Nationally, there's only been a 1% drop in high school football participants over the last 5 years. There were more than 60 high schools that added football last year. Football remains the king of the hill. Of course, this does not mean that the CTE issue is not consequential. It does impact decisions to play football. That said, I'm curious if some of the players would have left football anyway. It seems possible that CTE's are just today's given reason. Regardless, there are corrections being made. My guess is that you will see state athletic associations imposing limits on hours of practice with contact well before football being banned. The NFLPA has done a great job with this. I think that the NCAA will be later to that party, but it will be boxed in by emerging norms. There will be further steps in penalizing players for leading with the head. I have watched a coach teaching 4th graders to lead with the head. Absolutely disgusting. But, in the end, football will adapt.
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