There was one kid at one of the area high schools a few years ago who ended up with a paralyzing injury to due to getting hit during a football game and landing wrong.

For some schools, football is the only sport. However, if you're in a larger school, there are probably more options than just football, which won't involve players slamming into each other. Basketball and baseball are sometimes other options.

Football probably isn't a good bet for a long-term career option any more because of all the heath data that has been coming out about it in the past few years.

It probably would have been better to have this discussion before your son started participating in the sport. It will be harder to get him out of it now if he still wants to continue to participate in it. Teenagers are invincible after all, and they don't always understand the consequences of things that can cause health problems later down the line.

Pretty sure most of that was sarcasm, but in answer to that question, yes.

pasted_image (resized).png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_traumatic_encephalopathy#American_football

I eventually stopped playing after getting beaned by wild pitchers too many times. No lasting injuries, but fastballs tend to hurt, especially after getting hit multiple times in a single season (though they were probably closer to 50-60 mph, rather than 90+). I was a pretty good batter at the time, so maybe pitchers would rather bean me than let me get a hit, I dunno. There were a few other things that made it not so fun any more, but that was the most memorable reason.