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Football’s decline has some high schools disbanding teams

entremet

Member
After years of denials, the NFL acknowledged a link between head blows and brain disease and agreed in 2015 to a $1 billion settlement to compensate former players who had accused the league of hiding the risks.

”There's no question about it. The amount of publicity, beginning with the NFL and what you see on national news, has caused concern among parents," said Bob Gardner, the NFHS executive director. ”Probably some who would have been more inclined to let their young men play, maybe are making different decisions now."

A study published last month in the medical journal Translational Psychiatry showed that kids who played football before age 12 were more than twice as likely to have mood and behavior problems.

The news hasn't escaped the parents at Centennial, one of the top-rated public high schools in Maryland, where 97 percent of students go on to college after they graduate. Just 10 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, an indicator of poverty.

”Families around here are more into academics," Zach said.

Maryland is one of 14 states where participation in football was down 10 percent or more over the past five years, according to NFHS data. In all, 41 states saw a decline between the 2011-12 and 2016-17 school years, and just nine states and the District of Columbia saw increases.

In West Windsor Township, New Jersey, which borders Princeton University and has a median household income of $137,000, one of the two public high schools dropped varsity football this year, and the other might have to do the same next year.

Trinity High School in Manchester, New Hampshire, also disbanded its varsity team, with hopes that it could return in a lower division next year.

https://apnews.com/66e699491a3b4782...ecline-has-some-high-schools-disbanding-teams

The South and The West seem to have been avoiding as steep declines. No surprise, those are football powerhouses in terms of player development.
 

Mr Cola

Brothas With Attitude / The Wrong Brotha to Fuck Wit / Die Brotha Die / Brothas in Paris
Kind of a shame the USMNT cant capitalise with the WC around the corner
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Good. I love football but the sport is WAY too dangerous for high schoolers to be playing.
 
Good.

Worth noting that NICA an interscholastic high school level mountain biking program continues to grow as more and more schools form teams.

032015bikes01_0.jpg

I believe that the school from NJ mentioned in this piece will be joining NICA in 2018.
 

Africanus

Member
Excellent news.
Had a wicked smart friend in mathematics back in high school. He also played football.
I told him to gtfo before it was too late. He finally listened to me and now is majoring in Math at a nice university versus going professional and getting brain damage.
 

Draxal

Member
The thing is with high school football its actually becoming more more ... cutthroat (still nothing like AAU).

The small town schools aren't thriving, but for example in New Jersey, the parochials are thriving more then ever.
 

Allforce

Member
Excellent news.
Had a wicked smart friend in mathematics back in high school. He also played football.
I told him to gtfo before it was too late. He finally listened to me and now is majoring in Math at a nice university versus going professional and getting brain damage.

You do realize the Browns are desperate for a quarterback right? This post is so selfish...
 

Volimar

Member
Man, rural Ohio will fight that shit kicking and screaming. High school football is practically a religion around here. A lot of athletes are gonna suffer even though we know better.
 

Ripenen

Member
It's interesting how quickly things seem to have turned. The sport just has a bad look right now and I'm honestly not sure how they fix it without dramatically changing the game.
 

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Oh hey, an article about a local high school.

Centennial is one of the top public schools in the country so it makes sense the parents who attend said school wouldn't want their kids developing CTE for a sport they won't need to get into college.

Seems like the future of college football will be even more dependent on disadvantaged youths from communities of color who have no other option while those of privilege watch. Basically moving us further back to the gladiatorial system.
 

Slayven

Member
It probably won't be measured for years but they going to look back to how the NFL treated the black players and find a lot of them opted to do another sport instead.
 

Kill3r7

Member
Anyone who follows college football recruiting has been aware of this trend for a while now. I suspect it will become a real issue for colleges within a decade.

Ultimately for the best. Until football can change to where CTE doesn't happen, kids shouldn't be playing it.

No real way to avoid CTEs unless you are playing flag football. It will be interesting to see how colleges and the NFL pivot over the next decade.
 
NFL is a dead man walking. Parents these days are hyper obsessed with protecting their kids. It will take a while, but there will be a generation that grows up playing something other than football, and the entire high school/ college/ pro football machine will run out of fresh bodies for the hopper.
 

old

Member
None of my friends are letting their sons play football. And those guys love football themselves. They never shut up about fantasy football or their betting pools.

I think it’s mostly about being realistic with pro prospects and risk vs reward. None of those guys I know are big. None of their kids are going to be 6’6” 250lbs either. They know their sons will be lucky to get a D1 scholarship...at best. They’re not going to be big enough, fast enough, or long enough to make a pro roster. They know that.

At that point you’re taking a lot of risk of permanent brain injury playing peewee, JV, varsity, and college without any chance of big NFL paydays. All risk no reward. Not worth it anymore.
 

Fatalah

Member
The sum of money athletes can make playing baseball is insane. Plus, players' can be play long and healthy careers. The challenge with baseball is that the skill level is super high, so you can't just throw a big body onto the field and get an All-Star.

