Football is a staple of American culture. Friday night lights are a major attraction in cities across the United States. But today, there are hundreds of players coming forward with detailed accounts of the brutal injuries, especially to the head, in the NFL and throughout football.

   As per Reuters News, high school football participation has dropped by almost five percent over the last few years. With the grueling realities of all levels of football finally revealed, parents and kids are making decisions to stay out of harm’s way and not play America’s most popular sport (Reuters.com). Forbes conducted a study which consisted of 1,025 parents, where 61 percent said that they would support a ban on youth tackle football (Forbes.com). There are so many alternatives to playing football that there is no reason to subject anyone, much less a child, to the demands of the sport.

   By tradition, there are three teams at the high school level: freshman, junior varsity, and varsity. This year, for the first five weeks of the season, UC High did not have a Freshman Football Team. There weren’t enough players in the younger grades to make a full team of freshmen. This was due to injuries and parents not allowing their kids to play, in addition to kids making a conscious decision to not participate. 

   School Counselor David Malo said, “More and more insurance companies are refusing to provide plans for football. Youth football is dying out because it just isn’t worth it.” If insurance companies refuse to cover football injuries in their plans for school districts, the future of football at UC High, and high schools across America, is in jeopardy.

   Although there are many downfalls to playing football, there are people fighting to keep the sport alive. The NFL passes new rules to protect players each and every year. Just this year, a rule outlawing more than 200 NFL players’ helmets was added, along with in-game rules stopping players from leading with their heads and hitting defenseless players (Sporttechie.com). These changes being made have had an impact on the official concussion numbers of the NFL as the number dropped from 190 in 2017 to 135 to 2018 (usatoday.com). The issue with the lowered number is whether it can be taken seriously. 

   Concussions are not injuries where you can see physical symptoms which leads to many undiagnosed injuries. With the NFL and football being a multibillion-dollar industry, high concussion and injury numbers are bad news for any investors and the prospective talent planning to play the sport in the future. More and more parents will keep their kids from the sport, limiting the talent making it to the top level. It is in everyone’s best interest to have a small number of injuries, so why not doctor the numbers when there are no repercussions?

    This aspect of danger and realization of that danger within the national community is apparent even to NFL Veterans. Many are coming forward with CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) which was proved to be a result of head to head contact in the NFL and football in general. A study of 51 people with CTE in 2009 concluded that the life expectancy of diagnosed people is 51 years (disabledworld.com). Athletes are seemingly in an abusive relationship with the sport they love. 

   Tight End Rob Gronkowski, one of the most successful players of the decade, spoke out about his decision to retire from football at the young age of 29: “I had nine surgeries. Probably had like 20 concussions in my life, no lie. I remember five blackout ones… I would want my kids to know about my experience before they play football” (bleacherreport.com). 

   The matter of the fact is that even people who have dedicated their lives to football are giving up on it. There will always be a space in the world for football, that space might just be diminishing due to the seemingly never-ending amount of new information on the dangers of the sport. The future of football as we know it at stake and it is fighting an uphill battle. There is a real possibility that your grandchildren won’t have the option to play football at all, and maybe that’s for the best.