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[Freedom = $1.05]

Among the spectacles of our sports-entertainment complex, there are only two in which people are regularly killed — not accidentally, but directly as a result of that sport’s essential identity and, more ghoulishly, that sport’s essential public appeal. One of them is auto racing. The other is American football. Of the two, there is only one in which children are now regularly killed. That sport is not auto racing. That sport is American football. This weekend, the sport killed another child.

On Friday night, Evan Murray, a 17-year-old student at Warren Hills Regional High School in New Jersey and the quarterback of that school’s football team, died after being hit in the course of a game against Summit High School. Murray was able to walk off the field, as is regularly said during football telecasts, “under his own power.” Murray collapsed on the sideline. He was carried into an ambulance and later died. The specific cause of death was massive internal bleeding from a lacerated spleen. The general cause of death is that Evan “took a hard hit.” He got “blown up.” He got the “shit knocked out of him.” Evan is dead because he played American football. Period.

Too much of American journalism — and, therefore, too much of what Americans think they know about their country — is corrupted by a kind of anesthetic generality. To cover American sports while boycotting football is to make a conscious choice to ignore the most garish form of the basic commodification of human beings that is fundamental to all of the games. At the same time, that same moral calculation requires an acknowledgement that the essence of American football is the destruction of the human body and that it alone among the institutions of sports spectacles involves the death of children. Martial had it easier, covering the games that he did. The athletes he wrote about were at least fully grown.

It is difficult to acknowledge the loss of Evan Murray, but it is easier to mourn his death than to truly acknowledge what his loss means, because that would require us all to reckon with our complicity in it. There are people who can walk away from the game as fans, as executives, and even as players, although far too few of the latter do it until it is too late. But some of us are obligated to chronicle this moment in time, when our true national game stares into the abyss until the abyss looks back, and some of us are required to continue to bear witness to the phenomenon in which some people get enormously wealthy, in which some people take great, vicarious joy, and in which some of our children die.

there is more at the link. If my child tries to get into this sport i'm either going to wrap them entirely in bubble wrap over their gear or ask them to please for the love of all that is good work on his/her jumpshot

 

[Buffmuffin]

Sad story, but if my kid wants to play I'll let them.

 

[Sulik2]

And this is why I find it increasingly difficult to justify watching football.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

My youngest brother plays high school football and I was surprised at how much bigger and stronger the kids look these days than 10 years ago when I was that age. I would not want to be across the line of many of them even when I was at my strongest and most fit.

 

[Infernostew]

I remember reading a lot about this when it happened since I live around this area. Crazy stuff.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Sad story, but if my kid wants to play I'll let them.

Regardless of the well-documented medical risks?

 

[Jag]

there is more at the link. If my child tries to get into this sport i'm either going to wrap them entirely in bubble wrap over their gear or ask them to please for the love of all that is good work on his/her jumpshot

My son just started High School and wanted to play football. He played in middle school, but we won't let him play high school.

 

[Baraka in the White House]

My youngest brother plays high school football and I was surprised at how much bigger and stronger the kids look these days than 10 years ago when I was that age. I would not want to be across the line of many of them even when I was at my strongest and most fit.

It also doesn't help that many players WANT to hurt each other.

 

[Rabbi_Vole]

My father broke his back playing football so i was forbidden to play in school.

 

[Hex]

My personal belief is that the mentality of the parents and the culture behind it is the biggest monster.
Parents see dollar signs and fame. Schools take the pride to excess, as do communities to the point of brawls at times.
These are kids, but they are driven and ridden to be much more than just kids and to make it far more than just a game and push themselves.
Failure is huge, and thus aches and pains do not get mentioned. Kids "suck it up" when they should take some time to recover.
And it is always on to the next practice between games.
It is a crazy lifestyle.

 

[The Lamonster]

Martial arts are way more dangerous. Just sayin'

 

[Kill3r7]

I love football and played some in high school but there is no way I would let my kid play. The sport is just too dangerous.

 

[Hex]

Martial arts are way more dangerous. Just sayin'

I am hoping that you are being sarcastic in there somewhere...somehow...

