Thanks for raising this issue. The Malcolm Gladwell podcast is worth a listen for those interested. It brought me to tears. So forgive this post:
I was at Penn with Owen Thomas, although I had already graduated and went off to law school at the time of his tragic suicide. I had lots of buddies on the football team. He was loved by all of them.
I also suffered several concussions during high school ball. They put an end to any dream I had of playing in college. I still deal with symptoms related to head trauma over a decade hence. I remember my teammates helping me to hide my issues from the coaches. I even went "Doctor shopping" until I found one that would clear me to play. Putting myself back in my 16-17 year old shoes, I can't imagine doing it any other way. Football was way too important to us. I was a captain. I wanted to lead.
My brother, however, was an all-conference linebacker in college (he always wore my number). He is now an assistant football coach at a high school in North Jersey. He fared better than I did in the concussion department but he's acutely aware of the impact--he was there each and every time I ended up in the hospital. He sees his role as bringing awareness of the issue to his team, and designing practices to limit hits to head as much as possible. I respect that. Although, I don't know I could do it.
All that is to say, I'm hugely conflicted. Every time my beloved Irish take the field, I think about head trauma. When Alize got hit by ScUM's Metellus, I got sick to my stomach. But coming from a large Catholic Northeast Pennsylvania family, ND football is often the one thing that brings us all together. So, I watch one team. I probably always will.
Just thought I'd share.
