Football is a very popular sport and it is also known to be a dangerous sport and some parents think that football is too rough for their kids. Although most football programs for kids now include safety training, many still wonder if football is a safe sport for children. According to news and data website FiveThirtyEight, researchers have shown that head hits in youth sports increase the risk of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, later in life. CTE is an untreatable, degenerative brain disease with symptoms like memory loss and dementia.

Marty Moore is Sevier’s athletic director. Part of his job includes making sure that coaches and students follow safety guidelines.

“The potential for catastrophic head and neck injuries are by far the most dangerous parts of football in my opinion and are the ones we hear the most about,” Moore said.

Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center has published three studies about youth football. The studies agreed by scientists was that adults who played tackle football during their youth were more likely to deal with emotional and brain challenges later in life.

This year, injuries on Sevier’s football team were generally mild in comparison.

“The only injury I saw is that one person tore his ACL,” Darius Hoffer-Christian, one of this year’s football players, said.

Those types of injuries tend to be more common among young football players.

“The long lasting effects of leg injuries, especially to the knees and ankles, are injuries that more people end up dealing with just because most people have these types of injuries at some point in their football careers,” Moore said.

“There are several techniques that are taught now that we’re not once taught, especially about tackling, to reduce the number of head and neck injuries,” Moore said. “Also, penalties have been put in place to protect players in those same vulnerable areas to discourage hits on those areas, especially when a player is defenseless.”