Litigation threatens football's future: will it ever be outlawed

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The NFL concussion lawsuit moved close to resolution last week -- see below for analysis -- but don't be deceived into thinking this settles courtroom challenges. Football remains in a legal quicksand that has the potential to drag the sport under. The big concern has never been the NFL, which has only a small number of current and retired players, and can buy its way out of any difficulty. The issue is the 3 million youth players, 1.1 million high school players and approximately 50,000 college players.

Unlike NFL players who are well-compensated and are adults when they assume risk, the overwhelming majority of football players receive nothing and are children when they assume risk. Except for those who matriculated at football factories, most football players suit up for sponsoring organizations that cannot buy their way out of problems: youth leagues, public school districts and colleges whose athletic departments lose money.


If youth leagues, public school districts and colleges that are already in the red on sports start paying brain-damage awards, they'll stop sponsoring football. They won't have any choice -- insurers will drop them. This, not the NFL's litigation maneuvering, is the nuclear bomb ticking in football. Consider:

A teen partially paralyzed at a Colorado football practice just won a $11.5 million judgment against his high school district, some school personnel and the Riddell helmet company. Last year, San Diego school district agreed to pay $4.4 million to a man who was a teenaged high school football player when he suffered a severe brain injury.

The California injury occurred in 2007, the Colorado injury in 2008. The litigation took years to reach the award stage. Since rising awareness of the harm caused by concussions began roughly five years ago, there may be many other high school football brain-harm lawsuits that started in the past five years and are now in progress. Surely, more will be filed in the future.

Sixteen-year-old Jaleel Gipson of Farmerville, La. died in May after an Oklahoma Drill at high school football practice. Louisiana allows the sadistic Oklahoma Drill, in which players bash helmets; the state also allows full-contact high school football practice year-round, meaning year-round opportunities for brain and spine harm. A week ago, Tyler Lewellen, a 16-year-old California high school football player, died from head trauma; two weeks ago, a 16-year-old Georgia high school football player died from a spinal injury sustained in a scrimmage.

These awful tragedies do not mean young people should not play football. Every year there are awful tragedies involving young people and cars, or young people and swimming, or young people and bicycling. Sometimes fate is simply awful. There is a roughly a one-in-a-million chance a teenager will die because of an hour of driving, compared to a roughly a one-in-six-million chance a teenage will die because of an hour of football practice or play.

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There are positive signs. Reader Ty Locke of Jersey City, N.J., writes, "My 13-year-old nephew who is entering freshman year at Old Bridge High School in New Jersey suffered a concussion in practice. I was surprised and encouraged at how far programs have come in terms of treating and diagnosing concussions, in just the decade since I played high school football in the same area. His high school mandates a five-tiered evaluation before he is able to return to full contact. For the first week my nephew was not permitted to run or work out, he was yelled at for just picking up a football. Before returning to full contact he'll need to get cleared by an independent physician outside of the school's staff. I think that's a great sign of progress."

That is indeed a great sign of progress. Will football last long enough for such progress to spread? President Barack Obama told the New Republic, "If I had a son, I'd have to think long and hard before I let him play football." Brain-injury lawsuits below the level of the NFL could make this question moot, if colleges and high schools stop playing. The threat of brain harm to players is becoming well-known; the threat of concussion litigation to the sport itself may be just as real.

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