Friday Night Lights out for teens and football due to dangerous concussions

JUNCTION CITY, Ore. – There used to be a ball park here in this suburb of Eugene where Oregon “Duck” football is king; however, the lights went out on this high school football playing field for a host of reasons.

In a fictional world, a high school coach named Eric Taylor (played by Kyle Chandler) would help resurrect this old high school football ball park in the Eugene suburb of Junction City, and turn it into right proud “Dillon” football community. However, this is real life and not an episode of the still popular cancelled television series “Friday Night Lights.” Just as the show Friday Night Lights used a small town backdrop to address many issues facing contemporary American culture – including lack of school funding, racism, drugs, abortion and a lack of economic opportunities – so too has this somewhat rural community of Junction City. For instance, a former Junction City football star named Matt – who could be played by Friday Night Lights quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter) with a Mr. Body-perfect look at age 32, and arms that seemed to be as boneless as tentacles in both throwing and catching the football. Today, Matt is balding, and acting somewhat awkward and even slow about him, while he explains “too many concussions.”

Teens and football: a dangerous mix

While Matt and thousands like him are the so-called “invisible” victims of high school football across America – due to suffering the after effects of numerous football related concussions – there’s now hope with mainstream media brushing aside the NFL view that talk of concussions “is a buzz kill for fans” who simply want to enjoy “the hits” that have always been part of the game.

In turn, Dr. Sanjay Gupta recent CNN report – titled “Big Hits, Broken Dreams” – is now being re-run this week after the Super Bowl; while also being marketed to high school football programs across the country where the mentality is still like those good old’ boys in the fictional “Friday Night Lights” town of Dillon, Texas, where young teens getting their “bell-rung” on the playing field is a rite of passage, and even “honorable” to have one’s brain smashed to get “that touchdown!”

Doctor Gupta, the CNN network’s chief medical correspondent, explores how a small town football program – that mirrors Friday Night Light’s town of Dillon, Texas – at “J.H. Rose High School,” in North Carolina, has come to terms with the impact of brain damaging concussions that are not only knocking young high school players out of the game, but making them wounded and brain damaged for life.

Thus, it’s no surprise for those who’ve played the game of high school football – such as Matt in Junction City, Oregon – that “something must be done to protect players from hits to the head,” Matt said in a recent Huliq interview, “because I’m still having headaches and issues 14 years later.”

Moreover, some 200 former NFL football stars – many who are either already in the Hall of Fame or earned Pro Bowl status when they played the game – are now involved in a heated law suit against the NFL for “deceiving players” about the dangers of concussions with football helmets doing little or nothing to protect players from concussions that never “really heal,” say doctors, “and result in life-threatening brain damage for life.”

CNN reports on concussions and teen brains

Doctor Gupta’s CNN report: “Big Hits, Broken Dreams” that’s earned high praise from other medical experts and even the NFL, points to a whole series of important health issues -- that high school football players, parents, coaches and communities -- must deal with before there’s more broken down former high school football players like Junction City’s Matt.

In turn, Matt told Huliq in a recent interview that he “can’t seem to hold down a job,” or “carry on a normal life” after he and fellow high school football player put their brains on the line, literally, for that fleeting past glory of scoring a touchdown.

Doctor Gupta’s CNN report states:

-- “Almost half of high school football players suffer concussions each season.” For instance, CNN reported that “J.H. Rose student Jaquan Waller, 16, died in 2008 after a seemingly mild hit during a game. But it came after he’d sustained an untreated concussion at practice.

-- “Most teams have staff members who can offer immediate first aid for other routine injuries. But fewer than half have someone on hand trained to recognize and threat concussions.”

-- “Adolescent athletes take longer to recover from concussions than older players because their brains are still developing. Long-term effects from repeated or improperly treated concussions include migraines, emotional problems and dementia.”

-- “High School players on average receive 650 blows each season. New research suggests the cumulative effect of these hits can cause serious health issues later in life.”

Also, Doctor Gupta’s CNN report explained that “many high school athletes hide injuries.”

Man-up, and play injured with that concussion

For fans of “Friday Night Lights,” this theme of driven high school football stars “hiding their injuries” from the coach was a common theme in the fictional town of Dillon: a small, closely-knit community in rural Texas where both the high school football players, and even the entire community, based their self-worth and identities on both playing and winning football games “at all cost!”

Friday Night Lights premiered on Oct. 3, 2006, airing for two seasons on NBC. When facing canceling the series, NBC reportedly “struck a deal with DirecTV” to air the show for the next three seasons.

Friday Night Lights is now available on DVD after the 101 Network aired the final episode on Feb. 9, 2011.

Friday Night Lights and concussions

Given the drive towards authenticity – that allowed the show’s documentary style filming technique to make it seem like “real life” – the producers would have taken on the issue of concussions, say TV critics, if the show had continued.

For instance, Doctor Gupta’s recent CNN report: “Big Hits, Broken Dreams” points to a “growing acceptance” in both today’s American culture – where the game of football is viewed as a sort of religious experience and honored as true “red, white and blue” – to “accept the reality that high school players are having concussions” at an alarming rate and, for the good of football, and producing the next generation of NFL players that fans can “enjoy,” it’s all important to get a handle on “this concussion issue.”

Moreover, Doctor Gupta’s CNN report on the alarming rise of brain-damaged high school youth who play football in those rural “Dillon” communities, as featured in “Friday Night Lights” included former high school football players who told Doctor Gupta that: “I was going to play until I couldn’t play,” due to numerous on field concussions.

One high school player named A.J. Flores told Doctor Gupta that “he now suffers from lasting aftereffects – and he’s no longer involved with the sport of football.”

Image source of a promotional website ad for a Toyota created around the “Friday Night Lights” TV show players with the intent to create Toyota’s “Hometown Sweepstakes,” in which students could earn cash grants of up to $50,000 for their school’s athletic (football) program. The Toyota sweepstakes was open to high school students ages 14 to 18. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_Lights_(TV_series)

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