evolution of rules to make the game safer.
Yes, we have to have equipment improvements that decreases the risk of injury, more specifically, brain injury.
And then, each generation of parents can decide what is an acceptable risk for their kids. That's about the long and the short of it.
Football is not a safe sport. But neither is an unsafe sport. It is a sport, pure and simple. It has risks. Everything in life has risk. You chose to participate in sports. But you also choose to pursue a vocation.
The military, police work and fire fighting, coal miners, oil field workers, construction workers, farmers; all of these have an elevated risk of serious injury. But they come with a certain level of reward and satisfaction.
Athletics are no different.
By the way, I'm 63. I had two serious concussions from childhood accidents before I ever reached football age. I played one year of JV only, and received one then too, although I didn't report it. I had several lesser ones scattered over the years since then as well. And my most recent one was about three years ago when I hit a tree limb while bending over at night in an ancient graveyard. (Don't ask!!!) This last one put my lights out. It would have been considered very serious had I not been stubborn and gone to the ER.
So if I end up with some malady related to CTE, was it the result of football? You could make that argument by saying it was the one that gave me one too many. So should I have not played that one year of football? Or maybe not slipped off the top of a slick picnic table at the age of 8? Or maybe I shouldn't have taken the Halloween tour three years ago that put me in that cemetery, head to limb with a Magnolia tree?
See my point? We need to be careful about simply blaming football.
Lafayette, I wonder why we can't have some type of helmet with a soft, energy absorbing exterior cover?