America’s largest youth football association has encountered a 9.5% decrease in players over the 2 year period of 2010-2012. Naturally, it is assumed that this can be attributed to the public awareness of concussions and the recent media attention that this injury has received these past couple of years. From star NFL players to youth recreational participants, it seems no footballers are immune to the dangers of concussions.

This has clearly caused negative publicity for the sport as a whole which has led to a decrease in popularity among youth players. Obviously removing tackling from the game is not an option but something must be done to sustain the growth of the equipment that will keep up with the faster and stronger athletes that sports medicine is producing today. I believe that more time and money must be put into the research and development of helmets because clearly they have become outdated and need adaptations. The campaigns to teach proper tackling strategies are positive but it seems doubtful that every single youth player will receive this special coaching. If the NFL does not shift some of their spending onto nationwide concussion awareness and prevention, which is not  tall order considering the massive sums of revenue earned on the Super Bowl alone, then they will lose the future generation of footballers.