BY KEVIN KOPLIN
A high school football player goes out to play a routine game on a Friday night. It’s halftime and after taking a few hits, he isn’t feeling 100%, but there’s no way he’s going to sit out, the team needs him, and he’s worked too hard to be here. Then, after taking another brutal hit to the head he begins to feel dizzy and collapses in the middle of the field.
There are hundreds of thousands of student athletes across the country that play football for their high schools. Over the past decade, there have been numerous reports of teens dying due to their involvement in football. While these instances are rare, it is still an issue that needs to be addressed.
Practices in the grueling heat and vicious helmet-to-helmet hits are the main causes for the deaths of the football players. Annually there is an estimated 300,000 football-related concussions in the United States, and while many of these are properly treated, the few left undiagnosed have been the cause of death for some teens.
In 2008, then 16-year-old Ryne Doughtery was concussed during practice and doctors cleared him to play in the following game, during which Doughtery suffered a brain hemorrhage while making a tackle. He collapsed on the field and two days later was pronounced dead.
Injuries like Doughtery’s have become commonplace in the football world due to the dangers that these players face. At the high school level, 10-15% of athletes playing a contact sport get concussions. The concussion issue has sparked many debates about player safety and regulating safer helmets. On Friday October 14th, during a football game in Phoenix, New York defensive tackle Ridge Barden collapsed on the field after a helmet-to-helmet collision and died a few hours later. While he was properly attended to and immediately sent to the hospital his death serves as a reminder that these things will happen. His death is the 13th since 2005 where a high school football player has died due to a brain injury.
In many cases these head injuries, if not fatal, leave long term damage to those who receive them. Concussions that may sideline a player for a week or two can have lasting effects that don’t appear until years after their football career ends. Unless concussion safety becomes high school football’s top priority, these statistics will only continue to rise.
Another main contributor to the deaths of high school football players is practicing in the intense heat during the summer and fall. At Miramar High School, 16-year-old Isaiah Laurencin died during conditioning drills this past summer. He had sat out of much of that days conditioning because he wasn’t feeling 100%, then at 5pm that day, he fell to the ground and was taken to a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
These recent deaths are shining a light on how dangerous football can be. We can only hope that these deaths can be used to help prevent future student athletes from dying playing the game that they love.
