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Should Football be a school sport?

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  • Should Football be a school sport?

    High school football players can become severely injured during practice or games. Sometimes damage is permanent: broken bones that don't properly knit back together; broken teeth; torn ligaments; even some brain damage if they're knocked hard enough.
    Sports used to be for fun, back in the day. Now students look forward to being professionals and get big bucks. But the "fun" is almost a war. How hard can they tackle or push to get or keep the ball? It seems a blasphemy for players, teams and audiences to pray for their teams. But the push from their coaches is to win at almost any cost.
    This has been going on for quite some time. It's appalling to me.
    Below is the latest item, the death of a 16 year old boy.

    NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A rising football star at a Staten Island high school died this week after collapsing on the field.

    As CBS 2’s Weijia Jiang reported, Curtis High School student Miles Kirkland-Thomas, 16, collapsed during practice Monday morning. It was one of the hottest, most humid days of the year.
    Teammate Amad Anderson said they ran up the field a dozen times then took a water break. The players were doing individual workouts when Kirkland-Thomas passed out.
    “We don’t know what happened, but he just fell,” Anderson told 1010 WINS’ Glenn Schuck. “I think he was overheated, probably, but he just, he fell.”
    Kirkland-Thomas was in cardiac arrest when an ambulance rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
    At his home in the West Brighton houses, Kirkland-Thomas’s grandmother, Florence McNatt, is still stunned that he died.
    “His mama has been up all night crying,” McNatt told CBS 2’s Jiang. “We are all crying.”
    “I’m very, very upset and I know he’s in heaven now,” his 8-year-old cousin Blake McNatt said.
    At nearby Curtis High School, the boy’s friends brought candles and messages to the fence of the field where the 16-year-old practiced and played as number 54 on the school’s football team.
    “It’s such a tragedy because the school year just started and we all miss him,” friend Sashoia Williams said.
    Relatives and family friends say they did not know of any underlying medical conditions that would explain the boy’s death, CBS 2’s Dave Carlin reported.
    “They shouldn’t push that hard. He showed up late but he did show up, they should not make him do sprint,” Williams said.
    Kirkland-Thomas was a leader at home and on the team. He had big plans to earn a football scholarship to go to college.
    “He was a good kid, he was a hardworking kid, he loved football,” Anderson told WCBS 880’s Sean Adams. “The whole football team loved him, all the parents on the football team loved him. He always looked out for your kid.”
    At the housing development where he lived, Kirkland-Thomas was a role model who viewed football as more than a hobby. Loved ones said it was his ticket to escaping a life of poverty.
    “Living in the projects, you see kids doing different things,” said family friend Anthony Royal. “This kid was into football, church. There’s not too many kids like that, you know? And it’s heartbreaking. It’s tragic.”
    The teen was a 6-foot-2, 320-pound defensive lineman. His father, Jamar Thomas, told the New York Daily News his son had passed a physical in July and the family was not aware of any pre-existing conditions.
    An autopsy will determine the cause of death and if heat was a factor.
    On Tuesday, the New York City Department of Education was investigating to see if enough was done to prevent Kirkland-Thomas’ death.
    Rules for public high schools in the city say that all practices must stop if temperatures hit 85 degrees and humidity 80 percent. When the teen collapsed Monday, it was 78 degrees with humidity around 75 percent, Schuck reported.
    “He came towards the end of our running, so I think he ran, like, twice. And after that, we got water and then we did, like, individual drills,” Anderson said. “And that’s when the incident happened.”
    Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina issued a statement saying, “I am deeply saddened to learn of this tragic loss.”
    “My heart goes out to the family,” she said in the statement. “We will be supporting the school community as we investigate the matter.”
    Experts have been expressing concerns about the threat of football players overheating or collapsing on the practice field since two high-profile deaths 13 years ago. Back in August 2001, Minnesota Vikings tackle Korey Stringer died after suffering heat stroke after a practice session, and two days later, Northwestern Wildcats college football player Rashidi Wheeler collapsed and died during a practice in the heat from an asthma attack – although investigators concluded the heat did not play a role in his death.
    The Curtis High School team’s first game of the season has been scheduled for Saturday at the Staten Island school. It was not immediately learned whether the game would be moved or canceled.
    Meanwhile, Kirkland-Thomas’ family was planning a funeral at the church right across from their home, where Kirkland-Thomas attended services at least once a week.
    Grief counselors are being made available for students and staff at the school.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Create a beautiful day wherever you go.

