Heads Up

It seemed as if last weekend every time you turned around another football player was being carried off the field.

What the hell?

I admit to watching NFL football and I'm not proud of myself. I'll watch a college game if it involves a school I'm interested in. In fact, the saddest event last weekend involved a Rutgers University player who is now paralyzed.

But it's the fact that 4.4 million children play tackle football in this country that truly frightens me.

In what reality would a parent think that a kid is not going to suffer some truly devastating head injury even if he is wearing a helmet?

Because about 100 high school and college players in the 1960s suffered skull fractures and brain bleeding, helmets were designed to prevent them. However, they do not prevent concussions and other potential life-changing injuries. And no one is monitoring the design, manufacture and use of helmets.

Essentially, helmets have not been redesigned in thirty years and most kids are wearing old ones that have been 'reconditioned.'

For some, playing football is the only chance a lot of kids have to make it out of their economically depressed area and stay out of the coal mines. But for others, football poses an unnecessary threat to the health of children who don't know any better and need their parents to make decisions for them.

The right decisions.