Football High (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- Corporate sponsorships, nationally televised games, minute-by-minute coverage online - for players, parents and coaches, high school football in the 21st century had become a national phenomenon. But was enough being done to ensure players' safety as the intensity of the sport ratcheted up? (Aired 2011)
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As high school players grew bigger, faster and stronger, concerns were increasing about the health and safety of these young players - with rising rates of concussions, career-ending injuries, even death. FRONTLINE centered its investigation in Arkansas, where two players collapsed from heatstroke while practicing during one of the hottest summers on record. The players were placed in the same intensive care unit in Little Rock, both having suffered extensive damage to their internal organs.
Explore additional reporting on "Football High" on our website:
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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.
CHAPTERS:
Prologue - 00:00
High School Football Injuries on the Rise - 01:04
Concussions in High School Football - 13:50
How Training for High School Athletes Has Changed - 20:30
Wear-and-Tear of Football on the Brain - 28:27
No One Should Die of Heatstroke - 37:27
Under Pressure to Win - 45:15
Credits - 51:57
Frontline has the ability to pull me into a subject matter I thought I'd have no interest in and keep me till the end. Well done again.
Yep!
I agree. I don’t really care about sports but this report sucked me in
It's because you know what they are speaking about is in-depth and 100% truth. 😊
That should be their motto, "Frontline, the documentary you didn't know that you needed!"
I always say "...let me watch the few opening minutes ". Then I am sucked in till the end.
From a Daughter of a Father who was a Star High School Football Player who could have went Pro, CTE is real! I have begged my Dad to go be tested for this & he is so afraid to know what damage he has, that he just refuses to go. I watched the movie Concussion when it came out & as I watched tears streamed down my face, bc after watching his Mental Health decline over my life & he's not old he's only 63, I finally had a name to something that slowly destroyed the man I knew. It caused me to stop & think differently about a sport I've always loved to play & watch, growing up in a big Football Family the sport was just a way of life! I marched in the Marching Band & have always been proud to represent my High School & have watched many guys be carried off the field & thought nothing of it, until I watched that movie! I now have a very hard time watching the sport & can't help, but think about the personal lives of every player & what they are & will go through as they go through their lives!
Ur daddy was soft
Is your name Kelly Bundy
He can only be tested for CTE after death.
But he can get a Prodrome scan and there is action you can take to prevent dementia.
...Hi Everyone - I recommend to be careful with football or any concussive sport based on a real life experience. As of this writing I am 65 years old and played football in high school (70s). In those days you just "grin and bear it." Fast forward is when in 2020 where I experienced a sub-arachnid hemorrhage most likely due to a previous head trauma. The trauma to the head created an internal bruise (hemorrhage) that never drains. A bruise on an arm will disappear or drain. However that bruise in head never drained or disappeared. After 30 years it obviously clotted up and thus created my sub arachnid hemorrhage. I had to go to neurosurgery and the doctors drained my head for 20 days. I was lucky to live and recover to a normal life. I am only 5'8" and was only 160 lbs at the time - I was a great athlete but size matters. I am very grateful to be here writing this note.
So 50 yrs later football caught up with you...but all good in your 20s 30s 40s 50 Into your 60s....I don't buy it ...your old shit happens blame age
That's rare tho. And every thing else has an element of danger too.
@@edwintroy6957 This is *not* “normal” aging.
Often boys are held back and start kindergarten a year later than other boys, resulting in larger more muscular children. Obviously, they are much bigger then the children who start school on schedule. Which can and does result in more scholarships for bigger stronger players and more scholarships. Injuries, of course. Thank you for sharing this information. This is still happening. I worked in schools in unrelated positions, but saw the obvious size and outcome of one year differences.
@@missnellafulyeah its abusive to men. Have a heart.
"I dont know that it can get too violent." That's a person who should never be entrusted with the well being of others, but DEFINITELY not with the well being of teenagers who have their whole lives ahead of them.
Yeah, I thought that was creepy as shit too.
Kiehl Frazier never developed as a quarter back. He went to Auburn University, but his completion percentage was always around 50% and he had way more interceptions then touchdowns. He ended up transferring to a division II school, where his completion percentage remained at 50%. Needless to say, he did not win the Heisman, and he did not play in the NFL.
Really sad for that kid.
I mean he was only good in Arkansas because they were bigger than those teams . But once they went up against real talent they were ass. Frazier was always ass just good as hell in Arkansas
This is true as a former coach man this is hits home. Some coaches don’t deserve to be coaches, as I’m a NFHS certified coach. But retired early to pursue other interests, I feel for the pain some of these young men!
Best comment on here.
Coach Dibble: "Football is a violent sport....I don't know that it could be too violent!" Really? Show us how it's done, Coach. Don the gear on the defensive line....show us how it's done, not tell us!
If you think high school football is out of control look into what pop warner football is about. You will see parents cheering the injury of an 8 year old opponent. Absolutely sick.
"but you can't play worrying about getting hurt", says the coach who stands on the sideline
ultimately hes right. if you cant come to terms with the risk of an injury at any given moment, you shouldnt play any contact sports
Go ask a girl out.. 😂 and worry about her saying no. Let us know how it goes... Lol Apply for a job a worry about not getting it...
Pretty reprehensible for a coach to say the only reason he wouldn’t put an already concussed kid back in the game is they were ahead by a wide margin. Wow.
This is a great and eye opening documentary! Thank you Frontline. You have hit another home run.
Home run? 🤔
Do you mean Touchdown? 😁
I played and loved football as a high school student. I was thoroughly indoctrinated in the macho culture of iron man toughness. Being hot, tired and thirsty was just part of the package deal. Unless bones were poking out of flesh, you weren't injured. Playing when merely hurt was demanded.
In addition to starting on both offense and defense, I participated on the kick-off and kick receiving teams. On the receiving team, I was part of the wedge - the screen of blockers immediately in front of the kick returner, tasked with mowing down potential tacklers. On the kick-off team, I was the wedge buster - a sort of human bowling ball whose only job is to break up the opposing wedge.
