Football – America’s Most Dangerous Game

Jimmie Andrews, America’s pre-eminent sports doc, put pen to paper to speak truth about the #1 source of injuries to America’s children. Football.

Yes, football is one of the most popular sports played by young athletes—but it is also the most dangerous game.

In 2007 nearly one million children (920, 000 to be exact) under the age of 18 were treated for football-related injuries, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

James R. Andrews, M.D., founding partner and medical director of the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine in Gulf Breeze, Florida, writes a blog about football injuries in which he claims that while some injuries are unavoidable, many can be prevented or at least minimized.

Despite the use of protective equipment, major injuries such as concussions, spinal injuries, fractures and knee injuries, occur with regularity. Andrews claims that few injuries occur during game situations. The reality, he writes, is that most occur during practice. That is because players spend much more time in practice than they do in a competitive game.

Andrews notes that concussions are one the most serious and most common football injuries. He insists that there is no such things as a “ding” to the head anymore. “If a young athlete expresses any change in his mental state, including confusion, amnesia, headache, struggling for balance, numbness or tingling, nausea, vomiting or drowsiness, he should be removed immediately and not allowed to return until he has been evaluated by a health care professional.”

To limit injuries to players Andrews wants coaches to cut back on the number of full-contact practices they schedule and eliminate drills that put players at high risk of injury. That means only a small percentage of practices should be devoted to full contact. Many injuries, he says, can be prevented or minimized and made less severe with changes in how practice sessions are conducted.