On the night of Jan. 2, football had a reckoning. After tackling Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins in the first quarter of the last Monday Night Football game of the season, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field and went into cardiac arrest. Thanks to the efforts of on-site medical staff and a coordinated emergency response, Hamlin was resuscitated and transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. 

He has since made a recovery and been discharged, but the football community is still in shock over the event. Medical experts are not certain what the exact cause of Hamlin’s near-fatal collapse was, but it’s hard to deny that football played a part in it. 

It is no secret that football is a violent sport, and Hamlin’s injury was just one of hundreds suffered every year by NFL players. Over the past seven NFL seasons the league’s 1,696 football players suffered a combined average of over 375 concussions, MCL tears and ACL tears each season.

It is important to remember that football is not just played at the professional level. There are tens of thousands of college football players competing every year, but a vast majority of the people playing football are children.

The alarming rate of injury, some of which can be severe enough to end a player’s career, has led to increased measures by the NFL to reduce the risk of the sport. This has included instituting more limited contact practices and stricter enforcement of rules protecting vulnerable players. The NFL has shown a decrease in injuries, especially concussions, in the last few years thanks in large part to these changes, but is it enough? Is football still too dangerous to justify its nationwide popularity?

It is important to remember that football is not just played at the professional level. There are tens of thousands of college football players competing every year, but a vast majority of the people playing football are children.

In the 2018-19 season, over 1 million teenagers suited up for their high school football teams. I was one of them. That same season, over 450,000 injuries were reported among high school players. Thankfully, I was not part of that number, but I knew many people who were. At my school, one of our running backs broke his hip during a tackle, an injury that forced him to miss the track season that spring. A defensive end tore his ACL close to the end of the season, and another end broke his arm when two tacklers collided their helmets against it while he ran with the ball. I’ve been on one knee, clapping while a teammate or opponent was helped to the sideline, more times than I care to remember. Football players, even at the high school level, pay for the sport in blood.

On average, concussions make up over 20% of high school football players’ injuries.

The fact is: Football is extremely popular, and it continues to thrive despite the brutality. This is dangerous not only because injuries can affect players’ long-term physical health, but also because of the unseen mental effects of concussions. On average, concussions make up over 20% of high school football players’ injuries. They are especially harmful because they are a known cause of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disorder which is linked to long-term cognitive impairment. CTE can be triggered by just one concussion, though it usually results from repeated blows to the head— something that happens to many football players. 

CTE is only detectable through autopsy of the brain after death, so it is impossible to know how many people currently suffer from this disorder. However, we do know that football players, even at the youth level, are at an outsized risk of suffering repeated impacts to the head that can cause concussions and lead to CTE.

Every year, many young football players are made vulnerable to life-altering injuries for the entertainment of their parents and classmates and for the profit of their schools and teams. One proposed solution to this issue is the introduction of informed consent to youth football. 

By making students aware of the danger they are putting themselves in when they gear up and take to the field, we don’t have to feel bad about the harm they are exposed to, right? Wrong. Youth football leagues pit teams of 5-year-olds against each other in contact football matches. These players are too young to give any sort of informed consent, and even kids as old as high school age are known to make reckless decisions without really considering the consequences.

It is tempting to dismantle youth football altogether to eliminate these harms. But I, like many of my football-playing peers, love football. The sport provides an outlet for players to exercise, build team bonds and see a world outside of our schools and towns. Instead of ending youth football, we should replace it with less violent alternatives like flag football and 7-on-7 football. This will provide kids with the opportunity to experience the game they love while also protecting their bodies and their brains for the future. Nothing shines quite as bright as the Friday night lights, but when the lights go off, players have to carry their battle scars for the rest of their lives.

Hamlin’s on-field cardiac arrest was extremely rare, but it highlighted the much more common dangers of football at any level. Fans and teams alike rallied around Hamlin, broadcasting their support for him from around the world and donating millions of dollars to his charity’s toy drive on GoFundMe. The football community needs to bring that same energy to protecting the kids who are being sacrificed for our entertainment by demanding that changes be made to how football is played in youth leagues and high schools around the country.