Before I go on any further, I have to admit that I don’t fully believe what I’m about to write. We’re in debate mode now, and since I’m not running for president this time around, here’s my contribution to the national dialogue.
I like football a lot. As a Featured Contributor for Yahoo! Sports, I write about Penn State football. I was a beat reporter covering the New York Giants in the late 1990s when I did a radio show in New York City. I watch every Penn State game, as well as other college football games (Congratulations, Notre Dame!). I’m a lifelong fan of the Dallas Cowboys. Most recently, as a result of their great coaching and team discipline, I can’t get enough of the New England Patriots.
With that said, you can make the case that high school football should be banned.
This has little to do with the culture that surrounds the sport on high school campuses across the country. In some places, high school football is king. Games take place on Friday nights in front of thousands of people. Coaches get paid salaries that would shock you. Players get perks that make would make you blush. Throughout the country, high school football is placed on a pedestal, with every other sport – even baseball, our national pastime - not given the same respect and attention. But like I said, that’s not what this is about.
This is about Devon Walker, the player from Tulane University, whose season ended on opening day when he broke his neck. It’s about Geardon Hanohano and Siasau Matagiese, two players from Hawaii who last Friday lay motionless on the field on back-to-back series. It’s about Eric LeGrand, who was 20 years old when he was paralyzed while making a tackle for Rutgers. It’s about the concussions that occur all the time – from Pop Warner to the NFL. It’s about the violence and trash talking and gambling.
It’s about what Kevin Cook wrote last month in the New York Times. That the journal Neurology concluded that veterans of the NFL are three to four times more likely to die from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s disease than the rest of us. That, in Cook’s words, this is what happens when someone is concussed: “We know more about concussions today, but not how to prevent them. No helmet can offer much help, since the injury occurs when a fast-moving body suddenly stops or changes direction. The brain keeps moving until it collides with the inside of the skull, causing damage that can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E.”
Ironic that our first concern is always for the safety of our children, yet we have no problem sending them out on the football field every day. Kermit, you’re not playing football!
The NFL, which is being sued by more than 3,000 former players, recently donated $30 million to the National Institutes of Health to aid the research on brain injuries. Maybe it’s time to talk about what high schools should do.
Like I said, I’m not advocating banning high school football. I get that it’s not going anywhere and I get that it’s a pipeline for colleges, and thus, the pros. It’s a sport and sports are positive outlets, providing great lessons in character and accountability.
And I’m not giving up watching my Nittany Lions any time soon.
Thanks, Rob. Great hearing from you.
For those who may not know, Rob Adams is the Sports Director at WGCH in Greenwich. Among other duties, he hosts the Press Box, heard Monday nights from 7-9 on 1490 AM, and is the play-by-play voice of Greenwich High School football. Rob’s blog is here:
http://steelyankee.blogspot.com/
Charles,
Very well-thought out. Certainly we’re seeing a rash of dangerous injuries, making football a hot-button topic right now. Of course, as you know, it’s probably not going anywhere. We know that the sport produces way too much money at every level – including high schools. As for JoePa, since that somehow is relevant to a discussion on high school sports, I was never a fan of his, and it sure seems that something bad went on under his watch, but there is no doubt that there was also a high graduation rate. Last I checked, that is why athletes are supposed to go to college.
Always enjoy your writing – solid stuff from a solid person!
Rob
Answer the essential question about 50 years of P.S’s abusive football culture, Charles? Graduation of footballers (easy courses and individual tutors) is not equivalent to, nor acceptable rationale for, the abusive culture permitted by J.P. Why must you avoid the reality of your hero being an enabler of abuse for decades? Football at P.S. and J.P. will always be characterized by their compliance and deception of abusive behavior, and not by the graduation rate of their ballers and convicts. You will always be characterized as someone who has lost his way. Just look at a few of your heros, e.g., Papa Joe, Imus and GWB ????
Perhaps it would be more relevant to your mini-blog readers to inform us about some of your education heros and heroines. This might prove rather interesting if you can pull your mind away from your juvenile football mentality? herb
NOTE TO READERS:
Joe Paterno graduated 87 percent of his players according to a report released last year. That’s the best graduation rate in the country for a coach of a top Division I team.
There was also no achievement gap between Penn State’s black and white players, which the report called “extremely rare.”
Overall, under Paterno, Penn State graduated 80 percent (includes players who transfer or leave college to play professionally) of its football players in six years or less.
Also, only two Big Ten schools, Northwestern and Illinois, had higher graduation rates for athletes than Penn State did.
Time Magazine said the following about Paterno:
“Winning the top honors in the academic bowl further proves the success of Paterno’s “grand experiment,” his idea that major-college athletes could contend for national championships while excelling in the classroom.”
http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/07/paternos-revenge-penn-state-football-is-no-1-in-academic-bowl/
http://blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/pennstate/?p=2773
http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/blogposts/2011/2011_abcsranking-61200
No, Charles, we did not expect you to give up on the 50 years of degrading football culture at P.S. that led directly to the abysmal situations that existed then, as it did up to a year ago. Charles, at a 54% acceptance rate and one of the poorest graduation rates in the Big Ten, your loyality is expected. We could expect nothing more from you.
Oh, by the way, how has your feeling toward your hero, Joe P. changed since you are aware of his direct involvement in and refusal to stop the horrible events under his four eyes? Respond to your football craze…?? herb