One game, we received the opening kick-off. The opposing wedge buster targeted me. He was bigger, faster and stronger and absolutely lit me up.
I was knocked unconscious, and remember nothing of the rest of the game. I was startled to learn that I actually played the entire game, quite well according to coaches and teammates.
I don't know what, if any, permanent damage that impact did. While certainly the most violent, it certainly wasn't the only time "my bell got rung". What I do know is this... I'm glad my son never displayed any interest in playing football. I truly believe we ought to reevaluate the value which the sport occupies in our national culture.
@ Kent Grady Thank you for sharing your story.
Thank you so much for your comment
I got knocked unconscious twice playing football before I turned 15yrs of age. I've unfortunately had several concussions since. TBI & CTE is no joke .
@@joshuatrotter25 based on your personal experience how do you feel about the NFL going to the lengths they did to try and diminish, deny and suppress so much informationthat could have spared so many? I remember watching another Frontline Doc called "Leauge of Denial" and I'm still processing years later like whaaaattt
Mr. Grady, what an insightful comment. I hope everyone reads this!!!
What people fail to realize is the long term effects of constantly getting hit.
I think many do, plenty of media surronding that understanding
It's absurd. Yes, death is the clearly the worst outcome, but there are so many men who will be in pain forever because of football injuries.
so what? If this isn't for you then don't do it. People fall off horses you want to outlaw horseback riding too? People fall down steps how about outlawing those?
@@slowery43 What? Who's talking about outlawing football. Relax.
He’s an emotional football watcher. Lol he’s on his menstrual cycle. Get him some pads and a cup of milk
And many people are in pain for quietly and cautiously not trying to take chances.
Pbs and all it's programming is amazing. Frontline is the best journalism today.
True, and now expect certain politicians to rant that they want PBS banned.
Head football coach to self in August: "I got an idea. I'll wait to the hottest time of the day to have our 4 hour practice. That'll toughen 'em up!"
Right? My daughters soccer coach had practice at 8:00 am throughout the summer with our 90-100* weather in the afternoons. And her premier league team has mandates that they cancel practice/games at a certain temperature, but not the schools.
Our coach scheduled practice either earlier in the morning or we had a shorter one later in the evening. But, I went to a small high school back in the 1980s. ESPN didn't exist.
@@jaygresh And that’s truly the point, isn’t it? What is prioritized in high school/college/professional football? (Or for example, in boxing? Both involve the brain/CNS.) The individual, the players or the team’s reputation at the expense of the players enduring long term/delayed manifestations of brain damage?
There’s a LOT of scientific research regarding brain injuries in young people. Sure, brain elasticity is an established medical/scientific reality. However, with contact sports brain elasticity doesn’t apply as repeated blows to the brain/CNS are significant insults to cognitive functioning. In some instances even a single brain injury though subtle/unrecognized has enduring effects on the individual. In general, most people think science and medicine have unravelled the mysteries of neuroscience. Fact: We are no where near that goal. Hell, we just figured out the basics of the human genome and are still perplexed by what we are finding there.
For sure, boxing is a whole different animal than football. Nonetheless, boxers render more understanding of brain functioning and it’s immediate and long term effects in terms of neurobiology/neurochemistry. The impacts may not be immediately manifest but over time those injuries are significantly detrimental to the individual. How this plays out is as unique as that individual who endures the injury(s).
CTE has almost totally disappeared from the national discussion on sports. People really do not want to hear about it at all.
Lots more NFL players retire earlier than they used to. They know whats up. Get the money and get out.
@2011hwalker And now OJ Simpson is dead. It makes all of us wonder if OJ was never involved in football from childhood to NFL. Would he end up in crazy drama for the past three decades. It's just that when he had his legal issues, CTE was not known back then.
Because the NFL has worked to fix it
@@cabalenproductions6480yep, because sin exists
Can't blame concussions and football for all peoblems
while Frontline thanks ordinary viewers like us, I would like to thank Frontline for produce so many docu for so many years, share with us for free, thank you!
Tax payer money but yes, they make many great documentaries.
When I was stationed at Ft Gordon Ga. Summer of 1972 there was an indicator called the wet bulb. If the temperature and humidity combined past a certain level all outdoor heavy activity was curtailed
Idk what they do in the south, but that's been the protocol for sports in Ohio for a long long time. They've also made it to where teams can only have a limited amount of contact in practice per week.
I played football all my life and through out high school. And could always tell something wasn’t right with my head. I would get constant migraines and stuff while playing. And eventually started having massive seizures in my early 20’s. I know 100%. It was from playing contact football at bishop Mcdevitt high school in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. I have recently been diagnosed with epilepsy. And possibly cte. Thank god I stopped when I did. It was hard to give up the sport I love. But I know it was the best decision I could have made and saved my life literally. It’s just hard when football is your plan A and you don’t plan on not making it to the nfl.
I’ll pray for you, Maurice. I’m so sorry this is now your burden, and I pray for it to be lightened. Give it to Jesus to carry, and know that He is always with you. I’ve had debilitating migraines from age 11-12. I’m a girl, so no football history. But I do know about migraines my entire life and I’m pushing 70 now. I’m so sorry for this, and for others. Like so many I’ve been a huge football fan since I was little, but after learning all this, for Bennet Omalu finding CTE, my fandom reduced drastically the last several years. People practice idolatry and worship at the altar of almighty football, and it’s all so wrong. I will keep you in my prayers. God bless you, Maurice.
America needs to shift it's culture to stop being so obsessed with this dangerous sport, especially when teenagers that play this sport are ending up with permanent brain damage. I personally think Soccer is a way better sport, and I think if America started shifting it's sport culture to liking soccer then teenagers would be a lot safer and also having a really great soccer team that could win the world cup would bring a lot of glory and respect to the US. Soccer is the worlds sport, while the no other country cares about American Football. Honestly I think one of the main reasons Football is so popular in America is because it's the one sport where advertisers have so many time slots to advertise shit throughout the whole game, they can't do that with soccer. It's basically corporate greed.
