According to one study, there were 500,000 injuries to students playing football last year. Many of those injuries were muscle sprains and strains, but at least a quarter were concussion-related -- and others were serious injuries like spinal cord damage.
Many Americans may not want to admit it, but football is a dangerous sport. And these student athletes are not professionals, who know the dangers and are willing to subject themselves to that danger for a lucrative contract. They are high school students -- children who are participating in an extracurricular activity. And a high school extracurricular activity should not result in death or serious injury. Something must be done about this.
Can football be made a safer activity? How can that be achieved? I honestly don't know. But we need to find out. And three congressmen (2 Democrats and a Republican) are introducing a bill to find out. Their bill would mandate that the CDC form a committee to investigate high school football, and make hard recommendations on whether and how it could be made safer. This is a good bill, and it should be passed as quickly as possible -- without playing any political games with it.
I don't know if football can be made safer for student-athletes. I'm a fan, and I certainly hope so. But if it can't be done, then we have a hard choice to make. Is an extracurricular activity that kills and maims high school students worth doing?
(NOTE -- The image above is by Carly Strauss. Her artwork can be viewed at carlystraussartist.com.)