Response to recent conversation
Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog debated whether schools should reconsider football programs, given the growing body of research on brain injuries. Here is a sampling:
Quid: When taxpayers start having to pony up for the large lawsuits that are coming, then and only then will folks seriously consider this issue. Until then, it will be business as usual, with the entrenched going on about having to pry the pigskin out of their cold, dead hands. If we found out Algebra 1 was giving kids long-term brain damage, you can be sure there would be folks screaming about banning it immediately. Football? No way, Jose.
Bu: Maybe you should be for keeping girls out of sports since their concussion rates for soccer and basketball are much higher than for boys.
Patriot: It ain't gonna happen. Football will not be banned at any level; that being said, there are some high schools that probably should, because the only interest in the football program is the revenue derived to support all the minor sports teams. Again, high school football isn't going away anytime soon. There are athletes who work all their young lives to attain stardom so as to make a better life for themselves and their families by getting a college degree and, if they're good enough, playing on Sundays. Do we really want to take away those opportunities from young people?
Pop: Unintentional fall death rates among seniors have skyrocketed over the past 10 years. Time to ban walking?
Shar: Any organization sponsoring a football team should be required to carry insurance, including coverage for death or life-changing injuries. Again, the tab should not be charged to the taxpayer. Football is just too dangerous. Taxpayers should not be in the position of paying for young men to be slammed, crushed, bashed and knocked out. If private groups want to sponsor it, and some parents want to allow their kids to play, so be it. But not one dime of taxpayer money should go into it.
Rex: We have lost at least one teenager to an auto crash every year for years, yet our educational system refuses to have driver's education in public schools. Talk about misplaced focus.
Robert: Let's ban all things deemed unhealthy. I think it was in Oregon where a school system banned the game of tag because some kids could not handle being "it." The parents revolted, and the school system relented and they have tag again.
Sim: Here's the deal: People will starting suing the school systems for injuries to students — their children. They will win their suits. Insurance companies won't like that at all, and they'll begin raising rates. Insurance costs will stop us from injuring our children for our amusement.
First: If we end football, we need to take a look at boxing. We also need to look at what we would do with all these football stadiums. Football is probably one of the last activities that still proves a cultural marker that Americans are a tough, rugged and fearless people. With the number of pantywaists we have running things, maybe football should be the next Dodo bird.
About the Author
Maureen Downey has written editorials and opinion pieces about local, state and federal education policy since the 1990s.
