By: Chris Ellis, Sports Reporter

Although the WJPS partner school Francis Lewis High School does not offer high school football, there has been the issue with player safety concerns and injuries. In the NFL, more 100 players were diagnosed with CTE, which stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. This is a disease which causes brain damage when taking contact to the head.

Most players suffer CTE when making big tackles leading with their heads. Some causes of this disease are cognitive impairment, lightheadedness, and emotional instability. This mostly happened with former NFL players who claim that they have suffered memory loss. Former NFL player, Aaron Hernandez, was diagnosed with severe CTE at stage 3 after he was convicted of killing Odin Lloyd.

“It’s an unsafe sport, to begin with. It’s the person’s choice and they have to deal with it,” said Mr. Thompson, WJPS history teacher. “I don’t think you can change the game, they adapted the equipment they can use and contact will be that.”

“They should incorporate less helmet contact to the head. I think the league should change the tackling rule because it’s too soft. They went from one extreme violent to one extreme soft. They need to find the medium,” said WJPS physical education teacher Mr. Angeles.