“It’s broke, all right. You won’t be playing any sports for a while,” the doctor announced. My head drooped down, and I started shaking it slowly in disbelief. This all started on a spring day with only five more days of school left of my eighth-grade year. Excited for the approaching summer break, the whole class went outside to play. “Football time!” I shouted as my friends and I ran outside to the softball field, where we always played football. Once we picked teams, we began playing. Class period soon ended. My team kicked the ball off to the opposing team. Logan received the kickoff return, and I took off after him when suddenly I saw my friend coming straight at me. I leaped toward out of bounds, but I could not get out of the way in
Is High School football a sport, or is it more than that to some people? Recent newspaper headlines include such items as coaches abusing student athletes; fathers of athletes murdering coaches, and mother’s disabilitating cheerleading candidates to assure their daughters make the cheerleading team. In Odessa, Texas high school football is a major contributor to the society of a small town in Texas society. Every Friday night, 50,000 people fill the stadium to see high school students put their lives on the line to win a football game. H. G. Bissinger writes a novel called Friday Night Lights, about a year in 1988 where High School players prepare and play on the High School team, and what an impact they have on a small city in Texas.
Since football’s inception, it has been considered a manly sport. Young boys have been encouraged by their parents to participate in the game. For many boys, it is considered a rite of passage. However, football is a dangerous sport. A study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy found, “an estimated 5.25 million football-related injuries among children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years of age were treated in U.S. emergency departments between 1990 and 2007. The annual number of football-related injuries increased 27 percent during the 18-year study period, jumping from 274,094 in 1990 to 346,772 in 2007” (Nation 201). These reported injuries include sprains and strains, broken bones, cracked ribs, torn ligaments, and concussions. A concussion usually happens when a player takes a hard hit to the head or is knocked unconscious on the playing field, and if not diagnosed and treated quickly, a concussion can result in death.
The game began as each of us started to kick the ball back and forth to one another. Our game of KickBall is not like the original Kickball game, you see the objective is to kick the most balls onto the other side of the team, as far as you can, and as many you can. For me we had our teams decided, the teams were 2v2 for a brief moment until more classmates randomly joined in the game. On my team were me and Tj, as for the other team were Victor and Charles. As we kick the balls at each other with great force we began to run side to side while kicking them as if we were playing a game of Hot Potato except we were using kickballs, while running at the same time battling it out. Victor rushed pass as he lift a blue kickball into the air and kicked the ball into my direction to slow me down to stop it from getting past me too far. The ball flew over my head when I looked up into the sky watching it hover over my head so slow, so high, and not to mention too
Football is a sport that over the years has slowly taken over baseball as America’s pastime.What most likely comes to mind when thinking of American football is a fast paced sport that seems to grab your attention and never let go until the final nail biting seconds. This high energy contact sport can be entertaining and exciting to watch, but has underlying dangers especially for young kids that can be potentially fatal. Kids under the age of fourteen do not need to play tackle football due to the risk of injuries, particularly to the head, that occur when participating in the sport.
The National Athletic Trainers’ Association provides statistics on youth sports, one of which being “There are three times as many catastrophic football injuries among high school athletes as college athletes.” Aside from long term effects, there are startling figures pertaining to short term head injuries, being that “15.8% of football players who sustain a concussion severe enough to cause loss of consciousness return to play the same day.”, and that “High school athletes who have been concussed are three times more likely to suffer another concussion in the same season.” Given how prevalent and severe these issues are, it is apparent how eminent this threat to children’s health this practice truly
Not only do we know the effects of playing football at a young age, we also have real life stories that have occured to real people. For example, In 2006 a 13 year old named Zachary Lystatdt’s head hit the ground in a routine tackle. He was in pain, so the coach took him out of the game for two plays. He returned to the game and on the last play he collapsed. Zachary was rushed to the hospital and was required to have emergency neurosurgery. After this life changing surgery, 9 months later he was finally able to communicate. Now, he is still learning how to walk (Hamblin, James. “Football Alters the Brains of Kids as Young as 8.”)This story sets an example of why children should not be able to play contact sports until adulthood. Unfortunately, this is not the only sad story about a child who has had life changing effects from playing
From long practice hours, hot summer workouts, and many Friday nights, my personal observation of this dangerous sport is exceptionally prevalent. My initial experience of the damage that football brings came my eighth grade year when I witnessed a senior football player on my team try and eat a phone on the ride home after receiving a concussion in the third quarter of the game. Which is a prime example to defend the fact that football related injuries to the head result in people not “being all there.” Not only have I seen someone try and eat a phone, but I have also witnessed head injuries resulting in my own friend randomly yelling at me after a game for no reason, and also a friend trying to jump down a full flight of stairs thinking he was starring in a movie. The fast paced, high intensity contact that comes with playing football is nothing to think flippantly of when it plays a role on brain trauma, and the results of brain trauma.
