Argument Essay Mentor Text

Grade 8

Argument Writing

Improve it, Don’t Ban It: A Position Paper on Football

          It is a fall Friday night. The moon hangs low, the air is crisp. You are walking into our town. As soon as you enter the town, you see a warm glow from the edge of the high school and you hear a low wave of noise. Get a little closer. The glow becomes lights, bright and bold hanging over the field behind the high school. The wave of noise? If you walk toward the field, you’ll hear that wave of noise separate and become hundreds of voices, all cheering and screaming their hearts out. For their team. For our team. For football.

          For hundreds of years, American high schools have been hubs for communities to come together and hope and root for their teams on Friday nights. Football is a pastime as American as apple pie and fireworks. It brings communities together and once a year, on the night of the Super Bowl, it brings all of America together. Yet, recently in the media, football has come under attack for being a sport that is dangerous. Critics of football and even former team players have come forward to claim that football causes concussions and that its players suffer shorter life spans. And seeing that football may be damaging for adult players has trickled down to people now fearing what happens when children play. Even President Obama has weighed in on the dangers of football for youth (see Downes, 2013). Articles aimed at people of every age from adults to children have appeared in news outlets, all urging people to take a stand against football for youth and see that it is not worth the injuries it causes. Their point—a game that causes injury is not one we want for our children. Yet, this argument overlooks the positives around football. The negative media storm has been drowning out anyone who might say that football is fun or good. Reporters paint football players as modern day gladiators fighting thoughtlessly for the entertainment of the crowd. However, this is not the full story. Football is an important form of physical exercise, a game which offers many mental benefits and a community tradition which brings joy to many. This paper will argue that rather than seeing football as entirely negative, people should be finding ways to make football safer and improve the game so that it can continue to remain a key, enjoyable pastime.

          There seems to be no end to the anecdotal and scientific evidence about the injuries football causes. In “The Problem with Football: How to Make it Safer” Sean Gregory (2010) begins by describing a high school player walking into a researcher’s office to see the brains of dead football players and looking at how these brains are damaged. The effect of that anecdote is shocking. The reader clearly sees that injuries, particularly head injuries caused over time do have long-term consequences. Gregory states that high school players alone suffer 43,000 to 67,000 concussions a year (although this number could be higher since these are only the number of reported concussions). In 2013, five former Kansas City Chief players sued the Chiefs for not warning them about the long- term dangers of concussions and in August of that month, the NFL agreed to pay $765 million to settle those cases (Belson, 2013). So no one is arguing that football is totally safe. And no one is saying that football is safer than other sports, although it is the case that that there may be sports as dangerous or more dangerous than football—like, for example, cheerleading as Rick Reilly (1999) would assert. Instead, one might argue that steps need to be taken to make football safer. Just outright banning youth football is not the answer. That’s like throwing the baby out with the bathwater as my grandma says. And the baby may want to grow up and play football.

          There are many reasons to find ways to improve football for youth rather than just ban it outright. Think of the positives about football. Like the physical exercise. Football requires strength and speed and endurance. In her article for Livestrong.com, Nunely (2013) argues that you use almost every muscle when you play football. As she claims, upper and lower body muscles are used when players are “running, jumping, blocking, catching and throwing” and core muscles have to keep working to keep your “spine stable and perform twisting movements when throwing or going up to catch a ball.” Silverman (2014), another writer for Livestrong.com would agree with Nunely, as he argues, “Despite the dangers, football players enjoy greater strength and cardiovascular health, not only during the regular playing season, but during the off-season when in training.” This means that football does offer health benefits that should not be overlooked. Football doesn’t just improve your cardiovascular health and your muscle tone but it also strengthens your hand-eye coordination, agility, speed, and more (Scheinbaum, 2013). Now, yes, these are blogs written for organizations that have a vested interest in sports but the truth is that youth do need to be healthier and sports, including football, are key. In a time when American youth have never been unhealthier and the National Center for Health Statistics is reporting that only about 24.8% of youth surveyed in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)’s National Youth Fitness Survey gets the amount of physical fitness that the US government has recommended (Sifferlin, 2014), is getting rid of a form of important exercise really the way to go? Do we really want youth sitting around playing video games? Isn’t it important to find some way, any way, to get them active and moving? As a pop culture writer Daniel Flynn (2013) said when he was interviewed by the NFL Evolution, “there are always risks to every human endeavor but on the whole people who play football are going to walk away from playing the game healthier than people who sit in the stands and watch it.”

          Another key reason for finding ways to improve football rather than ban it for youth are the mental benefits of football. Scheinbaum (2013) assert that playing football requires more strategy than any other sport. As he explains, football is a game “made up of dozens of individual plays, each with its own complicated patterns of movement and logic.” According to Scheinbaum, this game requires a player to be constantly evaluating what is working and what is not. The strategy involved means that youth who play are learning to be more strategic, considering which plays will work and in what situations. In addition, playing on a football team can teach important leadership skills. According to the article “3 Ways Your Child Will Benefit from Playing Football,” by Steve Alic (2013), “by playing this sport, young athletes learn football’s timeless qualities of leadership, responsibility, perseverance and teamwork.” This is significant because students who play football are learning lessons that will matter off the field. Research also shows that students in middle school who play sports are healthier and more satisfied with their lives than those who do not (2010). So students who are playing football no matter what are gaining things they would not be gaining otherwise. If football is banned, those gains will be lost.

