Sports: we all play them; watch them; cheer on the athletes that play them. We have created a culture where athletics is at the forefront. The sport industry is so large, an example being Major League Baseball, had a revenue of 7.9 billion dollars alone in 2014 according to Forbes. Our youth participate in different sports to share the enjoyment we all have from our past playing days or watching the games we love. Sports are more than just a game to those invested in them. They have become something special that helps them in their everyday life. They teach life lessons other people not connected to sports may be missing out on. Dedication, commitment, and teamwork are a few of the major principles one can learn from playing or coaching not to mention all the pride and feelings of accomplishment that can come from it. However, heavy contact sports like football bring along the fear of head injuries for the young athletes that play it. Parents have begun to question if football is safe enough, and many have begun to realize that it puts their children through such  dangerous risks. There is the risk of suffering a concussion once a football player steps onto the field for practice or a game. We should be trying to decrease major injuries such as concussions to our children as much as possible. It is the job of the adults to look deeper into the game of football and all that comes with it, the good and the bad, the success and the injuries; all of it. It is a choice to put the child at risk for recognition and pride. Parents should take all the research into account and realize the safety of their children comes before all else, so keeping them out of football is what is best for them.

Football has become America`s favorite past time. On Sunday nights, families surround the TV to watch that night`s match up of teams. Little kids watch the National Football League players and wish to play professionally like they do. They only see the cheers from the crowd, the feats of their favorite players, not the tests the players are subject to after a game because they have a concussion. Fans only get a glimpse of the game. 

But there is more to football than just winning and having kids wear the jersey everywhere. New research has shown how common concussions are to our youth players. Because of how damaging they are to still developing children parents take precautions when they are young. The research even caused the parents of one of the most well-known quarterbacks, Tom Brady, to keep him from playing football till he was in high school (Hyman). The research during that time did not have the same amount of new information that we do now. With the new information, Tom Brady`s parents may not have even let him play football at all. Researchers have seen that because of the still developing brain of young kids, the constant head to head contact can disrupt their brain function. After being hit their heads are thrown around in their helmets. A TIME Magazine article says, "Kids are not miniature adults. By age 4, the heads of kids are 90% of adult size. However, their necks are much weaker than an adult's neck. The combination creates a danger. When a child takes a hard blow from falling or being struck in the helmet, it is more difficult to keep the head steady. The result is greater force to the brain from being jerked inside the skull." This kind of impact creates a greater risk of irreversible damage to a child's brain, and with multiple hits in a game, the possibilities of doing a lot of damage add up. New technology helps us look closer at the brain then we ever could before. This allows for quicker, more precise evidence of damage done to the brain. Even if a child has not received what is considered to be a concussion, there still may be damage. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans show greater changes in the children who have had more impacts than those who received less (Locker). The technology helps give in-depth looks into the brain. The data brings researchers closer to understanding the brain and how the concussions affect it. No matter how small the change is, it can all add up and in the end become life threatening. Every hit can affect a child`s life in the near and distant future.

The research about concussions has been brought up more and more as new information is being found out. Movies like Concussion, based on doctor Bennet Omalu`s discoveries, are made to teach athletes, parents, and coaches, about the risks of football. Omalu is the doctor who brought the truth about concussions to light against the wishes of the NFL (Omalu). The NFL tried discouraging people from believing Dr. Omalu in fear that if people would no longer want to play or watch football (Omalu). The information would be causing parents and athletes to wonder if they could have damage found in their brains as well. It would hurt the large impact the sport has on its fans around the world. The data Omalu collected looked deeper into what was really happening to these athletes because of the nature of the sport. His research has explained diseases such as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or C.T.E, and how "[c]hildren are at risk for the disease that causes symptoms like major depression, memory loss, suicidal thoughts and actins, loss of intelligence as well as dementia later in life" (Omalu). The evidence of this irreversible damage brought on by repetitive and hard hits to the head is becoming more common in athletes who have had their brains studied by scientists. These athletes give their brains to science either while they are playing to show the progression of their brain or when they die to see if that was the cause (Omalu). Diseases like CTE are becoming so newsworthy with famous athletes such as Junior Seau, who committed suicide and was found to have CTE in his brain after having it examined. CTE has very damaging side effects associated with it that makes it hard on the players. They are unable to control what affects them. Things like depression, suicidal thoughts and more lead to the players taking their own lives even though they were never that way before (Omalu). Omalu brought this data to the NFL to make it a priority to protect the athletes and show parents whose children play football, how it can happen to them. With his discoveries and other doctors'` research into the issue as well, we can create a safer game for those athletes we cheer for in the Super Bowl, as well as the elementary school teams that play in our neighborhoods.

By making the game safer, it would cause parents to reconsider not allowing their kids to play football. For example, teaching new tackling methods, ones that are not directed at the head of the person being tackled, reduces the risk of head injury. The new form lessens the risk of being hit directly on the helmet. USA Football has devised a step by step guide that explains where a player should aim his hit on the other player without risk of head to head contact ("Heads Up Tackling"). New techniques and methods can be explained in practice, step by step, to make sure the kids understand how to do it properly. The goal of practice is to perfect technique so players will know how to perform it in the games. This creates a safer environment for the players because they know they are not going to be hit as hard. Because head safety is becoming a more important issue in football, the tackling methods are leaning towards keeping contact away from the head, creating the terms "keep your head up" and "hit at the shoulders" ("Heads Up Tackling"). Teaching this way of tackling will help protect the person with the ball and the person doing the tackling. Both players are able to still have intense contact with each other, but it is aimed at other parts of their bodies instead of their heads. Better techniques create an overall safer way for players to tackle and have any form of contact with one another . 

