Football – America’s Favorite Sport

Thousands of hours of relentless training, along with even more time spent thinking about how to be the best at your assignment, all goes into a suspenseful yet exhilarating two hours. This is football. Football is arguably America’s favorite sport and is loved by millions.

This sport can be played competitively from highschool to professional levels. The NFL (National Football League) was founded almost one hundred years ago in Canton, Ohio, 1920. This sport is not anything new. Recently, people have come to think that the injury risks of football outweigh the benefits of playing football.

However, football encourages a healthy lifestyle, creates collaboration skills, and builds life lasting skills.

The great game of football is a physically demanding sport that requires each and every player to have their own form of great physical condition. For example, running backs need strong core and legs. While lineman need strong chests, arms, and legs but do not need the speed of a running back. However, every individual player needs to be well conditioned. And these suggestions are not entirely necessary.

A great running back can be the best at everything on the field and this just means that he is very good. Every good physical attribute is encouraged among each and every player on every team. From quickness to strength to toughness, a great player has all of it. “Football requires conditioning and strength training, which are excellent forms of exercise and good for cardiovascular health” (Behr 1). This quote is very self explanatory in of itself when it describes the types of exercises that go into the average football player’s workout.

Being healthy is an important aspect in every single individual person on this planet’s life. It is a key building block to happiness. “You do a lot of different types of training when you participate in football from sprints to distance interval training and weight lifting. So, it's really good overall health benefit to someone in any age group” (Behr 1). This quote expands on the idea that football is good for all age groups and that the activities that go into a football workout are beneficial for everyone.

Also, diet is also very important to a football program. Much protein is needed for your body to keep up with these activities. In conclusion, every thing that goes into a football players physical health is beneficial. From the aerobics, to the weight lifting, to the diet. It all is important to people who don’t even play football. However, football provides them with flourishing colors.

Football also provides anyone from the youth level to adult levels life lasting lessons. Barry Sanders is a Hall of Fame football player who played for the Detroit Lions for his entire career and is considered one of, if not the, best running backs of all time. “I’ve carried those lessons throughout my life and so has my son. It has provided him an exceptional college education and molded him into a young man of confidence and discipline” (Sanders 1).

This quote means that from playing football, his son has learned many lessons. Football teaches so many things to young people that no speaker of class could teach. First and foremost, it teaches discipline. Discipline the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience. When things are done correctly and rules are followed not only in practice, but in game, that means a team is well disciplined and a team with good discipline does their jobs correctly and will most likely win the games they play.This principal can carry throughout a person's life and will influence them to be a good, law abiding citizen.

Another lesson that football can teach is to never quit. One of the biggest influences of playing football is to win. With the right coaching, or personal realization, people will do whatever it takes to win. These lessons, as Sanders said, carried throughout his and his sons life to help them achieve the highest success possible and be the best they could possibly be. “Perhaps most importantly, football teaches the value of teamwork, leadership, and having a good work ethic” (Behr 2). These skills are very useful in everyday life. In school, or even anywhere, a good work ethic is needed to be successful. Leadership skills are also very important.

For example, in a workplace, good leadership qualities can impress one’s boss. With the work ethic paired with that, they could rise to be the boss. Teamwork helps any team. Whether it be a sports team or a camera crew for the news, teamwork makes the dream work. Many people working and doing their jobs correctly will work a lot better than one person doing all the jobs. There are strength in numbers. These simple, yet sought after, qualities are desired by everyone who is willing to do what it takes to be successful. In conclusion, football teaches people to become what all parents should want for their kids to be. Hard working, confident, disciplined, and motivated leaders. Skills that not only help in school, but carry on throughout the rest of their lives.

Football creates bonds with the players and coaches that benefit their social skills. “Team-based events are especially recommended for their social nature” (Burke 1). During the usual football season, the kids are working with each other every day. Whether it be weight lifting, speed conditioning, or conventional practice, the children are consistently working with one another with the common goal to win.

With a common goal, constantly being together, and always challenging each other, the children will make bonds with their teammates and coaches. These skills pass on to making friends in the real world and being able to not be socially awkward. Many children struggle speaking to each other and especially to adults. Football trains it’s players to overcome these faults and do what they must do to get jobs, go to college, and so many more things. “Sports are an important part of children's lives” (Burke 1). This explains how sports help kids acquire friends through bonding over football, as previously explained by the common goal, the constantly being together, and learning who they are and deciding whether the kids like each other to the point where they could be friends. Coaches teach the kids to work together to succeed.

A commonly known importance of football is that no one man can win the game. Every play, offense and defense, every player does their job and the play will work. That is where the trust comes into effect. The kids will learn to rely on each other by learning that if each individual person does their job correctly, they will surely win the game. Which is the main goal of the kids. To be winners. To be successful.

However, some people have come to believe that football has become too unsafe for children to play. It has recently been believed that the injury and concussion risks outweigh the benefits of playing football. “Parents are often too trusting,” Comstock (A High School Football Reporter since 2005) says. “They assume whoever is in charge knows what their doing” (Painter 2). Individuals may not trust the coaching staff of a team for personal reasons or just pure ignorance.

However, each and every high school football coach works for the school. Said school has an athletic director that monitors what is happening during all the sports played at the school. All practices, games, etc… are being monitored by the school to make sure that no one is being taught how to play football incorrectly. Whether it be tackling, blocking, or even kicking, each and every coach is making sure that they are creating a game plan that not only works, but is safe for the kids to do. “The coaches should be certified through the USA Football Heads Up program” (Painter 2).

This means that the head coach is trained in proper tackling, blocking, and even equipment fitting. The coach should also be aware of what to do in sudden-cardiac-arrest scenarios. But even in game, there are rules against doing things that could cause harm to the other team. For example, leading a hit with a players helmet could cause a concussion or many other injuries. This is a penalty that will result in one’s team to lose yards and possibly even an ejection from the game. Another penalty that will cause a player’s team to lose yards is chop blocking.

This is when a person is engaged with another while blocking. When someone hits the person that is being blocked below the waist, this is called a chop block and is dangerous. This penalty will result in a 15 yard loss for the delivering team. Coaches must also know how to recognize concussions and how to respond to one. Concussions are very dangerous and are perhaps the main goal of coaches and referees to prevent them.

Heat and hydration issues are also very apparent in football. That is why, as you may have guessed, coaches must know how to address this as well. This proves that coaches have to be very well prepared for anything that could be thrown their way. Whether it be, injury, heat, equipment issues, and so on, a football coach is required to know how to handle all of these situations and is required to teach the kids correctly. This is why having a disbelief in the coaches ability to keep one’s kids safe is a totally irrelevant argument. Injuries happen, but can also be prevented, which is what some parents and children can’t understand.

In conclusion, the belief that football's risks outweigh its benefits through injury. However, the lessons that football teaches kids and even adults, the physical health benefits, and it’s social benefits show that football is good for all people to play. If a parents child wants to play football, boy or girl, they should let them. It is understandable to be cautious but, overall, it is good for the in almost every way possible. The sport will be better with more competition, consequently advancing the safety protocols. This will eventually make the claim that football is too dangerous an argument of the past.

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