Letters to the Editor: January 14 – 20, 2016

Thank You for Editorial On Football & Concussions

Editor,

Thank you for raising the question of why the Falls Church City School Board endorses brain damage via the sponsorship and promotion of organized football. The question for the School Board and taxpayers is not whether children should play football, but whether a school system should assume the financial liability of sponsoring such an activity as a high school sport? (The NFL has already paid out millions of dollars in damages.)

The school system does not sponsor boxing or ultimate fighting, and even ice hockey is a club sport. It is true that other sports are not immune to concussions, but those sports can be modified to minimize the dangers – no heading in soccer, for instance. Football on the other hand, would require a drastic transformation; take off the helmet and call it rugby. Shamefully, we continue to celebrate football like it is some kind of social treasure.

Why does the band, cheer squad, and homecoming royalty attend football games and not the girls’ field hockey games? How often do male pep-squads promote girls sports? As a victim of the social hegemony surrounding football, I lettered as a high school quarterback but I can no longer watch the game without getting a headache. I wish someone older and wiser would have encouraged me to improve my tennis serve instead.

Bob LaJeunesse

Via the Internet

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