Middle class abandoning football

Beside the point, but that SI article is really, truly incredible. Just a gem of football (and Michigan)'s past. Very ahead of its time too regarding head injuries. 

Kass, the author of the article has his motivation mostly in pushing his name out there as "one of the first." He spends quite a bit of time in the article using an analogy of him jumping in the "water" of calling football and CTE dangerous before anyone else and says only now, 5 years after his first article on it, others are beginning to jump into the water with him.

Sounds full of himself to be honest. I don't trust journalism that derives from self-promotion.

While CTE and fewer youth football teams may be true, this guy seems to be attempting to create a sense of urgency around the topic so that he can become the preacher on a street corner that everyone asks to share his wonderful prophecies. I would be far more interested in learning about any decline or increase of the number of teenaged players who are playing in HS. A number of football players in college and NFL didn't pick up the sport until high school....so there's that.

I know John Kass personally. Any time he can bash football in favor of soccer he does. I pointed out to him the other day that they are now finding CTE in former soccer players as well. Lots of headers.

Kass will bash football yet he has zero problem chain smoking his heaters outside of the Tribune Tower.

We all pick our poison.

Football will never die, but like most everything in the world, it will wane at some point.  Maybe it's popularity wanes faster unless something is done about the long term physical toll.  I mean, I loved football and played it since the 4th grade.  I still love to watch it.  But do I want my kids to play it?  Honestly, I'm not so sure anymore.  I just can't ignore the mounting data about damage to the most important organ for functioning throughout life.  It's a tough subject to grapple with.  I think at a point when they're old enough, if they want to play, I will let them, but I'm thinking that won't be until high school.  One of my little league coaches when I was in the 5th and 6th grade played OL for the Philly Eagles.  He wouldn't let his kid play football until high school because of all the damage to the body, and that was like 20 years ago.

Also, if football does take a nose dive in in popularity, it will most likely be due to the same damn thing that causes most things to tank; greed.  I'm already getting fatigued with the constant commercials and ads, the high prices for everything.  They'll find what you love and charge you for it.  Until you can no longer afford to love it.  Then it dies.

It would probably take a good 50 years before football felt any real impact from parents no longer allowing their kids to play and guys just moving away from the sport in general. Though by then, scientists may develop some type of helmet that absorbs impact better. Maybe a helmet with some form of a mini protective energy field inside of it. If scientists can't help football, then it probably will eventually be stopped by public out cry, especially if many players keep leaving the game with bad CTE issues. Though even for that to happen, it would probably take 60 to 70 years from now, because too many people in our time still absolutely love the game. It would take people rather far off into the future who have lesser love for the sport of football to finally say they've had enough and the entertainment isn't worth the risk.

It's just a matter of time. Not because of its violence, but because nothing lasts forever. I think esports, more than anything, is going to change human beings relationship with sports viewing over the next 50 years. And as viewers go elsewhere, the sport will drastically change to the point where it may not be recognizable.

Imagine writing an article about the death of a multi-billion dollar industry without any statistics to back it up, but you talked to a suburban dad who gave you some anecdotes.

In my hometown in PA, the results of a big high school football game would make the headline of the entire newspaper the next day.  Not just the front page, but the headline of the entire paper.

My high school where football was a religion just recently won a state championship . . . in soccer.  We did not even have soccer when I went there.  

Meanwhile, they can't get enough kids to go out for football to field a competitive team anymore.

And this is in a lower-middle class blue collar PA town where football has been ingrained in the culture for 100 years.

The canary in the coal mine is already dead.  

Yes it's true, you may have not noticed any real change and can still breathe just fine . . . for now.

 

Or if it dies, something else will fill the "contact team sport" niche. I imagine in the future it may not be the most popular game in America, and become more of a niche sport. As someone who loves the game more than the average American this makes me sad. But I think there are always going to be a number of young boys and men who will benefit from letting off steam in contact sports rather than trying to prove themselves in more disastrous ways. I thank god I had football as a kid and that my parents let me play - against their better judgment.

I don't think the NFL will change it - they've too much vested in the current game. I think any change will lead to a loss in popularity, for a time. I think it's as likely that we see football fall and rugby rise as our culture figures out what's acceptable. I think any changes will be led by middle class Americans who love the game and realize it needs to change or die to be acceptable to a society where people live long into their sixties and seventies, and dementia is no longer just a fact of life but a preventable condition based on a lifetime of choices and accidents. I'm imagining high schools or colleges in a football mad state like Pennsylvania experimenting with less players, less equipment, different rules to govern blocking and tackling.

Change is scary but it can also be fun.

