Should we be playing contact football in high schools? an editorial by Graham
Images curtesy Mark Cooper, Bedford
Road
High school football games are usually some of the most well attended
and advertised events. Some may argue that this is due to sheer school spirit;
however, few can disagree that they find it fun to watch one team physically
dominate the other. The one question we should be asking ourselves as we should
be asking ourselves is how far is too
far?
Studies, much like a recent one out of Boston University, are
starting to solidify the link between CTE (Chronic Traumatic
Encephalopathy), and contact football. In 110
out of 111 deceased NFL players whose brains were donated, advanced stages of
CTE were present. This is a disease that mimics Alzheimer’s and dementia in
patients decades too young to have those symptoms. This isn’t even the scariest
finding, the study also looked at the brains of high school football players,
and found advanced CTE in 4 out if 14, and starting signs in many others.
Other than CTE, the repeated head
and body trauma that comes with contact football, even at the high school
level, can lead to severe concussions and other debilitating injuries. Many of
these ailments can severely detract from school on top of their physical
symptoms. In a study done under postdoctoral fellow Danielle Ransom, researchers
found that 77% of students who had received a concussion (or similar injury)
had trouble taking notes and focusing in class shortly after their recovery,
and 88% had severe trouble during their recovery. A secondary injury before
recovery is complete can worsen the effects and increase recovery time. High
school football players are prone to “Multi-concussions”, and according to
other researchers at Harvard, this is because many go un-diagnosed. “Since
there are normally just five guys that play the offensive line position, a lot
of times you just don’t want to come out of the game at all,” NFL player Justin
Pough sums up the reason for a lack of diagnosis perfectly.
With football (and other such
sports) being originally introduced in to schools to teach teamwork and
communication, and concussions and other debilitating brain injury on the
table, is it really worth the risk putting our children’s long term health at
risk?
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