In 2002, Mike Webster, a former offensive lineman for the Pittsburg Steelers, became the first NFL player to be diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disorder. Since then, the ascent of diagnosis and research of the relationship between brain injury and American football has sparked a debate nationwide. With the suicide of 27-year-old Aaron Hernandez in November this past year came the positive results for CTE after a brain examination. Hernandez’s brain lit up with Tau proteins, which clump together and kill brain cells. According to the NY Times, Tau were found in the frontal cortex, the part of the brain regulating impulse and decision-making, the amygdala, which controls emotions, and in the temporal lobe, in charge of visual and auditory processing. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/sports/aaron-hernandez-brain-cte.html His brain is the youngest to have such severity of CTE, and overall atrophy of brain structures. After only 3 years playing professionally it begs the question about when his brain began to diminish.
The highly competitive nature of football has been glamorized for years by the NFL and players. Children watch the games with parents and idolize the men they see scoring touchdowns, making game winning throws or high intensity tackles. They see these men get up time and time again after being knocked down which fuels respect for their athleticism of the sport. The multi-million dollar contracts and advertisement gigs seem like a dream come true to many youths in America. Even the opportunity to have a collegiate scholarship is a trade-off many are willing to make for the brutal physical and mental demands of college football. And so, the dream is the same, “I want to play in the NFL”. Youth football begins as young as 5 years old and has kids hooked by the time they reach high school. This is when the fight for the dream really begins. According to the NCAA, there are over a million high school football players in the country and only 73,000, 6.8%, will participate in college level football. It is even less likely to play at a Division 1 college with only 2.6% of high school football players making it to Division 1 school, a benchmark to playing professionally. With only 4 years of eligibility most athletes take a redshirt year so they can develop their skills and grow physically to meet the demands of professional football. There are over 350 Division 1 schools in the NCAA and each is limited to 85 football scholarships per year, accumulating to about 29,000 available scholarships. However, this number decreases due to the Title IX requirement that schools offer an equal number of scholarships to male and female athletes. Thus, some schools cannot financially afford 85 scholarships for football. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2016-04-28/decipher-athletic-scholarships-at-ncaa-division-i-universities
Of the 73,000 collegiate football athletes only 16,000 are even draft eligible for the approximately 250 NFL draft slots. The NCAA states that only 1.5% of collegiate football athletes will make it to the NFL. http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/football Thus, 99% of high school football players will never play in the NFL.
With the odds of making the pros stacked against them, football players are willing to put themselves at risk chasing their dream. They will hit harder and report injury less, just to remain on the field. A 2017 study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that early participation in football could be connected to future CTE in athletes. Of the 202 brains from former football players studied by Boston University, the lead researcher of CTE, 87% were diagnosed with CTE. Within the study, 3 of the 14, 21%, who only played in high school had CTE. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2645104?redirect=true
Upon the release of the 2015 movie Concussion, the exposure of CTE and the degenerative effects it has on the brain has gained notoriety with parents of young football players. The National Federation of State High School Associations shows 25,000 fewer high school football athletes, a 2.5% drop in participation, compared to the 2015-16 season. https://www.nfhs.org/articles/high-school-sports-participation-increases-for-28th-straight-year-nears-8-million-mark/ Thus showing that the research is making progress by alerting the public of the dangers of football in youths. Amidst the swirling debate of head injuries and correlation to football there has been a call to change the rules that govern youth football. Injury prevention in youth sports is on the rise in all sports such as soccer, hockey, basketball, where the contact between players is a cause for concern for brain injuries.
The risk of 1 out of 5 high school football players developing a brain injury, while 1 out of 10 will play in college and 1 out of 1000 playing football professionally, parents and athletes are asking the question: is the risk worth the reward?
