In defense of High School football and younger, most of the players aren't physically developed enough to cause and long term damage to themselves or anyone else (in terms of head related injuries). College and pros is another story. That's why as you get farther along in your football career the less you have full contact practices. In college (and I would bet my hat that it is the same for pros) sometime around week 2 you are pretty much done with full contact hitting in practices (their might still be some hitting at 75% speed to work on form).

I played football in college and I think they managed the players' health pretty well. Granted I was at a smaller less competitive D3 school but, all the same, I never felt fear that I was going to suffer any long term head injuries (also I never got a concussion in 8 years of playing).

> In defense of High School football and younger, most of the players aren't physically developed enough to cause and long term damage to themselves or anyone else (in terms of head related injuries).

That's yet unclear, see research by Dr. McKee: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sports/league-of-den...

As I mentioned in another comment, everything I said was speculation based on playing in high school and college. I don't have any strong evidence to back up my claims. That said, I'm skeptical of the numbers in the article you linked. I could be wrong, but in my experience players in high school were much more likely to report injuries than in college. Especially head injuries. Friends of mine in college, on multiple occasions, had headaches that lasted more than a week and refused to report them for fear of being benched or missing playing time. High school was the opposite, players would go to the trainers all the time for every little thing.

I can't argue with numbers, but I am just not convinced the method of data collection is accurate.

>In defense of High School football and younger, most of the players aren't physically developed enough to cause and long term damage to themselves or anyone else (in terms of head related injuries).

Do you have any evidence to back up this speculation?

In fairness I'm speculating about the damage. For all I know I am overestimating the severity of the collisions I see; I just have a strong intuition motivated teens play hard and that repeated impacts add up to eventual damage.

Nope none at all except personal experience playing at both high school and college level. That was total speculation on my part. Head injury data is really tough to gather accurately since the farther along in your career you get the more pressure you have to "play through it". So I would estimate (again total speculation on my part) that less than 1/2 of the concussions that actually happen get reported on a collegiate level (no idea about the NFL).

More personal notes: In college I knew a few guys who would have headaches for days but refuse to go to the doctor or trainer for fear of getting benched. That was the exact opposite in High school for me. Players would go to the trainer for every little bump and bruise.

Like skizm, I'm pretty sure High School isn't going to be the big problem.

I think American Football is very much in need of a rethink of their "safety" equipment. You can have a full contact sports[1] without the damage done. A football player is now wearing hard armor and it is not helping.

Boxing isn't less popular because of injuries. It is less popular because it isn't on ABC every week and it is all pay-per-view. Its an event sport that is not worth the money to pay for the events.

1) calling these blood sports makes for a problem when real blood sports are discussed - hyperbole and the brain shouldn't be mixed

For a more barbaric sport like MMA?

According to the (nat geo?) video below mma and boxing hits should be about the same with all else being equal. Combing this with mma's grappling and one almost wonders if, despite the increased blood, it might be less concussion inducing.

No doubt their bodies are being hammered and worn down though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRmOOWPTRBs

Among the MMA community it used to be common knowledge that MMA was safer, concussion-wise. There were no good studies to back that up, however. Now they're starting to come by, and it seems they might be just about the same. Here's one: http://www.cagepotato.com/myth-busting-is-mma-really-safer-t...

I agree MMA is barbaric but IMHO it doesn't have anything like the status that boxing used to have. When I was growing up in the 1970s, world heavyweight title fights were staged and broadcast internationally and attracted attention comparable to Olympic contests.

MMA will get there. The modern sport of MMA is at best 20 years old this year, much less with the current rules and weight categories. It is the fastest growing sport league in the US, and I'll agree this is easy with all the others being much older and established. However, among 18-34 year-old fans, the UFC is already more popular than the NHL and NASCAR.

Being hit by a glove with fists wrapped like rocks, and simply bare fists, is a very different experience. Fists hurt and can break your skin, but with gloves it's like your whole head is being rocked and is very disorientating.

This is my experience, also. If you don't block and someone hits you with MMA gloves, you're probably going to have a cut or superficial damage on your face. With boxing gloves, especially the 16oz ones that most people spar with, you can take many, many hits to the head with no visible damage. The extra padding isn't protecting your head, it's protecting the puncher's fists.