I played from 7th through 12th grade 1991 to 1996. My junior year we had a game on a local public access cable channel. I couldn't imagine dealing with ESPN in high school. I played because I wanted to play football. I was a whole 5'5 tall and weighed 215lbs. My position was Left Offensive Tackle. Because all of our QBs were right handed, that meant I was the blindside. Never allowed a sack all 6 years I played. Being short was an advantage at that level. Had good agility and was quite naturally strong being built the way I was. I worked hard, had a good mind for the game. My coaches told me if I was just taller, at least some small college would have been interested. Had my bell rung many times. What people forget is all the practices added on to those games. This is why the game has changed so much, but it's also gotten so much faster. I hate hearing people cry about how it's not tough enough and all that crap. I don't want to see players at any level not know who the hell they are when they're 50. Hall of Fame Steelers center Mike Webster is the one I always think of. One of the absolute toughest SOBs to ever play the game and it waa a damn shame what happened to him. Junior Seau, Dave Duerson, and the list goes on and on. When I was playing I never worried about concussions, I was more concerned with spinal cord injuries. I love the game and I hate the game.
Wow, that is no freaking joke between 105 and 108 degrees and a teenager or young man can literally die from a heat stroke.
Also, blame the coaches that put them there in the first place. It's all about power and making crazy claims of making their stars tougher on the field as their advantage.
Kiehl Frazier went on to be a 3 year backup QB for Auburn. He spent his last year starting for a Div II school.
Thank you for that update.
And I wonder if Garrett is the same Garrett Harper from the Blockworks podcast?
What these kids don't realize is their chance of making money in the NFL is - quite literally - slim to none. In one given football year, about 0.08% of those players will make the NFL.
@@dudeguybro And even if they do make the NFL, their time there is likely to be on the short end. The average NFL career length is only 3.3 years.
Thanks! At 6:22 I heard "C J Uzomah is a guy..." he's a TE with the Jets this season.
FUN FACT: The highest paid public employee in most states is the head football coach of the state's major public university.
No kidding. Hello from Ohio.
Not every state. In Kansas, it's KU basketball coach Bill Self.
And Fauci is the highest paid federal employee even more then president and VP what that tell ya.....and the running these amateur athletes children like kids have a choice and ain't making a penny plus it's interfering with spending attention on academics the pass to play but thats barely pass cuz they lut u want u to play cuz you've playing good
@@apacheking9776 was he time one said "not a dime back"...when he was up to no good forgot he had some turmoil they asked if he thinks they got money's worth was he overpaid
College is not about higher education. It's about the $$$
Professional High School Football. The adults make all the money, the kid's make the sacrifice!
And we pass the levies.
High school and college. Always quick to remind kids they are privileged to be playing, then said adults go to the bank to cash their big checks for doing half the work the kids do.
@@bradsmith9118It says something that the highest paid state employees in each state are the D1 football and basketball coaches.
That guy said I have the rest of my life to deal with the pain. Buddy wait till your 38 and your doctor's are positive, not certain, that I have CTE. I had to give up a scholarship at Appalachian State after my Freshman year. Got 8 concussions in football only. Brain scans show I have the cognition of a 65 year old man. I'll be lucky if I make it to 45.
My God, I am so sorry.. Maybe you could try to help kids understand this by sharing your story. Thank you for sharing it here and I hope the best for you 🙏
@@angieg3624 thank you man I appreciate it. I speak to high school teams annually about the dangers and the symptoms. They need to know because I don't want people to end up like me.
@26michaeluk Thank you for sharing. I hope you make it to 65. I am almost 65 so saying you have the cognition of a 65 year old man is saying to me you are doing pretty damn good. If you said 85 I would worry. I hope you are not suffering much and are living a fairly pain free life. What I noticed is there is a big LACK of training that these coaches need. That one boy didn't have a chance because the coach had no clue about heat stroke. For me that is a basic skill needed before you have kids out there in 112 heat index. I am an OSHA instructor. Keep on doing your talks at schools. You are appreciated by me for going out there. A big Thank YOU!!!!
@@26michaeluk 8 concussions?!! That's terrible man, did they all happen during actual games or practices?
@@ryanmccarthy8625 2 in practice, 6 in games. I only told my coaches about two because a doctor would not clear me if I got the third. So I played through them which was stupid. The worst one I got was on Senior night. I literally could only see shapes. I unbelievably won defensive player of the game with 2 picks, forced fumble and recovered fumble. Appalachian State was scouting someone else but I ended up getting a scholarship offer after they saw that and game film. I got blasted by a guy who ended up in the NFL. After the brain scans and cognitive tests no doctor would clear me. And I would've started my
sophomore year. The year we beat Michigan at Michigan. When you're young you think you're invincible. In my late 30s and basically have the signs of the beginning of dementia.
The worst thing about suffering multiple concussions from sports is that, if you become disabled from it, nobody will care.
Yep.
Watching that dude fidget with his thumbs while discussing regulations and recommendations for the teams during summer speaks VOLUMES!!!! And these are men of god….😂
This in my opinion is child abuse. These parents aren't stupid. We've known about cte for years. The movie concussion came out in 2016 and it was all over the news for years before that. These parents would rather say "that's my boy" then think about the years of his life he's losing and the potential for serious brain damage. It's not worth it for a few years of glory...
@@chandlersolomon1899 Really? Oh I feel stupid!!
Even Frontline did a story about this on League of Denial showing NFL Stars going through this.
I remember in the early 90s when the coaches punished us with no water breaks.
This was the norm for football in western Pennsylvania.
Did your coaches ever run the "illegal" bull ring?
As punishment or to settle differences the team circles up, coach blows the whistle, and two opposing players run at each other and hits.
I also recall the other time I was running drills, with no water break as punishment, it was 100+ outside and I blacked out. I kept running the drills till I finished.
High school football coaches see student players as nothing more than mules to use and abuse.
@@ironroad18 yes as a sophomore 2 of us lined up against the junior and senior linebackers and ran into each other at full speed from maybe 10 or 15 yards apart.
As a kid you feel invincible and I would put full force into every hit, even if I felt dinged up.
