SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ While the Sacramento region increasingly produces standout athletes who earn scholarships and pursue NFL careers, the health of high school football in California and throughout the nation is in a state of flux, if not crisis.
The persistent onslaught of information _ the troubling statistics about brain injuries and the personal stories revealing the long-term consequences _ is having a chilling effect on one of the most dangerous and popular sports in America. Participation in high school football continues to drop, down 3 percent in each of the past two years in the state and 2.5 percent nationally.
It's no longer debatable: Football can be a crippler, sometimes a killer.
Jim Plunkett recently gave a wrenching account of his physical ailments and apprehension about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) to The San Jose Mercury News. Jim McMahon continues to share details about his diminishing mental capacity. Dr. Bennett Omalu, who was portrayed Will Smith in the 2015 film "Concussion," recently suggested letting youngsters play tackle football is child abuse.
Concerns about concussions and other brain injuries are discussed openly these days in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) offices, locker rooms, living rooms and emergency rooms. The link between the violent colliding of bodies and brain injuries is now accepted as fact; the devastating study published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported 110 of 111 deceased NFL players whose brains were examined suffered from CTE.
The responses are all over the map. Some are calling for better equipment and medical supervision, along with more stringent protocols for recovery time. Others echo Omalu and believe kids should be directed to less dangerous sports, and more and more parents seem to agree. While the number of high school football players in California has declined, participation in cross country, track and field, volleyball, soccer, basketball and tennis increased in 2016.
"I have not seen any definitive data connecting the (declining participation) to the concussion issues," CIF executive director Roger Blaker said, "but anybody with a sense of what's going on nationally has to attribute it to that."
Within the past few weeks, Nevada Union dropped its junior varsity program, citing low turnout. West Campus ended football completely, also citing poor numbers. In Marin County, one-time powerhouse Novato High petitioned the league to discontinue varsity football due to poor turnout, but reconsidered when the public outcry generated renewed interest. In Southern California, Cabrillo and Compton high schools abolished JV teams, similarly claiming there weren't enough players to justify three levels (freshman and varsity).
But the real shocker was Long Beach Poly, which has won 19 CIF Southern Section titles, sent more than 60 players to the NFL and is ranked 10th in the nation by MaxPreps, giving up junior varsity. The ripple effect throughout the state is something like this: If Long Beach Poly is feeling the pinch, what does that mean for everyone else?
It's time to think about what football means to the community, students and parents, and whether the danger outweighs the benefits.
