Remove the hard plastic from the shoulder pads and helmets, thus eliminating the metal reinforced face guards, and the change in hitting will change the risks dramatically.
Besides the usual academic failures of public schools (liberal politics and behaviors), the emphasis on sports has gone way overboard.
The facilities they demand, the latest in uniforms, the travels costs, and the insurance has made the costs of public school insane. (and this is from the dad of two sons that, between them, won three state titles in hs fb, over 15 yrs ago. It was fun, but it was very expensive.)
Over 80yrs ago, my late dad learned teamwork as a first grader in a one room schoolhouse near Corry, Pa: the local farmers would drop off big chunks of trees at the schoolyard. The older boys would split the wood. The smaller boys would stack the wood. And the smallest boys would watch and learn.
Fast forward about 35 yrs later, I’m a teen watching a husky 20 something trying to impress his girlfriend, by trying to ring the bell tower using the big wooden hammer, at the local county fair. He comes close several times. Dad was thin, and fit (most livestock farmers were), dressed in slacks and a dress shirt. He walked up. Took the hammer, and made it look easy: ding ding ding. The husky guy was just befuddled.
Dad had swung an axe so much, and learned the proper technique.
If kids would have to learn the proper technique of tackling without plastic protection, I’m convinced the injuries would drop dramatically.
Remove the hard plastic from the shoulder pads and helmets, thus eliminating the metal reinforced face guards,
At the beginning of the 20th century there was a move to ban college football. Football changed the rules like outlawing the flying wedge etc. and survived. Football might have to look at big changes to survive.
Agreed. If in doubt just find a world class rugby match. Football when it originated was a simple variation on Rugby. When that got too brutal, American Football added the forward pass, simple padding and leather helmets. Finally the padding permitted a style of tackling & blocking using the head-first approach.
Rugby is the game they need to learn. The mindset of the two games is very different. When I played HS football, the goal was to put the opponent out of the game. In rugby, the goal was to physically intimate the opponent. You wanted the opponent to ‘feel’ the tackle, but not to hurt him. Football was more like ‘gladiator’ games, wearing many pounds of ‘armour’.
In the ‘80s, McGill University hosted a ‘seven-a-side’ rugby tournament in which I played. Carleton U, where I attended, McGill, Queen’s, USMA (aka West Point), RMC Kingston (USMA and RMC often play each other in a number of cross border sporting exhibition events among military cadets) and one other American university team took part.
USMA had absolutely no technique, basically playing American football without pads; they were beaten by every Canadian team, sometimes badly, but won against the other US university team. The few ‘tries’ they scored, were purely the result brute strength and determination rather than skill and finesse.
Rugby, without all the ‘armour’, would likely result in fewer injuries EVENTUALLY. Unfortunately, among the older kids, they would play it like football without pads, at least until a number were hurt badly. Amongst the younger ones who had never worn football ‘armour’, there would likely be fewer serious injuries.