How many high school football deaths is too many?

Katthy Santiago, Reporter

High Schools around the country send teenagers into a football field yelling “guts, glory, and Gatorade!” confident they’ll come back, maybe not with that victory they all crave, but at least healthy and alive.

This year, eight of them did not.

When we think of danger, we think of guns, bombs, or disease. But we didn’t anticipate a fun high school sport would kill as many as eight high school players across the country just this season alone. Is football becoming too dangerous a sport for high schoolers to play?

Football is known to be a sport that excites, not only when playing, but also, when watching. It’s entertainment for anyone watching because of the running, yelling, and tackling.

But tackling is the most dangerous weapon for a player on the field. Their endurance and strength can literally be deadly. Tyrell Cameron from Louisiana died from a broken neck after being tackled, this year, on September 4th. Along with Ben Hamm whom, after being tackled as well, experienced bleeding in his brain 8 days later.

They were not the only victims of the violence of football this year, or any other year for that matter.

Taking it back to 2014 in the beginning of the season, three players died directly from the sport in just a span of 4 days.

Between 2005 and 2014, 92 died indirectly from the sport, some reasons being heatstroke, electrolyte imbalance, and water intoxication.

Roddrick Williams from Georgia is an example of the aftermath of the pressure the sport displays. He collapsed during practice and died two weeks later due to a heart problem on September 22nd.

The next couple months would make more tears, rather than touchdowns. Evan Murray, Kenney Bui, Andre Smith, and Luke Schemm ran into the game just fine, but after minor injuries that eventually progressed, did not get to go home.

The average football deaths a year is three. We should consider the safety of our children, friends, and athletes. The conversation about football safety needs to happen, here and now. When this story was assigned to this reporter, six football players had died this year. During the course of writing this story, TWO MORE HAVE DIED. Can anyone say “epidemic?”