Football High (full documentary) | FRONTLINE 

Frontline has the ability to pull me into a subject matter I thought I'd have no interest in and keep me till the end. Well done again.

...Hi Everyone - I recommend to be careful with football or any concussive sport based on a real life experience. As of this writing I am 65 years old and played football in high school (70s). In those days you just "grin and bear it." Fast forward is when in 2020 where I experienced a sub-arachnid hemorrhage most likely due to a previous head trauma. The trauma to the head created an internal bruise (hemorrhage) that never drains. A bruise on an arm will disappear or drain. However that bruise in head never drained or disappeared. After 30 years it obviously clotted up and thus created my sub arachnid hemorrhage. I had to go to neurosurgery and the doctors drained my head for 20 days. I was lucky to live and recover to a normal life. I am only 5'8" and was only 160 lbs at the time - I was a great athlete but size matters. I am very grateful to be here writing this note.

From a Daughter of a Father who was a Star High School Football Player who could have went Pro, CTE is real! I have begged my Dad to go be tested for this & he is so afraid to know what damage he has, that he just refuses to go. I watched the movie Concussion when it came out & as I watched tears streamed down my face, bc after watching his Mental Health decline over my life & he's not old he's only 63, I finally had a name to something that slowly destroyed the man I knew. It caused me to stop & think differently about a sport I've always loved to play & watch, growing up in a big Football Family the sport was just a way of life! I marched in the Marching Band & have always been proud to represent my High School & have watched many guys be carried off the field & thought nothing of it, until I watched that movie! I now have a very hard time watching the sport & can't help, but think about the personal lives of every player & what they are & will go through as they go through their lives!

"I dont know that it can get too violent." That's a person who should never be entrusted with the well being of others, but DEFINITELY not with the well being of teenagers who have their whole lives ahead of them.

I played and loved football as a high school student. I was thoroughly indoctrinated in the macho culture of iron man toughness. Being hot, tired and thirsty was just part of the package deal. Unless bones were poking out of flesh, you weren't injured. Playing when merely hurt was demanded. In addition to starting on both offense and defense, I participated on the kick-off and kick receiving teams. On the receiving team, I was part of the wedge - the screen of blockers immediately in front of the kick returner, tasked with mowing down potential tacklers. On the kick-off team, I was the wedge buster - a sort of human bowling ball whose only job is to break up the opposing wedge. One game, we received the opening kick-off. The opposing wedge buster targeted me. He was bigger, faster and stronger and absolutely lit me up. I was knocked unconscious, and remember nothing of the rest of the game. I was startled to learn that I actually played the entire game, quite well according to coaches and teammates. I don't know what, if any, permanent damage that impact did. While certainly the most violent, it certainly wasn't the only time "my bell got rung". What I do know is this... I'm glad my son never displayed any interest in playing football. I truly believe we ought to reevaluate the value which the sport occupies in our national culture.

Pretty reprehensible for a coach to say the only reason he wouldn’t put an already concussed kid back in the game is they were ahead by a wide margin. Wow.

This is true as a former coach man this is hits home. Some coaches don’t deserve to be coaches, as I’m a NFHS certified coach. But retired early to pursue other interests, I feel for the pain some of these young men!

Kiehl Frazier never developed as a quarter back. He went to Auburn University, but his completion percentage was always around 50% and he had way more interceptions then touchdowns. He ended up transferring to a division II school, where his completion percentage remained at 50%. Needless to say, he did not win the Heisman, and he did not play in the NFL.

If you think high school football is out of control look into what pop warner football is about. You will see parents cheering the injury of an 8 year old opponent. Absolutely sick.

"but you can't play worrying about getting hurt", says the coach who stands on the sideline

It's absurd. Yes, death is the clearly the worst outcome, but there are so many men who will be in pain forever because of football injuries.

That guy said I have the rest of my life to deal with the pain. Buddy wait till your 38 and your doctor's are positive, not certain, that I have CTE. I had to give up a scholarship at Appalachian State after my Freshman year. Got 8 concussions in football only. Brain scans show I have the cognition of a 65 year old man. I'll be lucky if I make it to 45.

