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High School Football : The Negative Effects Of Football In The NFL

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Since being founded in 1920; watching football teams competing in the National Football League has quickly became a favorite pastime for Americans across the country. For thousands of kids who begin playing football at a young age those Sunday games represent the dream job they hope to one day have. Each kid who excels in running, blocking, kicking or defending holds on to the hope; regardless of the odds, of one day becoming a professional football player in the NFL. Unfortunately, with all that is glorified in football; it has only been in recent years that some major drawbacks have been identified. Though some consider playing high school football a; “rites of passage,” for young men transitioning into adulthood, there have been recent studies completed that have found that participating in tackle football can have a negative impact on adolescents playing football in high school. These issues include; long term brain injuries; academic absences due to injuries received on the field and an increase in shared illnesses due to players sharing water bottles and equipment.
In recent years the research has focused on CTE; otherwise known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. This condition has been liked to concussions received while playing high school football. In the study reviewed it stated that out of the 165 people followed; 131 of them sustained brain injuries; and out of those 131 people 91 of them were former NFL players. Unfortunately, throughout the process of gathering such data it has been realized that the CTE is an irreversible condition that causes memory loss, depression and dementia. Therefore, although a high school player may minimize the seriousness of receiving a concussion while playing in high school, the long term ramifications of getting hit many times over several years can be devastating.
Over the years football players who have excelled in their positions on the field have often received breaks when it comes to the academic portion of school. The more “play time” that student has on the field, the more at risk they are of receiving an injury in the game; causing them to miss several days of school. It is not uncommon for those key players; who are winning games, to be excused

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