Now that the Super Bowl is over, it’s time to note that when NFL immortals such as Troy Aikman and Bo Jackson publicly announce they would never allow their children to play football, the game clearly faces an existential threat. Not since 1905 when President Theodore Roosevelt rescued the game from its brutal violent origins by demanding the outlaw of the notorious "flying wedge," the dangerous strategy of players running downfield arms interlocked, has the game’s long-term future been in such peril.
Like other sports, football must confront a litany of long-standing problems, including drug use by players, team owners of dubious integrity, exorbitant salaries, franchises disloyal to home cities, uncertain television ratings, criminal behavior outside the lines, recruiting abuses and labor difficulties.
But these problems, which come and go, are part and parcel of all professional sports. The existential threat to football, more than any other sport, is from head injuries and the concern of parents and younger players. If football is perceived to be unsafe, the pool of young players necessary to support a competitive NFL will eventually disappear.
After decades of denial, the NFL has finally admitted a direct connection between head trauma on the field and degenerative brain disease. In the past decade we have seen the premature retirement of current players, several suicides by retired players, class-action lawsuits against the league and settlement funds created to compensate injured players.
Meanwhile, youth football has witnessed an almost 10 percent drop in participation in the past eight years. Current research suggests that brain trauma in the young can stunt neurological development and that earlier participation leads to a greater risk of long-term cognitive impairment. In addition, even subconcussive blows can have a lasting negative impact. Understandably, parents across the country are increasingly uneasy about youth football.
Acknowledging these problems, USA Football, the youth sport’s governing body, has developed a plan called Heads Up Football to make youth football safer. Working with doctors and coaches, the group has made modifications in the game that include smaller playing fields, fewer players, and eliminating punts and kickoffs. Because the traditional head-down, one-hand stance places linemen in a vulnerable position, players are now instructed to position themselves in a heads-up crouch. Players are also taught to tackle and block with their heads up as well.
However, as renowned coach Vince Lombardi once observed, football is not a contact sport, but a collision sport. In spite of these changes to the game, kids will still run into each other at full speed and hit one another as hard as they can. Head trauma will be reduced but not eliminated completely; concussions will still occur. But making the sport safer may assuage some parental fears and reduce player attrition.
As part of the process, USA Football is promoting 7-on-7 flag football with no tackling, blocking or full contact, so helmets are unnecessary. The focus now is on promoting speed, coordination and endurance that transfer to the next level. High school teams now regularly compete in 7-on-7 passing competitions that are essentially safe from the standpoint of head injuries.
That there is no blocking and tackling makes flag football an especially attractive alternative for young players because those are the situations most conducive to head injuries. In truth, young players learn very little about blocking and tackling in youth football, which puts them at risk of serious injury with no substantive value in terms of experience.
Most experts acknowledge that high school is the proper time to introduce players to full-contact tackling and blocking football. At the same time, high schools all over the country are putting greater emphasis on safer techniques and fewer full-contact practices. Along these lines, engineers are experimenting with better helmet design to protect the brain.
As evidenced by the Super Bowl, football — when played at the highest level by great athletes — can be a thrilling and beautiful game. Some of the country’s best athletes gravitate to the sport for that reason. (Bo Jackson, a bona fide All-Star in baseball and football, was quite possibly the best athlete of our generation). If football does not want to lose its best athletes to other sports, it must make a concerted effort to temper the unnecessary violence at all levels, from youth leagues to the NFL.
The risk of head trauma in football will never be completely eliminated. Parents and young players must decide the level of acceptable risk, just as they do in other sports. But medicine, technology, sports and common sense can converge with a common goal — to make sure football is not unsafe at any age.
James Munson, a retired Chicago attorney, is a former Ivy League football player and has coached youth and high school football. Cory Franklin is a Wilmette physician and author of "Cook County ICU: 30 Years of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases."
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