The football season is underway on just about every level in the United States, from young boys and some girls playing youth football to middle school to high school to college and the National Football League. There are a number of semi-pro teams that are also in action. In other words, it is football season.
While football remains enormously popular and seemingly has survived a wave of bad publicity, including a PBS special and a movie and former players talking about concussions, CTE and really bad side effects from playing football. It appears there is no interruption in the pipeline from youth football to the pros.
At some point in the near future, the National Federation of State High School Associations will come up with the 2016 number of players who have suited up for games in grades 9-12 around the country. In 2015, 1,083,308 students played high school football, which was only 309 players less than 2014.
The number of players in high school has dropped off from 2008 when 29,000 more players were on high school teams. So the football industry has developed an under siege mentality which is either wrong or alarmist. The point is, there are more than enough players. However, there are some warning signs that some parents are worried about their children playing tackle football.
The Public Religion Research Institute put out the results of a study in January and found, 31 percent of parents would not allow a young son to play tackle football. That was up from 22 percent in 2014. The findings revealed that mothers were more likely than fathers to stop their child from playing football. It is more than football though that is a concern.
If a child gets hurt on the field is there adequate medical personnel on hand to deal with an injury? That is a question that looms large on the youth level.
By Evan Weiner For The Politics Of Sports Business.
This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, Evan Weiner.