It’s a Monday night and you are helping your six-year-old son strap on his helmet as he is getting ready for his first little league game. He has a big 43 plastered across his back, just like you when you were his age, and his brand new cleats are perfectly white as they await endless amounts of grass stains to rub upon them for years to come. This sentimental moment makes you think back to your first game as your own dad drove you to the practice field where he cheered you on in the way that you will for your son in the next hour or so. The game goes by and your little number 43 played hard, as any six-year-old would, taking multiple hard hits. At the end of the night as you tuck your son into bed, he tells you that he has a headache, and remembering fondly of what your father told you after your first game, you respond with “don’t worry, you will get used to it and it will go away.” Over many years, football has been a source for American competitive companionship, cheer, and tradition. Before, it only made sense to strap a helmet on your son when he was old enough to run and throw a ball, because that’s what your father did with you. This family tradition is all fun and games until your little number 43 takes one too many hard tackles and falls.
After school activities play a key part for young adult lives within today’s society, in America. How much it actually affects the personality and attitudes of the youths involved is something that many people are blind to. In the documentary “Undefeated” (2011), filmmakers Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin shine light on the positive effects that are school activities have on students’ lives and character. Based on kids that attend an inner-city school in Memphis, Tennessee, Lindsay and Martin allow their high society American audience to view new ways of helping kids who aren’t so fortunate. They show the positive life changing stories, and outcomes of players who are affected by football.
As the Nike football spun through the air on a breezy fall day, all I could hear was “catch it with your eyes”. At 3 years old I could not understand what my dad actually meant when he said that.
The horn blew and the game started, Dedham won the face off and is running down the field at a faster pace than I was used to. They shot the ball! I couldn’t move my stick quick enough to save it, so I threw my body in front of it and got hit right in the shoulder. It hurt a lot, but what I hadn’t realized was that it hit my shoulder and reflected ten feet away from the net where my player caught it and ran down the field and scored. The other team didn’t know what hit them. It was the half now and the score was three to nothing in our favor. Our couch told us that we needed to keep up the good work.
I was done with all my ninth grade division games, and things were going well I was the star on my team then. I had Just finished with eighteen touchdowns in seven games. I was done with Monday and Thursday night games, onto the Friday night lights.
Boarding the bus to school it was another hot, sticky humid, August day. Without being able to sleep at all the night before from being very anxious and excited I was all but energized. Throughout the day class had drug on, nearly falling asleep first period, my teacher yells, ‘Logan are you with us today?’. Picking my head up off the desk I replied and quickly got back onto the task at hand. I had never really been able to follow along in math too well. However today was a different kind of day, today was my very first middle school football game. Throughout the halls you would have saw all the football players wearing their white jerseys and jeans. Our coach being a strict, military style coach, admired the fact that all players must match on game day on
From a high school level to a professional level football players everywhere have acquired a numerous amount of brain injuries and diseases from playing the sport that they love. According to Cook; concussions, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s are just a few risks that athletes put themselves up against when choosing to play. Cook explains that until the culture of football changes all we can do as Americans is to stop pressuring injured players to get back into the game until they have been cleared. While both the filmmakers and the author understand how important football is, Cook only comments on the negative impact that it has on players; Lindsay and Martin have an optimistic view on how football positively impacts the players’
In the United States, football is the most popular sport. It is also the sport that has the most injuries. In 2005-2006, high school football players suffered over half a million injuries nationwide. In August 2007, the American Journal of Sports Medicine stated, “4 out of 1000 high school exposures resulted in an injury.” Considering these facts, football is the most dangerous in high school because the brain isn’t fully developed, they receive less medical care than professionals, and they use old safety gear.