Is Football a Public Health Issue?
Young football players suffer more than 1,000 hits to their heads
Chris Nowinski, a former All-Ivy defensive end for the Harvard football team who co-founded the Concussion Legacy Foundation, makes the case that hits to the head in contact sports, and especially in football, are a public health crisis.
“When this game was developed,” says Nowinski, “no one ever thought football was appropriate for a five year old … We need to create a culture where we don’t hit kids in the head on purpose because it looks cool when adults do it.”
Nowinski explains what we know about CTE, how it is diagnosed, what puts athletes at risk and how to potentially prevent it. He stresses that the issue is not just about concussions, but also the hundreds of repeated sub-concussive hits football players take to the head.
“There are 5 million playing football under the age of 18,” says Nowinski. “Is there a future for hitting young people in the head 1,000 times and giving them brain disease before they’re old enough to understand the consequences of their actions? I think we all know the answer.”