While pee wee football is experiencing a sharp decline in our country (and arguably rightfully so), high school football participation has been much more stable. college football, and the NFL, will be fine.

I will be watching football this weekend, anyone else?

 

The phenomenon is real, if a little overblown. Per SFIA data, total tackle football participation is down from 6.8 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2015 (negative 1.8% CAGR). This is for the US population 6 and up. Fewer people are also playing baseball, while lacrosse and hockey gain in popularity

I'll contribute more to this once I'm done coaching my game tonight as the team looks to go 3-0. I do coach in the hood so maybe I'm not qualified for this

I'd say demographics are playing a larger role in decreased participation than parents thinking the sport is somehow more dangerous than it was 10 years ago.  As the US becomes increasingly more hispanic football will lose particpants.  

 

I'd like to see some real studies on CTE and high school football.  NFL players have played football for at least 15 years if not more.  Generally including 2 years  middle school, 4 years in high school, 4  years in college and an average of 5 years in the NFL.  How much risk is there if you stop playing football after high school?  Can the brain heal itself if you stop playing football in time?  

 

I think the soccer moms who hear about CTE on tv and assume that their son is gonna get a degenerative brain disease and kill himself from playing youth football is a little overblown.

 

That said there are plenty of positive aspects of playing youth football that need to also be considered when weighing the risks.  Among them are learning teamwork, self esteem, physical fitness, how to lose, how to win, mental toughness, overcoming adversity.

While reports of football's demise are greatly exaggerated, as a youth lacrosse coach I will tell you that I have had dozens of parents tell me their kid was i lacrosse because they would not let them play football. That's a thing, at least.

baseball and golf that were dying.

I believe that there are more and more families telling their sons they won't be playing, but is football dead, or dying? Hell no. For every family that tells their son he won't be playing, there are several others who view football as their son's ticket to a better life.

Parents can see it as a way to get keep their son off the streets, away from drugs, surround him with (hopefully) good role models who teach him hard work and accountability, and if he's good enough, get a scholarship to a good school that his family otherwise would have no way to ever pay for. Maybe one day, if he continues to be good enough, he can play on Sundays and create a better life for himself AND his family. To many families, the short-term risks of what happens when you don't play FAR outweigh the long-term risks of concussions, CTE, mobility issues, etc. They'll all take their chances with playing now because the prospects in your immediate future of not playing don't look very good.

Football will evolve to be as safe as it can be, but it is so ingrained into our culture to the point where it will never die. Try telling the whole state of Texas that football is dying. Football isn't king down there. Football is the Holy Trinity. Life down there revolves around that game. Same goes for places like Florida, Georgia, California, Ohio, and just about anywhere in the South. 

I'm good. I wished I had played football. My dad now says that he is glad that I did not.

 

"You really think the NFL is worried about young athletes? If so, they'd have changed the rules years ago, abandoning face masks, enlarging the ball to make it difficult to throw, switching to one platoon football."

 

Why would an enlarged ball cut down on injuries?

Coach is disappointed with the tenor of this thread. 

The middle class just can't catch a break!

I am Sick of these predictions...In the 70s they said the same thing...here we are.....

I read this column with great interest earlier this week. Though of posting it at mgoblog, but decided against it, because it is such a divisive topic. I have thought about this a lot topic a lot, because my son played football for 7 years, in the suburban Chicago league the columnist mentions. Several comments.

1. I really like John Kass,I can and he is observant. He is not a knee jerk bleeding heart liberal who has an agenda against football, so to speak. You can take what he writes for what it's worth. But I certainly see the popularity of youth football here in the western burbs going down precipitously, even more so in the upper middle class, where the expectation is that you'll go to college and need to protect your noggin.
2. My son quit high school football this Fall. He is concerned about the concussions, but more than that, the CTE. My wife didn't help . . . she was ready for him to give it up. He wants to head towards engineering, and doesn't want to be foggy in his thought process.
3. Those continuing to play are either very fast, very big and strong, or love the game deeply. My son is about 6 foot, little bit above average speed, weights about 160 pounds. He wasn't fast enough to be a good receiver or cornerback. He wasn't big enough for line play, or really even for LB, at least at our high school. He likes the game, but after 7 years, saw the writing on the wall, and decided to hang up his cleats.
4. I can't and won't tell anyone else what to do. But the CTE stuff is really as concerning or more concerning than concussions.

I can't predict the future, but I too am really wondering about the future of the game. It doesn't look good.

Seems like lacrosse and soccer have really started to take over cincy. I was on my junior high's first team in 2004 and the last couple years they've had to hold tryouts.