Football should be banned as an organized sport for high school students

Hello, Storm. I accept your challenge and look forward to our debate! While I concede that football remains a dangerous sport, I do not believe that it should be banned for high school students. All steps should be taken to ensure that we balance safety with the spirit of the game, and while current attention to the relationship between football and head trauma deserves merit, most of the sport"s very vocal critics do not in any way support a ban. First, simply put, we don"t ban dangerous, voluntary activities. People die in car accidents, yet we don"t ban cars. High caloric meals from fast food restaurants can cause debilitating obesity. Even dangerous wildlife can pose a threat, but we don"t ban access to certain environments because those places could be harmful. This list is endless, but the similarity crucial. Voluntary activities that could be harmful to you tend not to be banned, and for good reason; we honor the freedom to participate, cherishing the idea that individual responsibility should come before governmental mandate. If you support the idea that a voluntary activity should be banned because it is potentially harmful, you have logically justified a rollback of many different potential activities and freedoms. The risk of death and injury, while important, isn"t enough to justify a ban on high school football. Second, you are ignoring the benefits of football " teambuilding, camaraderie, trust, and of course, keeping in shape. So many people can participate in football because it is a dynamic game: some kick, some throw, some catch, some run, some block guys trying to tackle your guys. Sports like basketball, baseball, or soccer are not as dynamic, which is why these sports tend to have fewer players on the team. Third, high school football exists because there is a demand. Adults and students alike enjoy the passion, suspense, and even the roughhousing. Even if you ban high school football, the demand will not die. People love the game, and it is not entirely inconceivable that this desire to play means that more people would participate in a lot of smaller, unofficial football games played in back lots and yards, which could be even more dangerous since the rules would be less strictly enforced and the students would not have access to safety equipment. If students want to play football, they will find a way. Fourth, much of your post devotes itself to enumerating other activities that should be expanded or funded in light of ending football, but this plank of your argument simply isn"t topical. The question surrounds high school football, not whether other activities should be funded or how much, and you have not demonstrated that football specifically trades off with other activities. A debate team, for example, may not exist because there is little interest in the sport amongst students. I know this was true at least for my school at one point. Football programs are funded so much because they are popular: there are many spectators to entertain and many students who want to participate. Specifically, your resolution is not about whether we should fun artsy activities more.