Yep 2 adays in the wpial
I couldn't finish this documentary. My stomach is in knots at the images of pounding force to the head...I just couldn't
As an American I've never been a football fan most of my family is but I never had any interest. This just makes me feel appalled. The fact that there are very few safety nets for these literal highschool kids makes me feel physically sick. I have even less interest in the sport now because this is just disgusting.
To think that winning is due to divine intervention is ridiculous.
I know, I mean look at America’s performance in Iraq and Afghanistan….. I thought God was on the side of America.
@@coachhussayn3379 yep, maybe Allah is more conducive to winning. Lol
Divine intervention? Didn't the other team pray to the same god to win? Did the losing team do something wrong and thus deserve this wrath of losing and getting the crap beat out of them? Really?
@@reddog-ex4dx Exactly
God is a realist, people win or lose, that’s life…
The lineman, Sam Harvill passed away in 2015. Cause of death not mentioned, but only 23 years old.
interesting to know, thanks
The HS football culture has drastically changed since I entered HS in 1978. It all about getting high rankings with Max Preps and having players being recruited by D1 schools when they are sophomores.
Also, when I worked at a cable company a decade ago, we did a HS Game Of The Week. The kids today look bigger than the college players when I played HSFB. One more point, a lot of these parochial schools use sports to recruit the top players (often at reduced tuition) as a marketing tool to make their school look “successful” just to get parents to fork out massive tuition costs for their kids, regardless if they play sports or not.
Damn, when that team from Texas came out for the game, it didn't look like there was a single player under 6'0" and 200lb. You could have a different uniform on and they could have passed for a college or NFL team. Shiloh kids were bigger than kids when I was in HS but there were some players that looked like young kids. I am glad no one was hurt.
Im glad i only played in high school. My main interest was sprinting so in college i ran track. Iv been knocked out on the football field. And we played & hit at FULL speed in every practice. I know for a fact i had brain damage. Thankfully so far i don't have any symptoms. if i knew what i know now i would have never played football. There are high school kids who killed themselves & were found out to have CTE. Now thats scary!!!!!
High school is not the time to put your body at risk for a trophy. Your body is still developing and going through lots of changes. Concussions cause major damage on their own, but let’s not forget broken and torn body parts from a bad fall or an illegal tackle.
The problem is that in order to get to a higher level you have to make the bad choices to get there.
I only played football in high school for 2 years (freshmen and sophomore year) but I have done combat sports (wrestling, jiu jitsu, sambo, boxing, kickboxing, muay Thai, etc) for over half my life (I'm 25). I was on varsity for wrestling 3 of 4 years.
The beginning of the research that lead to football getting the attention that it has was actually from the late 1800s to the early 1900s from boxing. Its where the term "Punch drunk" came from but it was actually trauma caused early onset dementia. MMA is now having the same issue football had/has. Guys who were fighting in the 90s and early 2000s are the classic symptoms of CTE. Some of these guys didn't even take a lot of damage but they still are having issues.
I still train MMA (most grappling at this point) I want to compete, maybe do a fight or two, but I'm in grad school becoming a therapist so that is my goal. I understand the competitive nature (obviously) but there is a limit and a healthy amount. I wreslted for a month after separating my shoulder, I was 13. My body is a mess after 10 years of wrestling (middle school through high school). Wrestling was harder on my body than anything else I did.
Not just a trophy. Also for scholarships. For some, that is there only hope of going to college. (Not that everybody should aspire to attend college and go into debt for a degree that they won't use or that leads to a career that isn't worth it). Some sports basically require people to begin early in life. I raced motocross instead of playing football but the similarities are massive. You start young in order to learn and develop. The crashes and hits are hard, broken bones and concussions are common but it's the price to pay in order to have a shot at being successful at a career that's dominated younger people and 30 is past retirement age for the vast majority. As the saying goes, you gotta pay to play. That just how it is.
@@justlucky8254 in2022 there were 1,024,000 high school football players and you can divide that by 4 to get the numbers of seniors=256k. fbs, fcs, and div 2 are the only ones giving scholarships. There were 426 teams in those three divisions and they all have 85 or less scholarships limits. they usually hand out a maximum of 25 per year=10650 available. seniors in high school have less than 4 percent chance of getting a scholarship. 10650/256k=..04. The real numbers are even less considering that fcs only has 63 available and div2 has 35 available which means. they give a lot less than 25 per years .the number that is usually posted is 2%
Its ironic that football was almost outlawed a long time ago because there were multiple deaths in 1 season. It was around 8-12 deaths, in FOOTBALL.
Meanwhile the upper-middle-class kids and upper-class play lacrosse, or volleyball, or lacrosse, or tennis, all sports with much, much lower injury rates.
@@alexcarter8807 A lot of kids in Lacrosse play Hockey as well, pretty aggressive sport.
A lot of times the coaches and or the fans are expecting players to perform at levels they wouldn’t even dare try….😢
> Using your head as a hammer is bad for your brain
Oh, really? I would never have thought of that
What a scientific breakthrough
Seriously. Smh And also, not everyone is trying to pretend to be valedictorian of human beings!
Kiehl Frazier didn't make it in the NFL...he transferred from Auburn after he got benched and ended up D2.
If he was in High School today he would’ve gotten NIL offers
@genzofthe2148 why? He still ended up D2. You think that would've financially compensated him in a way that would have made it worth it?
Frontline is the best documentary series of all time. Phenomenal episode!
For sure, Every one I watch is amazing, even if its a subject I dont really care for.
This happens because enough parents, schools and communities want this to happen just like some places put emphasis in education some others put emphasis in sports.
That's a great point. We created this culture and continue to support it. I love professional football, but it seems impossible for kids or their parents to weigh out how impacting your body at 16 will affect your life when you're 50
Millions of kids have been playing football for decades, and they're just fine.
