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Authors: Lisa Kearns, Kathleen Bachynski and Arthur L. Caplan November 25, 2021

"The beautification of football and war has led to misleading metaphors," sports journalist Jason Sartre wrote in a spokesman's comment in Spokane, Washington. "The coach is likened to a general and field marshal. Players are likened to tenacious, battle-tested soldiers advancing in hostile territory. Dale Martin's untimely death reveals a more gentle truth. Sometimes, football coaches are just broad-minded Humble people, and players are too easy to be praised as young people just boys, and young people are asked to understand a world that is becoming less and more meaningless."

Dale Martin died of a brain injury in a high school football game in early April when he was 18 years old. His coach said that Colville High School seniors are "the kind of kid who always keeps your goal."

Five months later, Tyler Christman, a 14-year-old freshman at Carthage High School in New York, also died from a head injury in a football match. The opposing coach told People magazine, "This is just a regular joint football game...no one should be at fault." The story takes place in a brilliant Christman wearing a hoodie, a backpack, and braces. Under the photo of the smile.

The following month, 17-year-old Elijah Gorham died after a hard landing while trying to catch a ball for the Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School team in Maryland. He lay on the ground for 45 minutes, then was taken to the hospital by an ambulance. "Charming" Gorham is "more than just an athlete," his coach said. "Elija is really a good boy through and through."

This year's football injury highlight reel, our fifth, reminds us that although Covid-19 has caught our attention, this sport has killed Martin, Christman, Gorham and all others who were killed or injured in the game The chaos brought by the students in high school football cannot be ignored.

The military analogy described by Shoot is ubiquitous in football and has a long history. An article in Harper’s Weekly in 1892 described the sport like this: "If there is any game suitable for soldier training, this is it." Spirit".

For more than a century, this view has shaped Americans’ understanding of the life lessons that football is designed to teach young people. In football, just like in war, young players are often expected to suffer major physical injuries and show a willingness to sacrifice for the greater good. Expecting athletes to overcome pain and overcoming physical dangers often leads to insufficient supervision of athletes’ welfare. Even today, successful high school football players are given nicknames such as "War Dad" and praised for their ability to "destroy opponents." The attitude of the "next man" familiar to professional football's response to often creepy injuries has permeated middle school and junior high school football.

Martin, Christman and Gorham are just three players who died on the court this year. There is also Jack Alkhatib, a 17-year-old player from Fork High School in the Netherlands, South Carolina, who fell and died in training, and 16-year-old Antonio Hicks from Citrus High School in Florida. (Antonio Hicks) and 16-year-old Ivan (Ivan) do the same. Hicks from West Catholic High School in Pennsylvania. Drake Geiger, a 16-year-old tackler at Southern High School in Omaha, Nebraska, fell after 10 minutes of practice and died when his temperature reached 122 degrees. Dmitri McKee, 17, also died of heatstroke in August while training with a team at Robert E. Lee High School in Alabama.

The consequences of this warrior mentality can be devastating to children’s short- and long-term health. Just this week, the journal Neurology published a study that found that "white matter intensity"—a lesion found in a brain scan that indicates brain injury—is used in athletes with a long history of playing football and other contact sports. More common.

The beautification of risks is even to celebrate the teamwork of young players who helped push the ambulance out of the mud during the game. After a player at Grovetown High School in Georgia suffered a neck injury, the ambulance that took him to the hospital was trapped in the mud off the court. "Different types of teamwork" successfully sent the vehicle on the way.

Weekly summary of our opinion column, with insights from industry experts.

As always, this is just an incomplete snapshot of the many injuries children suffer from playing football. However, this year's Highlight Reel vividly demonstrated that the stoic ethics and courage to rule this field are no longer in the past.

Preventing a tragedy like the one described here requires the state—not just players, schools, and families—to address deep-rooted cultural attitudes that celebrate the dangers of high-risk collision sports to children. On the contrary, we must support a new narrative of youth sports that promotes lifelong health, rather than forcing children to ignore pain and "destroy" their opponents. Children need and deserve a playground, not a battlefield.

All of us should refuse to regard the deaths of children like Dale Martin, Taylor Christman, and Elijah Gorham as the price of participating in dangerous sports.

Lisa Kearns is a senior researcher in the Department of Medical Ethics at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine. Kathleen Bachynski is an assistant professor of public health at Muhlenberg College and the author of "Games Boys Can’t Play: The History of Youth Football and the Origin of the Public Health Crisis" (published by the University of North Carolina Agency, November 2019). Arthur Caplan is Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Department of Medical Ethics at the Grossman School of Medicine at New York University.

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