The Times reports, “Over the weekend, concerns about player safety intensified when Evan Murray, the star quarterback at Warren Hills Regional High School in New Jersey, collapsed on the field after a hit and died soon after.” In fact, he is the third high school player to die directly from injuries in a game this season. Even compared to college football, high school players are significantly more likely to suffer catastrophic injuries.
Should high schools drop football because too many players are getting injured?
In “As Worries Rise and Players Flee, a Missouri School Board Cuts Football,” Ken Belson writes:
MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — Students and families at Maplewood Richmond Heights High School are looking forward to homecoming, the highlight of the autumn school calendar for decades. But for the first time, the centerpiece event will be soccer, not football.
The school board in Maplewood, a St. Louis suburb, disbanded the high school’s football team in June, even though it reached the state championship game five years ago. A decade ago, such a move would have seemed radical. But concerns are growing about football players’ safety, and soccer and other sports are gaining popularity.
“Over all, it was, ‘Can we field a team that is competitive and safe for the kids to perform?’ ” said Nelson Mitten, the president of the Maplewood Richmond Heights School Board, who said players’ injuries last season included a broken ankle, a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a significant head injury. “Whenever you have anything like that, you have to be a responsible board and discuss what we can do to make sure we can field a team.”
The viability of football at the high school level remains unquestioned in most communities in the United States. But situations like the one in Maplewood are becoming more familiar.
Students: Read the entire article, then tell us …
— Should high schools drop football because too many players are getting injured? Are teenage brains not meant for such a hard-hitting sport?
— Do high schools have a greater degree of responsibility to keep students safe than either the N.F.L. or colleges because players are younger?
— Do you think more safety measures, such as newer equipment or full-time athletic trainers, would better protect students? Or would those changes be too expensive? And would they work?
— The number of male high school football players has fallen in the past five years. Do you think high school football will lose its cultural dominance in many communities? Will it be replaced by other sports, like soccer or even lacrosse? Will flag football ever take the place of tackle football?
— Or is football so firmly rooted in American culture, and so popular among young people, that it will overcome any concerns about injuries?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. All comments are moderated by Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.