Physically damaging people is widely considered to be “bad”; it’s baffling that playing football is accepted, let alone encouraged. Participating in an activity that is nearly guaranteed to have lasting non-negligible negative impact on your most important asset, your brain, seems deranged. The research (1,2, 3, 4) is unambiguous, even if you there are *no* symptoms, damage is being done by continuing to slam your brain against your skull.
Arguments abound in defence of this caveman-like activity. Some claim that Science™ will come to emancipate their children's neurons from the structural damage they're choosing to inflict. I think this is the same argument they use when they supply American Spirit cigarettes at dinner and family trips to Chernobyl. Surely making decisions based on long term ramifications is a fool's errand due to a panacea being right around the corner.
If you support football at a college or professional level because you claim they “know the risks”, you are creating an environment that heavily incentives kids to pursue the sport. College and the NFL need a constant stream of new talent and that talent, as far as I know, doesn’t magically come into existence at the age of 18 having never touched a football.
There is literally a whole gender whose managed to get enough social bonding and physical activity without football, I have faith boys can figure it out too.
Let’s make it frowned upon to beat children.