In an op-ed column in the Chicago Tribune today, I called for high school football to be banned. I’m not happy about it. I truly enjoy watching football games at all levels. Moreover, I think there are a lot of positives involved with playing football. But there’s a huge negative that I feel overrides all the positives. Football is extremely dangerous to the human brain. The growing amount of research on concussions — and just as importantly sub-concussive brain trauma — is extremely scary. And there’s no solution — apart from switching from tackle football to flag football, which would change the essence of the game dramatically. We’re not talking about torn knee ligaments or broken arms here. We’re talking about damage to the brain, the essence of who we are as human beings.
We banned smoking from our high school campuses when it became clear that smoking was detrimental to the health of our children. We should now do the same with football.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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