[Football1]

I understand what you're saying. I'm just saying that players and families know what they're getting into when they decide to put the pads on. Basketball players collapse on the court, baseball players get hit in the head by pitches, race-car drivers crash, and football players get concussions. It's not about purposely injuring someone on the football field. It's about laying a hit that leaves the crowd in awe. Big hits are what makes the game fun, playing and spectating. Accidents happen in all sports, but if you don't want to get hit, play a no-contact sport.

But why must the game be destroyed for our love of the big hit? Why can't we embrace the speed, agility, and every other aspect of the game? Toughness is an admirable trait but no amount of it will protect the brain from what a concussion does to it. So is it toughness, ignorance, lack of wisdom or some combination that drives this game?

You can bookmark my post and return to it in 5,10, or 15 years when the game is banned from public high schools. The data will speak. And they tell a story that is ever more proving the hazards of how the game is played today far outweigh any benefit it can deliver. I hope I am wrong as the game provided a family for me in a fatherless childhood. It gave me upperclassmen to admire and lower classmen to teach and mentor. It was a blessing. But so much of that is now gone anyway. Add to that the risk permanent life altering head injury and the zest for the game fades quickly.