I played organized football in the late 90's early 00's. Here in South Florida. Our program was ranked top 5 in the state. We almost made it to the state championship my junior year. The culture can be toxic at times, but I learned fundamental values that have become life lessons for success. I wouldn't be where I am at today were it not for the values, and work ethic that was hammered into me as a teen and young adult playing football. Injuries are a part of sports. Not a matter of if but when. How you deal with them, and protection is key, but you will never illuminate them without drastically (and imo breaking) the sport of football. 🤷♂️
@@justaguy328 and there is a chance that a good chunk of those kids (if they continued to play football at a higher level) have some long-lasting effects from being hit
They deserve it! Most of them are trashy people. A whole lot of them are raping women and everything else. Getting drunk and doing a bunch of drugs. Partying all the time. Some of them probably have brain damage because of the drugs and stuff they do!
8:37
The kid throwing his back on the hyper extensions gave me a hernia just watching
Same here. Terrible execution
The father can afford to pay for a professional track coach for his son but insists he wants his son to get a scholarship 'for prestige'.
Can't get more American that than. Let someone else pay for it.
I played with a scholarship had to work my way up from juco being all state in high school it’s a tough route money won’t get you ahead of talent and hard work my parents couldn’t put me into college if wasn’t for football I never would have went two bad knees later and a useless degree all I have are stories thankfully I found a better career after the bs of ncaa sports and the politics that go from high school to the pros
COO capitalist ... what else could one expect from such a person.
@@JP-wx6uh maybe that hard work pays off? Get a clue.
@@clintemery2125 Yeah. One heat stroke survivor and one death..plus another death a few years later. Then a dude recruited by every college in the country and ends up as the 3rd string QB for a D-1 college, ultimately spending his senior season being QB for a D-3 school. No success stories in this documentary. Rich boy didn't play much in college, but stayed on the team because daddy had money.
But coaches don’t want them to get paid. Get injured in high school and you’re in a home care system for the rest of your life while the bench warmer goes on to be drafted.
I grew up around football growing up and was a fan in my 20s and early 30s. It was then when CTE started to be recognized as a serious issue. I haven't watched or talked about football in years. Don't even talk about it with anyone when discussed with family or work. I worry about these kids.
I have loved watching football since I was little. Given how hazardous the game is becoming, I might need to start tuning it out and finding a different vice.
The first time I remember there being a controversy with injuries in football was in the mid-1990's, when Brett Favre was caught abusing prescription painkillers. A source told Sports Illustrated, "We would need to have at least 250 players on each roster to field a full team of non-injured, non-medicated players."
That poor sweet kid who said he has the rest of his life to worry about pain and stuff. An adult needs to sit him down and tell him he could have the rest of his life dealing with pain as a result of an injury. For what? To play a little football? The adults in the room need to look out for these kids. Not just use them up for a season or two.
When a high school player collapses from a heat related incident......every single coach on the field that day should be held criminally liable. And if a kid dies, those coaches should be charged....at a minimum....with voluntary (NOT involuntary) manslaughter because every one of them knew damn well the risk of heat stroke and subsequent death. With all the knowledge and training for coaches over the past 50 years with respect to heat injuries it is absolutely unforgivable that these incidents continue to happen.
I love football but the sad part is only a tiny fraction make it to the NFL
I think it says more about the parents than their kids.
I came close to playing HS football when I was a sophomore back in '75. I was going out for wide receiver. But when we sat with the football coach and discussed "football insurance," it became real to me. When I heard things like: "$10K for a broken arm, 40K for broken legs, ribs, etc." I decided to run track instead. Not to say that track is free of risk. I was hit in the tailbone with a shot put.
Playing football was the best learning experience. Learned so many life lessons. Enjoyed my teammates and being part of a team.
Good docu Frontline, big fan here. I think you guys should do one about what goes on similarly with high school marching bands in relation to this. Lots and lots of injuries in it too. The light never gets shed on that. Speaking from personal experience.
Yes I am there myself from marching the 3rd biggest Bass Drum on a line of 4 for my HS. I suffered a Pinched Nerve that I would eventually have to have a 3 Level Fusion in 2017, I graduated in 2003.
I'm all for pushing kids to have fun and play football but that's unacceptable with these extreme injuries and other issues. The players health and mental needs should be taken into consideration first
Important to note that the pastor credits Shiloh's rise to God's intervention, but doesn't want to talk about how much money the school spends on its football program.
His God is money.
I was at a school that took rowing/crew very seriously to win national titles. Pre-season training camps would start at 4am and finish by 9/10am to avoid any training in the summer heat. Don't see why they made those poor kids practice in scorching heat rather than early morning/late evenings
Because the football coaches and programs inculcate the players with a deep sense of personal responsibility for their team and don’t GAS about the players and their health. They are suppose to practice and play *as if they are in combat.* They’re *told* this game is “combat.”
Bull sh**.
I've never done any kind of competitive rowing but I've seen it in the Olympics and it looks like a brutal sport. Not brutal in the sense of contact/collisions but brutal in that it looks like nothing but intense pain from start to finish. Those rowers are great athletes and as tough as any football player or any other competitors out there. I've rowed kayaks before, just across a lake or a river, and that kicked my butt so I can't imagine how hard it is to do that competitively. You guys definitely have my respect.
This was a wonderful documentary! As a former football player (NG/TE/MLB/FB) I have at least 10 concussions from middle school to semi pro football(5year career) Most I had in one day was freshmen year HS and it was 5 during spring football😅. 6'1 220+ during my playing days and my Dr. Thinks i might have stage 2 CTE due to some symptoms. I pray for these guy's
I like all the positive attributes playing football gave me like learning how to work with and respect others, accountability, not giving up, mental and physical toughness but after watching this I have some mixed feelings. Alot has been done since my playing time to make the game safer but its still a very violent sport. God bless all who play and have played!!
"I'm going to hurt you if you cower down!" Talk about a coach that should not be coaching ANYONE!
Yah, idiot coach and that pastor was no better and neither one of them were on the field...
Why not?
By hurt me means make them run more or exercise more.
@@nicholassaville1933 yeah, but these idiots don't know when to stop and that's why 18 year olds die in practice...
