A New Jersey high school football player dies nearly two weeks after he was 'critically injured' ...

[sl8]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/23/us/new-jersey-high-school-football-player-dies-injury/

A New Jersey high school football player dies nearly two weeks after he was 'critically injured' in a game, school district says

By Zenebou Sylla, CNN
Updated 10:47 PM ET, Fri September 23, 2022

(CNN)A high school football player died nearly two weeks after he was "critically injured" during a football game, the Linden, New Jersey, Public School District said in a statement.

Xavier McClain,16, was a sophomore playing for the Linden Tigers varsity boys football team when he suffered a head injury during a game on September 9, Linden Mayor Derek Armstead told CNN.

Xavier's parents told CNN affiliate WABC-TV they regularly attended their son's games but missed the one where he was injured -- something they say they will have to live with.

"He was in every sport, social, bright, gifted, and talented," Lisa McClain, the teen's mother, told the affiliate. "And I'm never going to see him graduate from high school."

[...]

[Blues Heron]

1. it is an inherently violent game

essentially, like boxing, its legalized assault

[Siwsan]

4. I agree

My dad was a high school football coach and even he was bothered by how violent the sport has become. Over time he just stopped watching professional football.

[Siwsan]

2. That is so heartbreaking

My dad was a football coach and once had a player drop dead during practice. Literally. Just dropped dead. As I recall, it was a massive brain aneurysm.

It had such a devastating effect on the whole school but especially on my dad who treated his players like they were his own kids.

My heart goes out to everyone affected by this tragic event.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Pro football needs workers

This is the system that sifts the applicants and provides them. If you don't fill the stadiums that taxpayers paid for, it's bad for the economy. And TV ratings and profits would fall. It would be really bad, you know?

[Chainfire]

5. We sacrifice about 150 athletes a year on the gridiron.

We seem to accept that as a fair cost for the entertainment. It is but a scaled down version of the coliseum. Bring the lions!

[AZ8theist]

6. Are you suggesting 150 football players die each year??

Citation, please.

[Chainfire]

7. I have not done the research myself, and can not verify the accuracy.

We may quibble over the actual number, but it is clear that people die from playing football, every year, so the question is how many is too many? Is 25 deaths OK, but 26 not OK for our entertainment? I quit watching boxing decades ago because I didn't support the brutality, I quit watching football for the same reasons.



https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=E211US1490G0&p=how+many+people+die+each+year+from+football+related+injuries

[3Hotdogs]

8. I remember when I was in high school.... 5'6", 105 pounds. All the "glory" went to the sports teams.

Then it was about 5 years later, a weekend in the Poconos, sponsored by a local business for there employees.

3 A.M., I am in my room when my co-roomie come in, drunk, on his ass. I had no idea who the roomie was going to be. Come to find out, he graduated three years earlier than me. He was "end" on the football team.

"I remember you. I was in the band.... saw all your games. You were good."

Then he broke out crying, the time he got hurt and so forth.


Same 5 years later, there was a family, two of the three kids were football stars at our h.s.. Third kid was supposed to be the center. It was all around town that the kid broke out crying because he didn't want to be on the team anymore.


It is its own form of child abuse.