Still, hopefully Aaron Judge gets some would-be football players to play baseball. We need another Big Hurt too -- he was monstrous!
 
No kids (yet), but my wife and I talk about this a decent amount. We haven't really investigated deeply, but my initials thoughts are that baseball, basketball, tennis, and golf are pretty thoroughly in the "Worth the risk" category of sports, basketball, hockey, and soccer are in the "Might be worth the risk" category, and football and wrestling are in the "Probably not worth the risk" category, in regards to youth sports anyway.

I'm least confident in my assessment of wrestling and basketball. Either way, my wife and I want to really look into the research more before we'd stop our kid from playing any of the sports, although football seems like a no-brainer for avoiding.
 

Kill3r7

Member
No kids (yet), but my wife and I talk about this a decent amount. We haven't really investigated deeply, but my initials thoughts are that baseball, basketball, tennis, and golf are pretty thoroughly in the "Worth the risk" category of sports, basketball, hockey, and soccer are in the "Might be worth the risk" category, and football and wrestling are in the "Probably not worth the risk" category, in regards to youth sports anyway.

I'm least confident in my assessment of wrestling and basketball. Either way, my wife and I want to really look into the research more before we'd stop our kid from playing any of the sports, although football seems like a no-brainer for avoiding.

Wrestling can be problematic if cutting weight and pretty hard on the joints. Basketball is problematic when it comes to knees problems although other injuries can happen as is the case with any sport.
 

Abraxas

Member
I went to a high school in Maryland, very similar to tye place in the article, and you could see this happeneing beginning 3/4 years ago. I had a few friends who were in JV football that switched to track, tennis, or baseball. I can't say if it was all from the parents pushing it, but I know that their parents seemed relieved that they were away from the sport.

From what my sisters tell me (same school) the football programme is unlikely to last, but girls soccer and athletics are the key sports focuses for the school.
 

Chinbo37

Member
Why not remove the helmets and body armor for kids?


Well endorsing such a move would be seen as a tacit approval or acknowledgement that football leads to brain disease.

I grew up loving football. Watched it ever Sunday. But if it went away it wouldnt be the end of the world. Tons of other sports and entertainment to enjoy.
 

offtopic

He measures in centimeters
I wonder what the increase in popularity of "soccer" is in the US.

Enormous. As a high school teacher I get to hear much of what students talk about with their friends and most people from my generation would be shocked at how frequently their sports conversations are about soccer. It might be the youth participation levels, FIFA or access to far more availability (tv) but I'd say that soccer is what they talk about the most when it comes to sports. I also see that with my own kids and nieces/nephews...I far more frequently hear a kid ask "hey did you see that goal???" than "did you see that catch???".

When I went to school many kids played soccer but nobody ever watched it or talked about it with classmates (not counting foreign born).
 

Madness

Member
Not at all surprising. Hopefully uptake in other less dangerous sports goes up.

Except it hasn't. The big money was in football, but team sports has seen massive decline in younger ages especially in once dominant baseball aka little league and softball which is struggling in areas. Far fewer kids are outside playing sports.

I do think a lot of parents need to realize sports have injuries but football has perhaps some of the most devastating long term impacts. Instead of football, look to basketball and baseball and soccer. Injuries still happen but on a far less scale than contact football.
 

slit

Member
Ironically the ones who will moan the most about football's demise are the same ones who are boycotting the NFL.
 

Kite

Member
I wonder what the increase in popularity of "soccer" is in the US.
lol Nothing, at least in my part of the country. Soccer is what kids play when they are very young before they join real sports like football, basketball and maybe baseball.
 

Duxxy3

Member
The less that high schools and colleges spend on sports, the better off we'll be. They siphon off money from areas of actual need.
 

Schattenjäger

Gabriel Knight
You do realize the Browns are desperate for a quarterback right? This post is so selfish...
I think American football will end before the Browns ever win anything

If you couple the physical risks with the salary cap and lower earning potential, its a no brainer for the real talented athletes to go into other sports...
So many baseball players played other sports like football but stuck with baseball .. I see that trend to continue

I don't see football ending without some drastic change first.. they should try making professional flag football .. no tackling .. that would be a win win
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I am of the generation that when I was little, EVERYONE played baseball. It seemed like every community could field an entire little league with 6 or more teams. It definitely seems like that is far less popular now, maybe it will make a return.
 

Sandoval

Member
Time for SLAMBALL to make it's glorious return.

My dude! Imagine my excitement when I moved and found out that there was actually a Slamball facility nearby. That excitement never turned into anything more than amusement at the possibility of playing the sport I made fun of for two years back around 2003, but maybe one day when some friends visit...
 

RobotHaus

Unconfirmed Member
Is money an issue too in this matter? Most sports (without maybe the exception of hockey in some parts of the country) are much cheaper and easier to set up and play in a safe way.
 
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