As they prepare for a new football season that begins tonight, high school coaches in East Cobb and around the nation have been answering familiar questions about the safety of the sport.
Concussions and other crippling injuries involving former NFL stars continue to make the news. In late July, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study showing that 110 of 111 now-deceased professional players whose brains had been examined had been diagnosed for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
That’s a degenerative brain disease that’s been connected to concussions, and is discovered only in brains donated after death. The names of NFL legends with CTE is a long and sobering one: Dave Duerson, Frank Gifford, Junior Seau, Bubba Smith, Ken Stabler and many more. Some, like Duerson and Seau, have committed suicide.
Some living former NFL players have serious memory loss, also associated with concussions and linked to CTE. The physician and researcher credited with discovering CTE says any parent who lets their child play football is committing child abuse.
Some have called for the termination of youth football altogether, or at least seriously limiting contact for young players before high- and middle school age.
But coaches asked about the subject at last week’s East Cobb Pigskin Preview breakfast (ECN coverage here) say their sport is being unfairly characterized.
“High school football is not what you see on ESPN,” said coach Jep Irwin of Lassiter, whose Trojans play at Johns Creek tonight in their season opener. “There’s never been a safer, better time to play high school football.”
He was referring to how the media has reported about CTE and professional players. Irwin said that technology, equipment, officiating and medical intervention all have improved vastly in his eight years at Lassiter, including concussion protocols.
“Is it [completely] safe? No,” Irwin said. “There’s risk in everything that humans do.
“What you see in the NFL is not the case at the high school level. We’re not about win-at-all-costs” when it comes to the welfare of players.
Daniel Brunner, the first-year coach at Walton, pointed out that concussion rates for girls soccer are also high, “but nobody’s talking about shutting down girls soccer.”
Brett Sloan, the new coach at Kell and a former Walton assistant, said what he stresses with his staff, players and their parents is an education process at the youth level.
Other coaches say they also limit the amount of contact that takes place in practice. The East Cobb coaches said they weren’t trying to dismiss the severity of the CTE issue, and they understand parental and player concerns.
Concussion and CTE research at the high school level is not as extensive, but coaches say they’ve never been more committed to ensuring the safest environment for their kids.
Including Irwin, whose son is a sophomore at Lassiter and plays football.
“I love my son more than I love football,” he said. “If I didn’t think it was safe . . . then why play at all?”