 

[GraveRobberX]

High school football has become lucrative

Just look at some Texas High School football stadiums, even some colleges don't have the resources they get

Friday Night Lights and Varsity Blues peak behind the curtain more in a drama sense with a lot of truth sprinkled around it

Also kids getting bigger faster with supplements earlier and earlier has a contribution to this
In 1995-1999 when I played, we had talented guys, but now a days some kids look like All Pro seniors from college who just started their freshman year of HS

When there's youtube clips of parents acting like morons hooting and hollering like maniacs cause their kid trucked a player or got lights out in pop warner game, that mentality is hard to break out of

HS football has went from a recreational sport to pedigree you into college then professional status, now into its own division where fucking scouts/agents already start vulturing from an early age

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

Martial arts are way more dangerous. Just sayin'

well then please, by all means, present data that proves this out

 

[Jag]

HS football has went from a recreational sport to pedigree you into college then professional status, now into its own division where fucking scouts/agents already start vulturing from an early age

And these kids are fucking huge with a killer mentality. My son is in 9th grade and over 6 foot and 175lbs and still growing. Not a small kid, but he would get wrecked on the field, especially here in Florida where football is very serious. Baseball is his first sport anyway, which also has its share of lunatic parents.

 

[GraveRobberX]

Martial arts are way more dangerous. Just sayin'

Yeah the Tiger Schulman's massacre of 1998 has already been forgotten
The massacre those Yellow Belts did to the White belts

We've already forgotten

And these kids are fucking huge with a killer mentality. My son is in 9th grade and over 6 foot and 175lbs and still growing. Not a small kid, but he would get wrecked on the field, especially here in Florida where football is very serious. Baseball is his first sport anyway, which also has its share of lunatic parents.

Yeah the training and conditioning for HS is off the charts, my cousin played like it was pro mentality, the off season had fucking mandated practices, that skirted State rules

My time is was lackadaisical and enjoyed for being fun, I left before it transitioned into a feeder for college which make ungodly money and it trickles into the HS system

When HS has boosters, shit is just wrong man

Yeah baseball has its own vices, but at least contact to contact collisions are an off occurrence

 

[Bleepey]

I am still shocked at how much of Friday Night lights was realistic. The paraplegic Jason Street was based upon died really young.

 

[foxdvd]

are there any hard statistics that show how many kids die a year from football? (edit to see an article when I searched on google that says 12 a year but the link is dead)

 

[Risible]

Martial arts are way more dangerous. Just sayin'

I totally saw this one kid get his heart exploded from the Exploding Heart Palm move.

 

[Kill3r7]

are there any hard statistics that show how many kids die a year from football? (edit to see an article when I searched on google that says 12 a year but the link is dead)

According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, which is housed at the University of North Carolina, 13 high school American football players died from injuries between 2012 and 2014.

- Grantland Article

 

[FelixOrion]

are there any hard statistics that show how many kids die a year from football? (edit to see an article when I searched on google that says 12 a year but the link is dead)

From Wikipedia

A 2007 study found that, in high school and college football, there are an average of 7.23 catastrophic head injuries per year: there were 0.67 injuries per 100,000 high school players and 0.21 injuries per 100,000 college players. Over a 13-year period from September 1989 to June 2002, there were 94 players who sustained catastrophic head injuries—8 of these players died as a result of the injury, 46 sustained permanent neurological damage, and 36 made a full recovery. Fifty-nine percent of these players had a history of head injuries, 71% of them occurring in the same season as their catastrophic injury, and most of the catastrophic injuries resulted from being tackled or making a tackle. The study recommended that players exhibiting neurological symptoms should be strongly discouraged from returning to play.

Boden et al. (2007) American Journal of Sports Medicine 25 (7): 1,075–1,081.

Fatalities in football are rare. A 2013 study of high school and college football players split fatalities into two types: direct fatalities, defined as those caused by "trauma from participation in a sport resulting in a brain injury, cervical fracture, or intra-abdominal injury" and indirect fatalities, defined as those resulting from external factors such as "cardiac failure, heat illness, sickle cell trait [SCT], asthma, or pulmonary embolism". The study found that, on average, there are 4 direct fatalities and 8.2 indirect fatalities among high school and college players per year, making indirect fatalities more than twice as common as direct fatalities.

Boden et al. (2013) AJSM PreView

 

[Delicious Waffles]

Still not enough.

 

[BigDug13]

Kids are bigger than they used to be. I guess it's the same hormones that are causing some girls to develop before they even reach double digit ages. It seems like High School football is more dangerous than ever simply because the kids playing it are closer to adult size than ever before.

When I was seeing 6'5" "kids" playing in the little league World Series, I was amazed.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

And this is why I find it increasingly difficult to justify watching football.

They have a choice, though, to play.

Safety in the sport needs to keep improving for sure, but at the end of the day, similar to racing or skydiving or whatever, you have a choice to play or not play.

