High school football, the Friday Night Lights. Is it fizzling out? In Illinois in 2008, there were 13,000 more young-adults participating in football than there are today. Why is that?

The main cause of the recession is the safety concerns. In an article by News In Health, they had a research team study brain injuries to football players. The team found that the risk of having CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) varied by the person’s highest level of play. It also increased the longer a person played football. For each additional year of play, the risk of CTE rose by 15%. The type and force of head impacts were also stronger predictors of CTE risk than the number of hits to the head a player experienced.

In contrast, the number of reported concussions were not linked with CTE. With this information becoming more of a concern to parents and their children, many of those parents have decided to pull their kid out of football, and many players have chosen not to play for their safety.

In another article written by Quinn Myers, while interviewing Tregg Duerson, son of former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson, Tregg says, “I think there’s no question the heightened awareness of the risk and dangers of football in relation to concussions and brain trauma is at an all-time high. It certainly has had an effect on people deciding to participate in tackle football.” 

Dave Duerson took his own life in 2011, and was later determined to be suffering from CTE, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head. We have seen other cases of CTE like Duerson’s, for example: Demaryius Thomas, a wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, who passed away on December 9th, 2021 due to complications with a seizure disorder he obtained, which was eventually traced back to CTE.

CTE can cause a plethora of different results, mental instability, seizures, memory loss, depression, suicidality, and progressive dementia.

As a high school football player myself, I see the argument both ways. Are there risks that I am taking everytime I step onto the field? Yes. For me personally though, the good outweighs the bad. To me there isn’t a better feeling than football. Playing football for 4 years I have never received a significant injury to the head or neck area. With that being said, that doesn’t make it impossible. Many people I know or have played against have missed games due to concussions. Football has been seen for years as a high–school aged boy’s dream, but with all the new science-backed claims, will high school football continue to thrive?