@@nicholassaville1933 You don't know that, and it doesn't matter how the "hurt" happens, he's just another wannabe-coach who's just a loudmouth trying to live his failed childhood through other kids...there's millions just like him. Go to any game and just choose a coach at random, and chances are very high you'll get one just like this terrible example.
looking forward to this
The coach says you have to practice, not when practice takes your life, 100 degree heat, sad.
Damn that Trinity team looked like a college team.
I was at that game. Trinity pulled their starters at halftime. They could have scored well over 100 if that were the goal.
Texas is different
Private schools and public schools should not be playing against one another. One program has money to buy the best, and the other has taxpayers. Not fair and usually not competitive.
Newsflash: No one dies in the math, English or Chemistry department. Schools need to re-think the importance of HS sports. (former HS football player)…
This is true but coaches at every level of football across the US, need to focus a lot more on the player's safety.
Especially when it comes to the merciless summer heat and injury prevention.
As a former high school athlete myself, I fully understand and appreciate the importance of those things.
I bet a teacher or student has blown their face off in Chem Lab before
@Alysia Williams Which branch?
We trained in just about every condition imaginable while I was in the Marines several years ago.
Yah this is the best example of this. Out of control. Notice little is about school and education it’s all sports.
Not unless you figure something out that the government or big companies are hiding then your a dead man haha
This is pure Gold! Friday Night Lights Baby!!
Our definition of a concussion needs to change, that seems pretty obvious, call me crazy🤦♀️
The studying of high school players without concussions seems iffy. Even high school athletes in various sports know that reporting concussion symptoms could cause them to not be able to participate for some time. I've known plenty of people in motocross, especially teens, who do not say anything after clearly having a concussion. It's likely that there are many players at the larger football programs who keep quiet after being injured like that.
Once again,a touchdown for Frontline!👍🏽
Well done, Frontline ! As always. --------SO grateful I never played HS sports. Instead, after school, I worked every day as a janitor's helper, at an elementary school in Denver. I earned my money for college, never went into debt, & for 10 years, from 9th grade, up to the 6 years I took to graduate from CU-Denver, I had a part -time job during the school year, & a full-time job during summers. I wanted badly to play HS sports, but so grateful I went to work instead..-------Football is a collision game & injury is inevitable. No thanks. --------MJL, 76 y/o
With the amount of cases in which cte was found postmortem, I am even concerned I might have it myself. I mean I'm yet to see a case in which an ex player was examined for cte and it wasn't found. Even in younger guys. I'm 39 and only played through high school but unfortunately when I was a kid(12-18) There wasn't much knowledge on head injuries in football and precautions were not really taken. I remember being 12 years old in practice and the coach would give one guy the ball and have another guy line up 15 yards away facing him and we had to go full speed at each other and try to go through the other guy. There was no juking aloud. I hated it as a smaller guy. I was fast and my style was to go around you but they made us do stuff like that almost every practice. I was hit so hard once I threw up. I know I had a concussion several times and didn't even know what was happening. Anyway I never in my life suffered from depression or had concerns about my mental health until the last year. I was just picked up by ambulance and cops the other night because my family was concerned I might be a danger to myself due to some comments I made on the phone to them. I don't think I was suicidal per say but I had recently noticed I had been wanting to do nothing but sleep. I would get up to eat but other than that I wanted to shut the world off every min. I could. Before I realized it I looked around and my house was disgusting. I wasn't doing jack and realized for the first time in my life I was going through depression. I always thought I was to strong mentally for that to happen to me. So when the ambulance came and cops forced me to go to the hospital I decided to be honest and maybe get help for my condition. They prescribed me anti-depressants and I need to take them but I've been on the fence. To tell the truth I first thought about Tom Cruise and his rant against medication for depression. I mean he really laid into Brook Shields on national television. So there was that coming from the guy I thought was so cool as a kid in Days Of Thunder and Top Gun. Then I realized he was a huge prick and his comments were very ignorant. Im going to take them because I can't fix it on my own. Whenever I think I've got it I end up in the dumps for 3 days. Oh yeah the night they took me to the hospital I didn't get released until 3:30am. I didn't have my wallet and I had no one to call for a ride. Ive recently been separated from my wife of 17 years and my family doesn't live close so I took off walking home on the interstate 23 miles from home. Dwayne Haskins crossed my mind too. I intended to hitch hike wich Is something I also never thought I would do. Didn't work. About 10 miles in I realized I hadn't had any fluids since before I went to the hospital like 10 hours earlier so I started to panic and drank from partial water bottles on the ground. Anyways I finally made it home like 5 hours later and about died. If I wasn't before I was definitely questioning my mental health at this point. Anyways guys take care yourselves. Look out for changes in your thinking and feelings and seek help if you need it
I said a prayer for you after I read your story. You’re still here so nothing is final yet. I commend you for admitting the truth to the hospital and cops and then again here. To me this shows you truly want to get help. I believe in medicine but in addition to medication, I also believe in Jesus Christ and He’s been the only one I could turn to 100% of the time in spite of anything I did, said, or didn’t do or or didn’t say. He truly is a way maker and a miracle worker & He wants us and loves us, exactly as we are, where we are in our pain and darkness (and loneliness) when we can’t even seem to love ourselves. But John 3:16 -17 says For God so loved the world that He gave us His only son. And whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. This is also known as the good news because it is indeed good news that gives us hope when all hope is lost. This is why I wanted to share it with you because I have been down and depressed and suffered a long time in a chronic depression until I finally turned to the One who wouldn’t let me down.
You can look up the songs Way Maker and Let me tell you about my Jesus here on You Tube. They both give me chills but warm my heart at the same time. I pray that you’ll find Hope, Help and Healing in your journey.
I began reading the comments here because I have an 11 year old who plays football & I don’t like this hot weather he has to play in.
I am so sorry Mr. Crownover. Please take care of yourself. You were a kid and when we’re kids we think we’re invincible-and in many physical ways we truly are in the best physical condition of our lives or damn close to it.
Thank you for your comment. Dude, *you matter.* *Your experience matters.* Please get a consult from a neurologist and a neuropsychologist or (please choose this) a neuropsychiatrist. We don’t know what we don’t know. You deserve assistance and taking care of yourself isn’t an indulgence: It’s a necessity. Best wishes from the boonies. Your honesty and integrity are laudable. Much respect.
