Blog Post 6

The documentary "Football High" discusses the problems with high school football. Many of these problems involve the safety of the students playing.

One specific issue is the amount of head injuries. Concussions aren't uncommon when playing football, especially in high school. The documentary discusses how helmets aren't created to prevent concussions, they're to prevent a crack in the skull. Scientist in the film talk about a disease called CTE, which is essentially when the brain starts to deteriorate due to being hit repeatedly over a period of time. A solution to this is to stop encouraging the athletes to be so violent while playing. One student says he used to use his head on purpose to hit his opponents. Another student says the coaches would tell them to play violently. If coaches instead taught them how to play without being violent, it would be less likely to get a concussion. However, the video explains that coaches do not get rewarded for keeping the students safe, they get rewarded to win. So to fix this, there would have to be a rule put into place to either reward coaches for keeping athletes safe, or penalizing them for injuries.

Another problem with high school football is the conditions the players often practice in. The film talks about Will James and Tyler Davenport. Both were high school football players who had heat strokes during practices, and were hospitalized. One coach says they won't cancel practice because of heat. Walt Williams, a sports promoter, says the NCAA only allows college teams to practice 20 hours a week, but high school football teams will practice much more than that. Many schools don't have restrictions on practicing conditions. Most schools don't even have an athletic trainer at practices due to money. The film argues that if a trainer would have been present at Tyler Davenport's practice, he would have survived the heat stroke. A solution to this would be to not overwork the athletes. NCAA has rules about practice times for college teams, and high schools should follow that rule. There should be rules about playing in certain weather conditions, and require a trainer be present at all practices. That way if there is a medical emergency, someone will know how to handle the situation. Unfortunately, not all schools have the money to hire an athletic trainer.