Is Football Dangerous

Football is no doubt a violent game, and a sport for athletes who look to engage in contact. All sports are very competitive and can cause injury, but sports for Americans are a center piece of what our country is. Starting at young ages little athletes swarm rec leagues and YMCA leagues just to get a shot at playing. As you get older and older sports start becoming very serious and competitive, and that’s when injuries can become more frequent. Of course football is one of the most played sports and that’s why it is looked at more than other sports. Football though is not as dangerous as people say because injuries are down, technology and rules are advancing, and the good of the sport far outweighs the bad. As critical as people can be on

From the outside looking in everyone sees all the dangers of the game and all the big stories of injuries, but no one ever knows the true statistics of the game. From a recent study in 2004 to 2009 by the NCAA they found this information. Per 1,000 athlete exposure only 8.1 injuries were suffered and per 25 million exposures only 41,000 in juries were suffered. (1) (NP) Exposure are anytime there is a possibility that you could be injured. The amount of exposures one athlete could see in all his years of playing could be a huge number. Every time you practice, run through a drill, or play the amount of exposures you have are increasingly rapidly. Just think in every practice say you have a minimum of 100 exposures and 100 exposures in a game in just one week you are up to 500 exposures. An even more in depth look at the numbers goes concussions are only 7.4 percent of the injuries. (1) (NP) Head, face, and neck are 4.3 percent and upper limb is 16.9 percent. (1) (NP) Torso and pelvis are at 11.9 percent and the largest of them all is lower limb at 50.4 percent. (1) (NP) As you can see unlike most people think concussions are not the largest category of where injuries occur. It is actually lower limb where most of those injuries are knee injuries. All the injures though aren’t serious injuries. Most of the injuries recorded are smaller injuries that left the athlete out for just a couple weeks at most.

Injuries do occur, but sometimes you also have to wonder is that just life happening to us and did it happen for a reason. We may never know, but for now we can’t always blame the sport and we will try to make it as safe as possible with still keeping the game as close to what it is now. The goods of football include being able to learn how to pick yourself up when you’re down. It happens to everyone no matter how good you are you’ll lose at some point and sometimes you just get hit and it knocks you down. You learn how to be a team player and how to cooperate with people and how to get along with those that maybe you don’t even like. Another aspect of the game is you learn your role and you learn how to play a role and what type of person you are. You’ll find friends in guys you’ve never know and you learn how to be responsible and how to take criticism. All of these things apply to life and how to make you a better person. It makes you realize that football isn’t as dangerous as people say and that it is such a great sport for people to really learn about their true self and what they are and what they can become. Everyone has uncapped potential in life and football is a sport that can bring that out. Lastly, it’s a sport that keeps kids in school and often times makes them keep their grades up and be