Are colleges, high schools, the NFL, and fans prepared for the demise of US Football? [View all]

[fried eggs]

If not, they should start preparing. More and more health conscious parents of small boys are looking at the studies and deciding that football is too dangerous for their kids.

An estimated 43,000 to 67,000 players endure a concussion during every high school football season, though because many such injuries go unreported, that number may well exceed 100,000, as noted by a Purdue University study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, "Functionally-Detected Cognitive Impairment in High School Football Players Without Clinically Diagnosed Concussion.(7) " That study also examined the health of 21 players throughout the course of a season. The 21 players experienced 15,264 significant collision events across 48 practices and games (an average of 15.5 collision events per player per organized activity); four of the 21 players were diagnosed with a concussion. The study also found that a portion of the players with no clinically observable signs of concussion still showed significant functional impairments when observed with MRI technology or verbal/cognitive testing. This suggests that a new category of brain-related injury problem needs to be diagnosed. Overall, the data suggest "the presence of a previously unknown, but suspected … group of athletes exhibiting neurocognitive deficits that persist over time, but which does not present observable symptoms." The study's authors say the findings indicate current on-field tests for concussions may not be sufficient in determining full risks to the brain.(8) Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_issues_in_American_football

Anything else with such dire stats would have been banned long ago. If an adult chooses to play football, that's his or her right, but children and teens should be protected.