We love football. As a Valley. As a state. As a nation. Our fall weekends are designed around the game — high school on Friday nights, college on Saturday, NFL on Sundays and Mondays.
There is a certain wonderful rhythm to autumn.
But the increasingly discovered dangers associated with playing the game are threatening this beautiful relationship. We can’t feign ignorance anymore.
Not when we hear and read alarming stories about brain disease and dementia in young NFL retirees. Not when research is showing the harmful effects of numerous concussions. Not when, thankfully, the NFL is making rule changes to increase player safety.
Far more players suit up on Friday nights in towns big and small than ever dream of playing on Sundays in giant NFL stadiums — and these kids don’t always have access to the best medicine. That’s why educating coaches, players, parents and trainers is so critical.
Information is power, so let’s equip our young players with as much information as they need.
Like what are the symptoms and signs of a concussion. Like you must alert a parent, coach or trainer at the first indication of one. Like playing with a concussion is not a sign of toughness or strength, but a potentially dangerous and extremely foolish decision.
Let’s find ways to administer preseason baseline tests to as many players as possible, including those not yet in high school, so that we have information to use if a player does sustain a concussion.
Concussions happen, perhaps more frequently than we know or care to acknowledge. At Centennial High last year, 34 athletes in all sports suffered concussions, the majority of them in football.
More than 100 years ago, as myth and fact have it, United States President Teddy Roosevelt convened a summit to legislate some of the brutality out of football. As a result, the game became less violent and more popular. Today, it towers above all other sports in popularity.
Seemingly, the only way for the sport to lose its grip on the American consciousness is if parents, particularly upper- and middle-class ones, decide football is simply too dangerous. That the risks to their sons’ bodies and minds are not worth the rewards of a game.
“We don’t want the game of football to come to an end. We have to have the right things in place and the right people in place in order to be able to create an atmosphere where if a kid gets in trouble, we can take care of it the right way,” said Eric Taylor, Centennial’s athletic trainer.
That means making player safety the overriding concern for all involved in football at every level. Our Friday night football players deserve it — and we should demand it.
Brian Murphy: 377-6444