  • #2
    The 16-year old football player - Chad Stover - who died recently, the official cause of his death was blunt-force injury to the cranium. He was wearing a helmet, and it was a helmet-to-helmet collision that caused it. Helmets do not automatically protect all head injuries, especially with blunt force. The coach said the collision was "nothing out of the ordinary".
    Blunt force. And sometimes a single, less violent hit to the head cam do all the damage alone---according to a professor of neurology at the Stanford University School of a Medicine, president of theBrain a Trauma Foundation.

    When a brain injury occurs, the brain fibers may snap; some regrow, but others can die and kill the neurons. Blood vessels between the skull and brain become damaged and can leak. If the membrane protecting the brain tears, fluid can seep into the brain, killing cells. Swelling puts more pressure on the brain and can push brain tissue into the spine.

    Football led to more concussions than any other high school sport in the 2013-2014 school year.
    Concussions per 10,000 high school players in games:
    33 - football (boys)
    18 - soccer (girls)
    12 - wrestling (boys)
    12 - soccer (boys)
    12 - basketball (girls)

    Every year I the U.S., traumatic Brain Injury accounts for nearly 2.5 million emergency-room visits.
    The top 4 causes for those TBI-related hospitalizations (ages 15-24)

    22%. - Assult
    21%. - Falls (Can include sports injuries)
    21%. - Motor Vehicle accidents
    20%. - Struck by an object (Can include sports injuries)

    Something to think about.

    [Chad's younger brother, a freshman football player, dropped out of the game.]
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Create a beautiful day wherever you go.

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    • #3
      I hate high school football. I hate that it is so beloved that most of the sport funding goes toward giving children brain damage. My youngest went out freshman year and I did the happy dance when he came in and said he sold his shoes, here's the money and I quit. They had called school that day because of the heat but still held football practice. What my son objected to was dressing in full gear while some senior tried to hurt him in the boiling heat. Then the coach calls and says he would have made the fresh team for his speed. That was our joke...you bet he was running...for his life! Now my 8 year old grandson is saying he can play football next year. I don't know that I could stand watching it, touch, flag whatever. I don't care what the stats are for injuries or the type of injuries...I just can't understand sitting there and watching your child abused like that for a game. And now people are beginning to realize that that violence is carried off the field and into the players private lives. I just plain hate football...give me a baseball game anytime.

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      • #4
        Your son was the smart one.

        You'd think the coach would have sense to know what's healthy or not for the kids. However, he wants to "toughen up" the boys. He pushes their endurance in every direction. Despite heat and hard knocks, "his boys" have to be the fastest, strongest, toughest of any school in the district.

        In my opinion, the coaches are the "has beens" of their field. He's teaching because he couldn't make Big League, or was injured (no doubt in the head as much as body injuries). He will try his best to make some kid be the Super Player he'd hoped to be. It's also my opinion that coaches should have a degree in First Aid, probably Paramedic status, so he knows the body's capabilities.....and keep his medical status up. He doesn't have an ambulance just off the field, yet he pushes the kids almost mercilessly. I had a neighbor who was our school coach one year. Crap, I couldn't do half the stuff in gymnastics; I was never built for that anyway. But many times I was humiliated before the class for it. I thank the daredevil class clowns who'd climb ropes to the gym rafters and refuse to come down, which took the attention off me.

        When it came to soccer, or "kick ball", I was very adept to jump over or duck under any aimed my way. I was only hit once! Those balls were near lethal at the speed they were going, and the one that hit me gave me huge bruises.
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        Create a beautiful day wherever you go.

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