Hey friend, as a fellow depression sufferer, I implore you to seek out a therapist. The best piece of advice I can offer you is this: depression comes in waves, and getting back to the surface is a process, every time, which will get easier once you become more certain of what helps you as an individual. Medications take time to start fully working (like 3 month), and this one may or may not work out for you. That is okay, because there are many options and combinations. You may need a psychiatrist to help figure out medication issues, but the appointments are usually quite quick. The most important thing is going to be seeing a therapist to work through your struggles and teach you new methods of dealing with those things. Like meds, it is normal to need to try a few different therapists to figure out which you mesh with, and can address your mental health needs. I know it sounds like a lot, and allow yourself to feel however you feel about that, but please remember that you’re worth the effort. You CAN feel GOOD again. It may feel overwhelming at times, but I swear you may have some of the best years to come if you just keep working on managing your health. There are also MANY support groups, online and in-person. Hope this wasn’t too much. I just regret not knowing any of these things when I was first diagnosed with depression, and had everyone telling me it was “going to get better eventually” gave me no control over how I could help myself get to a better place in my life. You’re going to find a way through this, friend, as long as you maintain the work with professionals and slowly develop self care practices (doing things that bring you comfort, or make your life easier). As for the mess, focus on one area at your time, and give yourself a time limit to work on it, like “I’m going to clean/restock my kitchen throughout this week”. Building healthy habits means doing small, focused bits during a manageable time period, and repeating it consistently. ❤️ Sending lots of love and big hugs.
i’m only 23 played footlball my whole life. MY BODY ACHES NOW! 1000% not pressuring my son to play this sport no matter how much i loved it
we all came here to find out if Eli hurts and what he'll do should he have a son.... the world revolves around every word you say
If you have a concern about CTE the things you can do is work on sleep management, exercise, abstain from any drugs.
@@slowery43 glad i could help 🤌🏾
@@slowery43 why be nasty for no reason?
Im watching this while recovering from a concussion and I can only ask, “ Is it worth it?”
You've got a tough decision ahead of you. As was brought out in this documentary you don't have to have a concussion to have major brain damage. Such a small percentage of high school players make it to the big show. And of those that do make it an even smaller percentage of them get remembered at all. Can you name one NFL player from forty years ago?
No. It’s not. Play a pickup game with buddies to get your fix. This isn’t worth it.
To a point, it is.
Ironically, the most dangerous HS sport is cheerleading
FOMO is real. But if you cannot function mentally properly for the rest of your life for something so insignificant as American Rugby, then I would say it is not worth it.
So many kids destroying their bodies for nothing. You can learn hard work and discipline in so many other ways. Slamming into each other and giving each other brain damage for a less than 0.01% chance of making it into the NFL is crazy to me. And it's sad to see that so many parents are forcing kids to play this sport from the moment they can walk and before the kids can even decide if they want to play or not.
2:13 "...a 16-year-old, 250-pound..."
Is that even a normal weight for a male US American teenager?
Sorry for asking, but I'm just shocked at his bodyweight.
This is very normal weight for a offensive or defense lineman in highschool.
@@mobetter25 Copy that. Thanks for responding!
His huge body size, in my view, may make him prone to heat stroke.
@@yengsabio5315 Hard for us not thinking players must have used drug to gain so much weight, considering they're still teenagers technically
It's also normal for power lifters and body builders within that age bracket.
Maybe even boxers.
"You can't play worried about injury..." - these guys understand that they are playing a violent sport. This is what societies have done with their fighting age youth during times of peace throughout human history.
They are kids who don’t understand that health is more than just life and death. They don’t know what life is like with a chronic neurological illness, they can’t even fathom it because they haven’t experienced it yet.
Oh bull “sit,” dude. These are KIDS, not adults. And please, cite your “human history” reference. Apparently you weren’t given an education or you would know teenage “kids” in Greco-Roman times were considered adults because most of them died from multiple illnesses by age 30. Further, bear in mind even recent “human history” included routine medical practices such as blood letting and leeches. Based on your rationalizations, pause to reflect on this reality: Even wild animals don’t injure or kill their own unless their offspring are endangered.
Please delay your “grats” until you have a basic grasp of what you glibly refer to as “societies” who have their youth, their society’s future injuring and killing one another before their brains are fully developed. Their ignorance is excusable: Your’s isn’t.
Yes, true. They are 15 to 18 year olds. Im 64 now. I think when your young, you really don't think about getting injured. You believe you are invincible. So knowing this, parents should decide for their kids.
better than war.
That coach saying its the favor of God 🙄 I must have missed that chapter in the bible where it talks about the importance of winning at football
As a Soccer coach with a National License, this entire sport is repulsive to me. It’s dangerous to the athletes and promotes all the wrong values. Beyond CTE, etc…. the cases of domestic violence related to players is appalling. Unfortunately I don’t see this dragon disappearing anytime soon, but I would be extremely happy if it did.
Btw, Football is played with your FEET!
Having a goal to make sure a player doesn't play next game is insane to me. This is 100% violence.
LOL
many of us developed friendship for life, got in great shape, learned to fight through hard times, and we were required to keep our grades up. We also learned you don't flop and fake injuries like people do in other sports. Wrestling might be the only sport that builds stronger young men. One builds teamwork skills one builds relying on yourself. Both are important skills.
The reason American Football is so popular in America is corporate greed, it's the one sport that you can fit the most advertising slots in of basically any other sport, because there's so much stopping and starting. I tried to watch the Super Bowl and it was so hard to watch, the constant advertisements were so annoying.
I like Rugby a lot better because you can only tackle the guy with the ball, it's not as much constant stopping and starting, and it's a lot more technical. Not to mention Concussions are way less common in rugby because they don't wear helmets, the helmets are what makes American Football so dangerous, they purposely use their head as a weapon because they think it's safe. American Football is basically just combat sports on a field, it's hardly even a ball sport, there's very little technical skill.
