Falling Football Participation In America - NYT article 11/08/2019

NYT article. Enough said by the source to call bullshit. Come to South Carolina and Georgia tonight and see how much football means to the towns that are involved. It's the first week of the playoffs and entire towns will shut down at 3:00 today and pack stadiums with 10-15,000 people. NYT  probably researched NY where HS football is no better than YOUTH ball. It sucks up north period where hockey, lacrosse and tennis take precedence. Much better in the Midwestern states like Penn, Ohio and Michigan but cannot even come close to comparing to football in the South! 

At least in a few states I'm mostly familiar with (California, Virginia, Colorado) flag football participation and leagues are taking off at all age groups, including high school. I wonder if it might eventually replace tackle football as the main football varsity sport?

"The failing New York Times"... that one?  I kid, I kid.  

Any info on how the sport of American football aka American "Gridiron" is growing in participation overseas?  I would think there are markets and populations there that are ripe for growth. 

One thing I think football heads, leaders, coaches, innovators need to: go international.  Look at what the NBA is doing in Africa.  This is genius.  Set up football institutions, clinics, and even schools. 

Tremendous human capital and phenomenal athletes over there and in other places.  All these young people need is a chance.    

This is fairly click-baity...

I think % participation isn't the proper metric to support a thesis that football is in imminent decline, and the "sky is falling" types may subject to falling prey to confirmation bias (whether to support their "gut" feeling or their decision to not have their kids participate or whatever).  Others may be in off market (for football) or declining population areas.

In SoCal, very liberal "save the...[cause de jour]" ville, football participation are far from what is depicted in the article and in some of the comments here.

As for  "darker and poorer" as one comment states, in SoCal there is great debate as to problems in the other direction (ala Bakich commentary during CWS) with the advent of camping, offseason 7-on-7, private QB coaches, etc., etc., how do the "darker and poorer" see the field when they're competing against kids that train and compete year round and have the best coaching, best strength training, best nutritionist, since grammar school age. 

In one of the most affluent sections of the West side in Los Angeles, the varsity team has a solid 60 athletes with equal numbers for JV and F.  4-5/year go on to play division 1 on scholarship.

From anecdotal evidence, while a typical varsity team may have been 75-80, the delta of 15-20 would seem like a dramatic 25% decline.  However, how many of the 15-20 that decide not to play were actually contenders for real playing time? 

My assumption is that, for kids (and their parents) on the margin or relegated to scout team duties or playing a few plays in blowout time, the information on potential brain injury provides a data point that makes a decision to participate in an alternative sport or other activity (that's less prone to injury) much easier and/or apparent.

For years, football was the only major fall sport for boys (especially in the UP). Now, with the rising popularity of soccer, many schools are adding that sport, which pulls kids from football. Throw in the declining desire to play a hard contact sport and you have a recipe for football's decline.

In many areas (including our UP town), a significant number of the kids who rarely saw the field can now find play time on their soccer team.  My son decided to switch out from youth football (he was the starting QB & CB) to soccer. He made the varsity all four years and led the team in scoring several years. He saw many kids, who would have normally been football practice fodder, turn into decent athletes on his soccer team. His decision was that the upcoming football coaches had other teammates "pegged" for certain roles, so he decided to move to greener pastures. His soccer coerces did an amazing job of getting all players on the field, building their skills for future years, and creating a team environment. For some who stop playing football. it's not the love of football vs soccer (or lacrosse, etc), but more of the availability of other sports that can allow more "active" participation.

https://twitter.com/ChrisNowinski1/status/1182654934334005249

Tragic also how many former football players have been diagnosed with ALS as of late.  So disheartening.  

Geography. 
 

here in Tennessee, football still reigns supreme. Soccer making a strong surge, but communities rally around their football teams. 

They publish these every year.

Yes, it’s falling. Kids shouldn’t be tackling  before 9th grade anyways.

But I will also point out baseball, basketball, and other sports see participation falling in high school. 
 

Kids are finding other things to do than play sports.