 

[ThankYouDaletech]

It would help if Pop Warner or whatever organizations screened coaches better. We were straight up told to try and hurt kids and to play through pain and all that.

On the bright side there were a ton of kids on my team who were dicks who I didn't like, it was pretty fun ringing their bells at practice five nights a week.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

They should get rid of all the protective gear in football.

 

[Lucky Forward]

Kids are bigger than they used to be. I guess it's the same hormones that are causing some girls to develop before they even reach double digit ages. It seems like High School football is more dangerous than ever simply because the kids playing it are closer to adult size than ever before.

When I was seeing 6'5" "kids" playing in the little league World Series, I was amazed.

Oh yeah.

High school senior possibly world's largest football player

A high school senior in California may be the largest football player in the world, reports CBS Los Angeles.

John Krahn, also known as "Junior," is taller than any player in the NFL. He stands at 7-feet tall and weighs over 400 pounds.

And he is only 17 years old.

 

[John Kowalski]

From Wikipedia

Boden et al. (2007) American Journal of Sports Medicine 25 (7): 1,075–1,081.

Boden et al. (2013) AJSM PreView

christ

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

They have a choice, though, to play.

Safety in the sport needs to keep improving for sure, but at the end of the day, similar to racing or skydiving or whatever, you have a choice to play or not play.

this argument would ring truer if football programs weren't raiding poor parts of america to fill their rosters. They're going into the neighborhoods of those who have lived in poverty or near to it and offering them scholarships and benefits which would be out of their reach otherwise. In essence, college programs are often exploiting poor and underserved communities to fill their rosters with talent, then using that football talent to keep afloat their athletic programs and raise money for their schools and themselves while the players, who play football as a means of escape, are not being paid until the pros and that's only if theyre fortunate enough to make it there.

You can argue that the players can turn these offers down but often doing so puts them at risk of living an impoverished and lesser quality of life than if they accept it. While it's easy to say that a choice exists, the reality is that for many young men these are simply offers they cannot refuse

 

[FelixOrion]

They should get rid of all the protective gear in football.

christ

Compare that to the 1931–69 period though, when football really grew in popularity, but safety gear lagged in effectiveness, and the death rate was 18.81 direct deaths/year. Deaths per year have been declining significantly over time.

 

[Volimar]

I'm so thankful that my kid has no interest in football. Wrestling is what he wants to get into.

 

[ThankYouDaletech]

I'm so thankful that my kid has no interest in football. Wrestling is what he wants to get into.

Oh nice. Crash diets and chewing dip and abusing ADD meds to make weight, much better.

 

[Volimar]

Oh nice. Crash diets and chewing dip and abusing ADD meds to make weight, much better.

That's some weird wrestling culture you grew up in.

 

[ThankYouDaletech]

That's some weird wrestling culture you grew up in.

Yeah it was just the wrestling culture in my town. Didn't have the outrage culture or the culture culture to counter it.

 

[BigDug13]

this argument would ring truer if football programs weren't raiding poor parts of america to fill their rosters. They're going into the neighborhoods of those who have lived in poverty or near to it and offering them scholarships and benefits which would be out of their reach otherwise. In essence, college programs are often exploiting poor and underserved communities to fill their rosters with talent, then using that football talent to keep afloat their athletic programs and raise money for their schools and themselves while the players, who play football as a means of escape, are not being paid until the pros and that's only if theyre fortunate enough to make it there.

You can argue that the players can turn these offers down but often doing so puts them at risk of living an impoverished and lesser quality of life than if they accept it. While it's easy to say that a choice exists, the reality is that for many young men these are simply offers they cannot refuse

You can't attack this problem from the college football program side. The main reason that colleges can exploit these people is because for many of those people, even the slightest possibility of making it to the pro level is better than any other prospects they have.

The problem you mentioned needs to be handled at the entire nation's social mobility level. Underserved communities are easy targets because they're underserved. That part has to be fixed first.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

I'm so thankful that my kid has no interest in football. Wrestling is what he wants to get into.

That's not much better:

 

[dave is ok]

Among the spectacles of our sports-entertainment complex, there are only two in which people are regularly killed — not accidentally, but directly as a result of that sport’s essential identity and, more ghoulishly, that sport’s essential public appeal. One of them is auto racing. The other is American football. Of the two, there is only one in which children are now regularly killed. That sport is not auto racing. That sport is American football. This weekend, the sport killed another child.

