Is high school football morally tenable? Three more deaths raise familiar questions

As the globe continues to heat, conditions on the practice field continue to worsen, and kids are left to die, we are left with a simple question: is this sport morally sustainable?

In December 2022, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the football field during a nationally televised game. The incident prompted shock and horror across the country and briefly led to sustained public discourse about the safety of the sport. Yet, soon after, the NFL could be found trumpeting Hamlin's triumphant recovery, even showcasing him at the Super Bowl, in a feat of remarkably adept appropriation and image laundering.

And so the football world returned to its resting state: completely unwilling to acknowledge the extent to which the sport remains an ongoing public health catastrophe. For, the almost-tragedy that befell Damar Hamlin has repeatedly been an actual reality for all too many football-participating families, including that of Jordan McNair, the 19-year-old University of Maryland offensive lineman, who was reportedly told by a trainer to Drag his ass across the field!" even after he had first collapsed from heat and exhaustion. McNair ultimately died. His mother later said, No one did anything to even try and cool him down. That's the part that bothers me most. There was nothing I could do. And I couldn't help him. It breaks my heart."

Nathan Kalman-Lamb is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. Derek Silva is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology at King's University College at Western University. They are co-authors of The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game (UNC Press, December 2024) and co-hosts (with Johanna Mellis) of The End of Sport podcast.