Football is Too Dangerous for Highs School Teens Essay Sample

On the surface, football has a good team atmosphere and keeps kids in shape and active. Football can bring a school together with the fun Friday game nights, but there is an unseen side of high school football. There is a toxic culture to seem tough for your coach, so you are allowed to play. I have even experienced this through my brother Davis. When his back was hurt, he played through the pain to not seem weak.  This is very common in football teams due to “football's gladiator culture encouraging playing through pain and taking a hit for the team” (pg. 5).  Risking your own life is too big of a consequence for a high school sport. Football at the high school level is too dangerous for teens because of the high injury rate, life-threatening concussions, and the disease C.T.E. 

First, high school football has one of the highest injury rates overall in sports. With a high injury rate, different injuries can pose a big threat to the players' well-being. In passage 1, the percent of injuries is discussed. Four out of every one thousand football exposure leads to injuries. That is a very large percentage if you think about the number of High Schools football games per year. “During the 2005-06 season, highschool football players sustained more than half a million injuries nationally” (pg. 1). This large number of injuries poses a threat to teens' health and overall safety. Football is just a game, but that game hurts hundreds of thousands of people per year.

Next, kids' brains aren’t fully developed and when they sustain concussions, they’re putting their lives at risk. Concussions aren’t always life-threatening, but they can cause permanent brain damage affecting the teens’ future. Concussions are dangerous for adults, let alone teens with their underdeveloped brains: “Concussions are more dangerous for teenagers because studies show their brain tissues are less developed than adults and more easily damaged” (pg. 5). This large number of injuries poses a threat to teens' health and overall safety for the present and future. Passage 2 also mentions the number of hits to the head adds up, and there's no way to track the amount. This can make a player more vulnerable to more severe damage if the number of hits is large. This leads me to the next point of C.T.E.

Finally, chronic traumatic encephalopathy is linked to depression and leads to possible suicide. Passage 2 talks about Owen Thomas, a boy who started football at the age of nine, who eventually took his own life at the age of 21. Schwarz states, “C.T.E is a head-traumatic-induced disease linked to depression, impulse-control problems, memory loss, and dementia.” Playing football isn’t a strong enough reason to take your own life. C.T.E numbers are becoming more and more frequent, leading to suicide. This disease’s numbers are rising and becoming more and more dangerous. Others may have a different point of view.

Some people may say there are ways to reduce the risk of serious injuries, but the more serious injuries can’t be prevented. For example, you can’t stop the other team from giving you a concussion or breaking your foot. High school football has a huge injury rate even compared to collegiate football. In high school football, it's very common for ligament tears and broken bones, because the players aren’t trained properly to prevent these injuries. Overall, concussions can’t be prevented in a tough football game. There is just no way. The goal of football is to tackle the other players, with as much force as possible, to the ground. Defending why it isn’t safe for teenagers. 

In the long run, football isn’t safe for high school kids. The high amount of injuries and concussions adds up and can cause permanent damage. Not to mention C.T.E which causes depression and possibly kids to commit suicide due to repeated hits to the head. Football at the high school level isn’t worth the serious discussions that come with it. To risk your life for a sport isn’t smart. To conclude, football at the high school level is too dangerous for teens because of the high injury rate, life-threatening concussions, and C.T.E.