I don't think a handful of deaths per year qualifies as "regularly". Even with perfect tackling discipline sometimes shit just happens. Someone falls into a helmet or something and is permanently injured.

More then the possibility of death, the real reason no parent should let their kid play football is the risk of TBI

 

[Arkeband]

Sad story, but if my kid wants to play I'll let them.

I'm sure you can formulate a more nuanced response than this.

Would you attempt to dissuade your kid from playing football due to the risk of brain injury and death stats? Most of all, because high school football is less about playing but about grooming kids in a very cult-y way to prepare them for the big leagues, of which their odds of breaking into are infintessimally small and is basically an utter waste of time?

That as far as healthy activity is concerned they're better off playing soccer or running track and field or crosscountry?

IMO as a parent your job is first and foremost to force your child to analyze their decisions - are they interested in football because they think it will make them popular? Are the very real dangers of it even registering in their narrow worldview?

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

Doctor told me way back in 2003 when I was getting a broken collar bone treated that the damage football does to your body wasn't worth it.

 

[Sanjuro]

That's not much better:

I don't know. Unlike football it promotes healthy living.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

You can't attack this problem from the college football program side. The main reason that colleges can exploit these people is because for many of those people, even the slightest possibility of making it to the pro level is better than any other prospects they have.

The problem you mentioned needs to be handled at the entire nation's social mobility level. Underserved communities are easy targets because they're underserved. That part has to be fixed first.

i'm not disagreeing with you, just with the poster who implied there was a choice in the matter. For many who are offered a chance at college football, the choice is being shit poor or go and get their heads caved in playing football with the possibility of a better life. It's not much of a choice really

I don't think a handful of deaths per year qualifies as "regularly". Even with perfect tackling discipline sometimes shit just happens. Someone falls into a helmet or something and is permanently injured.

More then the possibility of death, the real reason no parent should let their kid play football is the risk of TBI

regularly is relative in this case. Compared to other major sports, players die more regularly in high school football than anything else.

i mean when's the last time you had 3 players die in a month from playing baseball? or basketball? or just about anything else?

 

[Shadownet]

My youngest brother plays high school football and I was surprised at how much bigger and stronger the kids look these days than 10 years ago when I was that age. I would not want to be across the line of many of them even when I was at my strongest and most fit.

2 years ago when I went back to my high school for a football game. There was a freshman who was 6'2" and looks like he was a sophomore in college. What are they feeding kids nowadays.

 

[Volimar]

I don't know. Unlike football it promotes healthy living.

Also slim jims.

 

[DoktorEvil]

I went to an all-boys high school. Naturally, a lot of students were upset that the school didn't have a football team.

One of the main reasons was the insurance costs.

HS Football is expensive to insure. That should tell me enough about the dangers of HS Football.

I'm glad I stuck to track and baseball and didn't transfer to a football school.

 

[Dr_LucienSanchez]

What an amazing sport.

 

[3AM]

I think part of the problem might be the pads people wear. Causing people to go much harder then the would if they weren't a padded wrecking ball. Anyone know statistics between rugby and football? Same thing between boxing and ufc. Either way i wouldn't let my kid play football.
Tennis soccer tons of alternatives that are less damaging.

 

[braves01]

2 years ago when I went back to my high school for a football game. There was a freshman who was 6'2" and looks like he was a sophomore in college. What are they feeding kids nowadays.

Chipotle burritos and Monster

 

[Mattlikewhoa]

I love American Football, but if my child wanted to play, I don't think I could let him. I played when I was younger, and it gets crazy aggressive/violent rather early.

I stopped playing when the weight for my age group spiked (HS ball was the end of that).

 

[IISANDERII]

High school football has become lucrative

Just look at some Texas High School football stadiums, even some colleges don't have the resources they get

Friday Night Lights and Varsity Blues peak behind the curtain more in a drama sense with a lot of truth sprinkled around it

Also kids getting bigger faster with supplements earlier and earlier has a contribution to this
In 1995-1999 when I played, we had talented guys, but now a days some kids look like All Pro seniors from college who just started their freshman year of HS

When there's youtube clips of parents acting like morons hooting and hollering like maniacs cause their kid trucked a player or got lights out in pop warner game, that mentality is hard to break out of

HS football has went from a recreational sport to pedigree you into college then professional status, now into its own division where fucking scouts/agents already start vulturing from an early age

It's so lucrative and they should use a fair amount of it for insurance. This kid's family should be paid and players should be covered from day 1 to the day they die.