CTE has almost totally disappeared from the national discussion on sports. People really do not want to hear about it at all.

Coach Dibble: "Football is a violent sport....I don't know that it could be too violent!" Really? Show us how it's done, Coach. Don the gear on the defensive line....show us how it's done, not tell us!

Head football coach to self in August: "I got an idea. I'll wait to the hottest time of the day to have our 4 hour practice. That'll toughen 'em up!"

What people fail to realize is the long term effects of constantly getting hit.

FUN FACT: The highest paid public employee in most states is the head football coach of the state's major public university.

while Frontline thanks ordinary viewers like us, I would like to thank Frontline for produce so many docu for so many years, share with us for free, thank you!

To think that winning is due to divine intervention is ridiculous.

Pbs and all it's programming is amazing. Frontline is the best journalism today.

This is a great and eye opening documentary! Thank you Frontline. You have hit another home run.

The worst thing about suffering multiple concussions from sports is that, if you become disabled from it, nobody will care.

When I was stationed at Ft Gordon Ga. Summer of 1972 there was an indicator called the wet bulb. If the temperature and humidity combined past a certain level all outdoor heavy activity was curtailed

I played football all my life and through out high school. And could always tell something wasn’t right with my head. I would get constant migraines and stuff while playing. And eventually started having massive seizures in my early 20’s. I know 100%. It was from playing contact football at bishop Mcdevitt high school in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. I have recently been diagnosed with epilepsy. And possibly cte. Thank god I stopped when I did. It was hard to give up the sport I love. But I know it was the best decision I could have made and saved my life literally. It’s just hard when football is your plan A and you don’t plan on not making it to the nfl.

Professional High School Football. The adults make all the money, the kid's make the sacrifice!

Wow, that is no freaking joke between 105 and 108 degrees and a teenager or young man can literally die from a heat stroke.

Kiehl Frazier went on to be a 3 year backup QB for Auburn. He spent his last year starting for a Div II school.

I played from 7th through 12th grade 1991 to 1996. My junior year we had a game on a local public access cable channel. I couldn't imagine dealing with ESPN in high school. I played because I wanted to play football. I was a whole 5'5 tall and weighed 215lbs. My position was Left Offensive Tackle. Because all of our QBs were right handed, that meant I was the blindside. Never allowed a sack all 6 years I played. Being short was an advantage at that level. Had good agility and was quite naturally strong being built the way I was. I worked hard, had a good mind for the game. My coaches told me if I was just taller, at least some small college would have been interested. Had my bell rung many times. What people forget is all the practices added on to those games. This is why the game has changed so much, but it's also gotten so much faster. I hate hearing people cry about how it's not tough enough and all that crap. I don't want to see players at any level not know who the hell they are when they're 50. Hall of Fame Steelers center Mike Webster is the one I always think of. One of the absolute toughest SOBs to ever play the game and it waa a damn shame what happened to him. Junior Seau, Dave Duerson, and the list goes on and on. When I was playing I never worried about concussions, I was more concerned with spinal cord injuries. I love the game and I hate the game.

This in my opinion is child abuse. These parents aren't stupid. We've known about cte for years. The movie concussion came out in 2016 and it was all over the news for years before that. These parents would rather say "that's my boy" then think about the years of his life he's losing and the potential for serious brain damage. It's not worth it for a few years of glory...

The father can afford to pay for a professional track coach for his son but insists he wants his son to get a scholarship 'for prestige'.

Watching that dude fidget with his thumbs while discussing regulations and recommendations for the teams during summer speaks VOLUMES!!!! And these are men of god….😂

This happens because enough parents, schools and communities want this to happen just like some places put emphasis in education some others put emphasis in sports.

I remember in the early 90s when the coaches punished us with no water breaks. This was the norm for football in western Pennsylvania.

> Using your head as a hammer is bad for your brain Oh, really? I would never have thought of that What a scientific breakthrough

As an American I've never been a football fan most of my family is but I never had any interest. This just makes me feel appalled. The fact that there are very few safety nets for these literal highschool kids makes me feel physically sick. I have even less interest in the sport now because this is just disgusting.