Scientists are even trying to make new advancements in the equipment used in football. Scientists like Eric Wetzel said, "If we can control the head motion where a player`s head snaps back and slams to the ground, and reduce the whipping motion when they hit the ground, we can reduce the acceleration on the head and the brain, and maybe reduce the likelihood of the concussion" (Wetzel). He and other researchers are experimenting with the straps for army paratroopers, to try and reduce concussions. New helmet technology will continue to  be researched to give athletes the best chance of staying safe while playing hard. The new research about special equipment that will protect the kids, parents can look into and decide if the equipment will be helpful in keeping their kids safe. Working towards discoveries like this will only help lead towards trying to make football the safest it can be. But these new technologies are still being tested out and are far from being put in action. Thus, the sport today is still a high risk for our young kids' health.

Even with all the research that shows how dangerous the sport is, there are people who believe the game should not be changed. They believe the appeal of the sport will be altered from something that is highly entertaining that people cheer for to a sport parents shy their kids away from playing. Many coaches and teams teach a "shake it off" mentality. When a player gets injured he is told to get up and get back into the game to help his team. By staying out because of a possible injury he is letting his team down. Keith Groller, a parent of a football player, explains that even with his own son he would push him back onto the field after a hard hit to the head. He never would have thought his child would be developing a concussion. He goes on to say that, "Far too many parents have abandoned the original concept of what youth sports were intended to be  --  getting children involved for the fun of it, keeping them active and fit, learning how to get along with others, overcoming adversity and other important life lessons" (Groller). By putting the enjoyment and safety of the children behind winning is causing kids to not look out for their own health. With safety not being a top priority, youth athletes are more at risk to really change their lives because of one game. 

The NFL also plays a big factor in how the game of football is played. They see the players as money makers. By keeping the fans invested in the games keeps the revenue coming in. Author Kenneth J Marci uses an example like the New York Giants. When they won the Super Bowl they had a parade thrown in their honor. He says, "They had worshipping fans stand shoulder to shoulder in a small, enclosed street way hoping to get a glimpse of their favorite player, or any player for that matter" (Marci). This shows the dedication fans have to support their favorite team and players. These kinds of fans are the ones that keep leagues like the NFL thriving and prosperous. Fans buy the apparel and tickets to go to games which adds up a lot of money, which helps the National Football League grow and become even bigger than it was before. The fear of the leagues is that if we start to put the fear of injury in the minds of our younger players we risk them not wanting to continue playing or watching games because they know that something could go wrong. The main goal of the National Football League is to bring football to as many people as they can. They would like to start them at a young age and have them development and grow into bigger, stronger players. League officials should be examining which is more important, money and fame or the safety of those who put their bodies on the line in order to make this profit.

It is hard to turn on the TV today and not see some kind of sporting event. Athletics are a major part of the American lifestyle that brings friends and families together. The entertainment value is so big that the Super Bowl is the most watched TV broadcast event every year. As important as the NFL is, it all begins with our youngest players. The youth players that play pee-wee football today are the ones who will eventually become the big name, huge salaried, recognizable players we see on TV. They can possibly have careers in the National Football League while making money and playing a game they are good at and love. Even with that possibility we must focus on our young players who play the game just for fun and don't look beyond a regular league game. Football is something parents and players cannot take lightly. Because of the high risks of injury there has to be levels of protection for the athletes. Because the players are young they do not fully comprehend the risks they go through when they sign up for their first football team. It is the job of people in the athlete`s lives such as parents and coaches, to inform them about what could possibly happen to them when they. The research shows us that allowing our children to play football, even at the youngest level, can cause them to have irreversible brain damage. Children have continuously growing brains and interrupting that development will cause many problems for them in the future. There are multiple risks of concussions every play an athlete participates in. From here on out parents have the hard decision to allow the people they are supposed to protect knowingly damage the most important part of their body, the brain. New ideas have been brought up on how to create an overall safer game. As new equipment is being invented and better tackling methods are taught to children there is still the possibility of injury in the end. The sport of football can never be fully safe for even the youngest of kids to play. To allow our athletes to be the most safest I would recommend keeping kids out of the sport until middle school when they are bigger and more developed. They will be able to understand all the aspects of the sport, understand the better tackling methods and know the risk they may be putting themselves through. Because the main aspect of the game is to hit one another, children will be continuously at risk of injury. As a fan of the sport myself, I encourage parents to put the safety of their children first before any fame and glory that may come to them in the long run. You only have one brain that does everything for you every day. Every day activities become harder and sometimes impossible to do when the brain becomes too damaged. More aspects of a person`s life then just football become impacted because of a major hit or a long season of hard hits to the head. Why put that all at risk for a sport that is only a temporary part of your life. Football comes to an end at some point and the best option is to keep your mind and body safe in the process.

