There are certainly important parallels between how the football industry has responded to its product carrying an inherent public health risk - in this case, brain damage - and how the tobacco industry responded to the same. This is especially true in terms of litigation defense, public relations, and muddying the… Read more

Along those lines, former NFL linebacker Chris Borland had this to say about tackle football and teaching children toughness at an Aspen Institute youth football roundtable held earlier this year: “I think a broader definition of toughness is restraint, not the capacity to do harm, but the capacity to do harm and then… Read more

Historically, much of the reason he have youth and school tackle football in the first place is for what you and Chief mention - the sport has been seen and sold as a mechanism for turning boys into men by imparting and teaching a particular sort of perceived masculinity. Interestingly enough, the exact parameters… Read more

Colleges and high schools - which is to say, schools - haven’t yet really grappled with the moral question that underlies what you’re driving at: namely, should (largely public) institutions whose fundamental purpose is to nurture and protect young minds be sponsoring an activity that carries a not-insignificant risk… Read more