That 's what high school football is supposed to be about. More than a million kids across the country suited up this year, and most of them will finish the season stronger, in body and character, than when they started. Seven of them have died. Andre Smith, 17, a senior at Bogan High School in Chicago, was the latest. He was hit hard on the last play of an Oct. 22 game against Chicago Vocational High School and died the next day of traumatic head injury. Tyrell Cameron, 16, of Franklin Parish High School in Louisiana, died after his neck was broken on a punt return. Ben Hamm, 16, of Wesleyan Christian School in Bartlesville, Okla., and Kenny Bui, 17, of Evergreen High School near Seattle, died of head trauma. Evan Murray, 17, of Warren Hills …show more content…
In May, a jury in Iowa awarded $1 million to a former high school player who was allowed to keep playing despite a head injury. Those pressures can lead to changes that make football less dangerous. Or they can hasten its decline. But parents shouldn 't leave it to the insurance companies to determine whether their kids can play. Parents need to ask questions, weigh the risks and demand policies and practices that protect their kids. They have to ask themselves if it 's enough. They have to be willing to say no to football. Football, from the first kickoff to the final whistle, involves bone-breaking, ligament-twisting, and head-knocking action. Players on both sides line up head-to-head. Defensemen often tackle using their heads, and the ball carriers, as last-ditch efforts, buck with their heads to avoid a tackle or gain an extra yard. Football has become too dangerous. Training programs are bulking kids up to an extreme degree, steroids and other growth enhancers are rampantly available and technology and other factors have speeded up the game to a frightening level. What once was a “contact” sport has become a “collision” sport, and we know what happens in collisions: one or both parties end up with serious damages, including permanent brain