          Perhaps the most important reason to consider how to make football safer than just banning it outright is the fact that it is a passion and a tradition that is important for many. When three million children ages 6-14 take to football fields every year (Alic, 2013) we have to concede that there must be at least some enjoyment for the game. When towns gather to huddle around their teams, cheering them on, even in freezing cold weather, we have to acknowledge that this game is more than a game to some. It is part of a tradition. And sure, there are traditions that should not always be kept but it seems an indifferent, cold attitude to look at how many people have their hearts in this sport and say, “no get rid of it.” Wouldn’t it be better to study more carefully how it could be improved? And, I am arguing that there are ways to improve the game.

          Rather than start banning youth leagues, more communities need to start putting policies in place that keep students safer. Like reading the research on which helmets are safest. Like making sure coaches go through tougher training programs so they are more aware of what plays are dangerous and should not be run and of how to make sure that youth do not overwork certain muscles. Like making it illegal for players to use certain head-butting moves. Like making it okay and even admirable to leave the field if you get hit rather than playing through pain. In “The Problem with Football: How to Make it Safer,” Sean Gregory offers suggestions for how to make football safer and if more communities read this kind of work, then perhaps football would be a safer game and less people would be bad-mouthing it. There is some evidence that raising awareness of the dangers of football may be the best first step toward improvement. A recent New York Times article by Belson (2014) stated that the NFL had reported a 13% decline in concussions this year. The NFL credited “improved medical diagnoses, stiffer penalties for striking with a helmet, and fewer practices” for this decline although officials did say that this number is based on a small sample size and there may still be unreported concussions. Still though, this decline may point to a positive sign—that an increased awareness of the dangers and a more vigilant understanding of how to be safer may lead to greater safety.

          So, there you are, in our town on a Friday night in autumn, watching football. You see families in the stands huddled together under blankets, their breaths blowing frosty in the night. You see the players giving it their all, pumping each other up and keeping each other going under the warm glow of the lights. And as you watch, you’ll see lots of problems, sure, but you’ll see something to cheer about, too, of that I’m sure. Football has a ways to go but banning it is not the answer. More needs to be done to make youth football safer and then that will be something we can all cheer about.

References

Alic, S. (2013). 3 Ways Your Child Will Benefit from Playing Youth Football. [Web Log Entry]                  Retrieved from http://usafootball.com/ blogs/americas-game/post/7269

Belson, K. (2014, January 30). Concussions Show Decline of 13%, N.F.L. Says. The New York                  Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes. com/2014/01/31/sports/football/nfl-reports-                      concussions-dropped-13- percent-in-2013.html

Belson, K (2013, December 3). Five Former N.F.L. Players Sue the Chiefs Over Head Injuries. The           New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/sports/football/five-                 former-nfl- players-sue-the-kansas-city-chiefs-over-head-injuries.html

Downes, L. (2013). The Dangerous Game. Taking Note: The Editorial Page Editor’s Blog [web log            entry]. Retrieved from http://takingnote. blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/the-dangerous-game

Flynn, D. (2013). Author’s ‘War on Football’ sees positive aspects at all levels. Retrieved from                  http://www.nfl.com/news/ story/0ap1000000243729/article/authors-war-on-football-sees-                    positive-aspects-at-all-levels

Gregory, S. (2010). The Problem with Football: How to Make it Safer. Time Magazine. Retrieved              from http://content.time.com/time/ magazine/article/0,9171,1957459,00.html

Nunley, K. (2013). Main Muscles Used in Football. Retrieved from                                                              http://www.livestrong.com/article/461382-main-muscles-used-in- football/

Reilly, R. (1999, October). Sis! Boom! Bah! Humbug! Sports Illustrated, vol. 91 (issue 15). Retrieved        from http://sportsillustrated. cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1017375/

Scheinbaum, C. (2013). 5 Mental and Physical Benefits of Playing Football. [Web Log Entry]                    Retrieved from http://www.theadrenalist. com/sports/5-mental-and-physical-benefits-of-playing-

       football/

Sifferlin, A. (2014). Couch Culture: Only a Quarter of U.S. Youth Get Recommended Exercise. 

       Retrieved from http://healthland.time. com/2014/01/08/couch-culture-only-a-quarter-of-u-s-

       youth-get- recommended-exercise/

Study Shows Physical and Mental Health Benefits of Sports Participation in Adolescents. (2010, 

       September 22). Retrieved from http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100922/Study-shows- 

       physical-and-mental-health-benefits-of-sports-participation-in- adolescents.aspx