I met Andrew and Isaiah in 2013, when Andrew was 10, Isaiah was 11, and I was beginning work on a book about their youth football team, the Mo Better Jaguars. As I learned about their lives, it occurred to me that the contemporary debate about the role of football in American society often overlooks kids like them. It’s now common knowledge that the thousands of hits football players suffer take a toll, greatly increasing their risk of contracting the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Retired N.F.L. Several families have sued Pop Warner, the nation’s largest youth football organization, including, most recently, the parents of two young men who were found to have C.T.E.

Source: New York Times September 08, 2018 15:22 UTC