College football has kicked off its season this Labor Day weekend with its usual pageantry, at least at big-time schools: elaborate tailgate parties, marching bands, pretty cheerleaders and grandstands packed with cheering fans.
Bryant University was the first of Rhode Island’s four college teams to open. The Bulldogs lost at Stony Brook on Thursday night. The University of Rhode Island dropped its opener at Ohio University on Saturday afternoon. Division III Salve Regina will start next weekend at home in Newport against Norwich. Brown University, always the last to play around here because of Ivy League rules, will open its 142ndfootball season Sept. 21 at Bryant.
The NFL kicks off next Sunday, and the Patriots will raise their sixth Super Bowl flag at Gillette Stadium Sunday night before playing the Steelers.
But before we get carried away with the rah-rah spirit of Friday Night Lights, Homecoming Weekends, and the Super Bowl, let’s ponder the toll that football takes on even the best players in the world, and the ominous warnings that medical professionals continue to issue, only more emphatic now: Football is dangerous to your overall health, and potentially devastating to your mental health.
Think about it. Andrew Luck, former No. 1 draft pick and oft-injured quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts, retired on Aug.24 because he could no longer deal with the cycle of injuries, pain and rehab. He is 29.
Rob Gronkowski, the best tight end in NFL history, retired on March 24 after taking a month to recover from the Super Bowl. He was two months shy of turning 30. Last week, he said the injuries and pain he endured during his nine seasons with the Patriots were affecting him mentally.
Dr. Robert C. Cantu, an expert on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease resulting from repetitive hits, wrote in the Washington Post on Aug. 19 that the U.S. Surgeon General, the nation’s top doc, should issue a warning that “tackle football is dangerous for children.” Kids who play tackle football receive repeated blows to the head, which puts them at “higher risk of suffering cognitive deficits as well as behavioral and mood problems” as adults.
Cantu co-founded the CTE Center at Boston University, which has published the results of three studies since 2015 that show that adults who played tackle football as children have a greater chance of suffering cognitive challenges as they age. Brain injury, he wrote, “was not linked to concussion but to long-term exposure to repeated subconcussive hits.” The damage shows up years later.
Cantu has advocated flag football for children younger than 14. He noted that participation in flag football leagues for children 6 to 12 increased 9.2 percent in 2018 while participation in in tackle football by kids 6 to 12 declined by 29 percent, to 1.2 million in 2018 from 1.7 million in 2008.
Even flag football can be hazardous. Ken Bleson reported in The New York Times on Aug. 22 that the Texas State 7on7 Organization is requiring all participants to wear soft-shell helmets in the wake of a severe head injury suffered by a player in a game last spring. Texas high-schoolers have played 7-on-7 touch football for years to prepare for the fall season.
Seven state legislatures are considering banning tackle football below eighth grade, according to a Fox News report on May 3. Proposed legislation in Massachusetts has bipartisan support and is under review. Canada is banning tackle football for children under 12 starting in 2022.
Phil Estes, the former head coach at Brown, once told me that he saw no reason why young children should play tackle football. They can learn the fundamentals of blocking, passing, catching and running by playing touch or flag football. Phil’s own son suffered concussions in high school that limited his role to punting, which he did as a walk-on at Brown.
So keep all this in mind as you watch Pop Warner, high-school, college and NFL football this season, sports fans, and then ask if the risk of permanent brain injury is worth the reward of cheers and championships. I’m beginning to think not.
