Opinion On “Is It Time to Retire the Football Helmet?”
I am against turning fantasy football advice into a wimp sport. Both my sons played football in high school. Two broken hands, a separated shoulder, a torn thigh muscle and three concussions. It is important to distinguish the impacts of different classes of injury. Broken bones heal. Damaged joints heal. There may be residual impacts from these injuries — aches and pains, limited range of motion and life-long physical therapy. That is a completely different problem from traumatic brain injury. The sad stories of George Visger and Brent Boyd are instructive. If football only put about a small group of highly paid professional adults at risk of brain injury, that is one thing. But football is played by a larger population than the NFL. The New York Times reported that of the 1.2 million teenagers who play high school football each year, about 400,000 have concussions. 400,000 teenager concussions per year is a big problem.
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