I feel like the most popular sport in America being a sport that no other country cares about, and where 90% of the players end up with CTE really says a lot about America.
@@briankiser3227 Are all those things you mentioned really worth permanent brain damage? I looked up a statistic and 90% of professional football players end up with some degree of CTE, that's insane. You can get friendships for life and learn all those things you mentioned from basically any other sport, and it wont give you permanent brain damage.
Also saying that wrestling is the only other sport that builds stronger young men is delusional, playing any physical sport is going to build strength in a man, especially at a professional level. Soccer players might not be as physically big, but they're still strong and very talented athletes who worked their butt off to get there. They're much more technically skilled as athletes than football players are. Yeah there might be some flopping in soccer, but all sports have some negatives, they can't be perfect, it's only a small part of the game and doesn't really matter that much. Even with the flopping I think soccer is 100X more entertaining to watch than football, I'd much rather see a dude fake an injury for a second than watch a sport where 50% of it is advertisements.
Also you're aware there's other high-contact ball sports right, like Rugby for example.
This hits extra hard today!!! I hope the people will finally force the NFL to protect the players better.
Force? Lol! You know how many trillions those owners are worth? They do what they want when they want. They would run over their own mothers for a few extra bucks then back the car over them again if you offered them double.
@@allinfun829The NFL is easily the most profitable major sports league in North America. They're giving the fans what they asked for. If we, the fans, start tuning out in droves, that's the only way to get the owners' attention.
@@lindseysummers5351 The fans will never tune out. Not in our lifetimes anyway. There would have to be multiple deaths on the field for the masses to change course.
At 27:21. If that coach talked to me like that I would calmly take off all my equipment and hand it to him and say "I'd wish you luck but you wouldn't know what to do with it." 53-21? He's basically sending these 15-18 year old kids to their slaughter against 300 pounders that they don't even come close to. And calling them cowards in the process. If I was a parent I would sue the school for abuse. But this is what people have become. Over a silly game.
Football is abusive on so many levels. Parents and communities need to walk away and focus on other activities.
Uber talent reigns supreme especially in high school sports football being no exception. The point concerning football is that speed and footwork is paramount to preventing repeated hits to the head and body. Shiloh didn’t have the footspeed to match the physicality of Trinity which is a very ubiquitous theme in high school football.
The pastor of Shiloh reminds me of a slivering snake that come from the abyss.
The heat is scorching out there but you can't expect playing outside in the heat after coming from an air-conditioned room. You got to acclimate the body. Especially when you are handling kids.
There's no guarantee that they'll make it to the NFL.
Top-flight high school players often play offense, defense ,and special teams. So effectively they see more than twice the playing time of college and pro. Huge oversight in the documentary and common oversight on all documentaries focusing on high school football brain injury.
So true. My junior and senior seasons in high school I never came off the field. I was even on extra point and extra point block. My junior year I had to play JV also because we needed as many people as possible to field a JV team. So my junior year I played 18 games and only came off the field for maybe 5 plays all season. And 95% of plays involved helmet to helmet contact.
The Shiloh trainers and coaches are a disgusting joke for putting a concussed player back in.
The most valuable major you can "study" in the US is football. If you're poor, it doesn't matter how smart you are, you're limited to being poor. But if you're poor but physically large and good at football, you can make millions. I knew a guy who was dumber than a box of rocks but had a full-ride scholarship to Stanford because he was good at football. By "good" mostly meant, he really liked hurting people. He could go out on the field and break arms, etc., and it was approved of. After Stanford, he was set for life because he'd played football for Stanford. He went into the juvenile penal system because in that system, he could beat the shit out of teenagers and no one would say a thing. This is what the US places a high value on.
Yeah but that’s still like 40% college students make it into the NFL and only like 30% of THAT actually gets to play
Yeah bit of an exaggeration that you can't do anything else if you're poor lmao
I played high school football for a few years in Cave Creek, AZ up until graduation in 1994. I remember doing two-a-day practices at the end of summer and before the school year started; god I hated going to practice.
did you hate it as much as others hate reading posts of people chiming in thinking this video is about them and their feeling that their life is of such importance they must share it with others?
It’s crazy to me how much my daughter practices throughout the entire summer for high school soccer! 6 days a week, every day but Sunday. And that schedule continues throughout the season. I just don’t remember it being like that 25 years ago. She also plays premier league, they (only) practice 3-4 times a week year round.
It amazes me how football is even a thing in the west/southwest. I live in AZ now but am from Missouri and football is NOTHING in AZ. Lmao
I'm seeing A LOT of helmet to helmet contact in this video. When was this originally shot? A vast majority of these hits are now illegal in today's game. I saw one hit in this doc that would of definitely gotten the kid kicked out the game.
If you don't have a certified trainer, don't have a football team
They brought this back just in time for CFB Week 1
I played HS ball back in the 1980s. Cross town bragging rights was our thing. But, national television? Yikes.
I know right?
The schools need to be sued by the parents of those kids. The coaches directed them to exercise outside in over 100 degree heat, that’s torture, not sports. There’s no justification for this obscenity.
Unfortunately, we had to do that quite a lot when I was playing football in middle school and high school.
Dealing with that goddamned heat was worse than getting hit by the biggest guys on my team.
As a 25 year old literally WORKING while listening to this.. I felt what he said.
If the "adults" in the room fail to protect the kids they should have to pay for it. YOUR JOB was to protect the kids. Not exploit them. You failed.
Shut up. Noone is exploiting kids by letting them play football at small high-schools. They don't have access to millions of dollars for new stadiums or uniforms. They play because they love it. Life is too short to live in a fucking bubble. Most dangerous thing you can ever do is drive a car, don't see anyone trying to take cars away. What about the effects alcohol have on these kids? They talk about it but what's actually been done about it. Nothing. They have and are STILL making massive changes to the game. Stop fucking with them, and let them try to fix it.
The culture of high school football is a weird weird thing.
Frontline should do a special on High School Cheerleading, which is statistically more dangerous than High School Football.
No policy means football is more important than the health of our students.