Concussions in highschool football are taken too lightly.  A concussion is when a hit to the head or body causes your head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. This sudden movement can cause the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull.  This creates chemical changes in your brain. Sometimes it can also stretch and damage your brain cells.

A highschool football player killed himself in 2017.  He was battling CTE and nobody knew it. He only played high school football.  He did not even play at the collegiate level or pro level.  The NFL’s official helmet provider, Riddell, was warned that even a helmet that passed industry safety standards for protection against skull fractures and other severe head injuries could still leave a player with a 95 percent likelihood of receiving a concussion.  This proves that better helmets need to be made to protect the heads of all athletes who play football.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2.4 high school football players die per year due to traumatic head injuries.  During a game, football players are 16 times more likely to suffer a concussion than baseball players and four times more than male basketball players.

My solution to limiting concussions in high school football is better helmets.  If there are better helmets, that will reduce the amount of concussions kids will receive.  Severe penalties for dirty shots to the head would also help.  It would limit the cheap shots.  Continued targeting calls will also benefit everybody in the long run.