Can We Make High School Football Safer ?

Last weekend another high school football player died. He was the eighth high school student that has died playing football this year -- and the season is not over. Last year, five high school students died playing football, and since 1931 at least 1200 students have died.

According to one study, there were 500,000 injuries to students playing football last year. Many of those injuries were muscle sprains and strains, but at least a quarter were concussion-related -- and others were serious injuries like spinal cord damage.

Many Americans may not want to admit it, but football is a dangerous sport. And these student athletes are not professionals, who know the dangers and are willing to subject themselves to that danger for a lucrative contract. They are high school students -- children who are participating in an extracurricular activity. And a high school extracurricular activity should not result in death or serious injury. Something must be done about this.

Can football be made a safer activity? How can that be achieved? I honestly don't know. But we need to find out. And three congressmen (2 Democrats and a Republican) are introducing a bill to find out. Their bill would mandate that the CDC form a committee to investigate high school football, and make hard recommendations on whether and how it could be made safer. This is a good bill, and it should be passed as quickly as possible -- without playing any political games with it.

I don't know if football can be made safer for student-athletes. I'm a fan, and I certainly hope so. But if it can't be done, then we have a hard choice to make. Is an extracurricular activity that kills and maims high school students worth doing?

(NOTE -- The image above is by Carly Strauss. Her artwork can be viewed at carlystraussartist.com.)