I couldn't finish this documentary. My stomach is in knots at the images of pounding force to the head...I just couldn't

High school is not the time to put your body at risk for a trophy. Your body is still developing and going through lots of changes. Concussions cause major damage on their own, but let’s not forget broken and torn body parts from a bad fall or an illegal tackle.

But coaches don’t want them to get paid. Get injured in high school and you’re in a home care system for the rest of your life while the bench warmer goes on to be drafted.

That poor sweet kid who said he has the rest of his life to worry about pain and stuff. An adult needs to sit him down and tell him he could have the rest of his life dealing with pain as a result of an injury. For what? To play a little football? The adults in the room need to look out for these kids. Not just use them up for a season or two.

The lineman, Sam Harvill passed away in 2015. Cause of death not mentioned, but only 23 years old.

Its ironic that football was almost outlawed a long time ago because there were multiple deaths in 1 season. It was around 8-12 deaths, in FOOTBALL.

Kiehl Frazier didn't make it in the NFL...he transferred from Auburn after he got benched and ended up D2.

Important to note that the pastor credits Shiloh's rise to God's intervention, but doesn't want to talk about how much money the school spends on its football program.

8:37 The kid throwing his back on the hyper extensions gave me a hernia just watching

Newsflash: No one dies in the math, English or Chemistry department. Schools need to re-think the importance of HS sports. (former HS football player)…

This was a wonderful documentary! As a former football player (NG/TE/MLB/FB) I have at least 10 concussions from middle school to semi pro football(5year career) Most I had in one day was freshmen year HS and it was 5 during spring football😅. 6'1 220+ during my playing days and my Dr. Thinks i might have stage 2 CTE due to some symptoms. I pray for these guy's

The HS football culture has drastically changed since I entered HS in 1978. It all about getting high rankings with Max Preps and having players being recruited by D1 schools when they are sophomores. Also, when I worked at a cable company a decade ago, we did a HS Game Of The Week. The kids today look bigger than the college players when I played HSFB. One more point, a lot of these parochial schools use sports to recruit the top players (often at reduced tuition) as a marketing tool to make their school look “successful” just to get parents to fork out massive tuition costs for their kids, regardless if they play sports or not.

I love football but the sad part is only a tiny fraction make it to the NFL

I was at a school that took rowing/crew very seriously to win national titles. Pre-season training camps would start at 4am and finish by 9/10am to avoid any training in the summer heat. Don't see why they made those poor kids practice in scorching heat rather than early morning/late evenings

When a high school player collapses from a heat related incident......every single coach on the field that day should be held criminally liable. And if a kid dies, those coaches should be charged....at a minimum....with voluntary (NOT involuntary) manslaughter because every one of them knew damn well the risk of heat stroke and subsequent death. With all the knowledge and training for coaches over the past 50 years with respect to heat injuries it is absolutely unforgivable that these incidents continue to happen.

I grew up around football growing up and was a fan in my 20s and early 30s. It was then when CTE started to be recognized as a serious issue. I haven't watched or talked about football in years. Don't even talk about it with anyone when discussed with family or work. I worry about these kids.

Frontline is the best documentary series of all time. Phenomenal episode!

I came close to playing HS football when I was a sophomore back in '75. I was going out for wide receiver. But when we sat with the football coach and discussed "football insurance," it became real to me. When I heard things like: "$10K for a broken arm, 40K for broken legs, ribs, etc." I decided to run track instead. Not to say that track is free of risk. I was hit in the tailbone with a shot put.

Im glad i only played in high school. My main interest was sprinting so in college i ran track. Iv been knocked out on the football field. And we played & hit at FULL speed in every practice. I know for a fact i had brain damage. Thankfully so far i don't have any symptoms. if i knew what i know now i would have never played football. There are high school kids who killed themselves & were found out to have CTE. Now thats scary!!!!!

A lot of times the coaches and or the fans are expecting players to perform at levels they wouldn’t even dare try….😢

I have loved watching football since I was little. Given how hazardous the game is becoming, I might need to start tuning it out and finding a different vice. The first time I remember there being a controversy with injuries in football was in the mid-1990's, when Brett Favre was caught abusing prescription painkillers. A source told Sports Illustrated, "We would need to have at least 250 players on each roster to field a full team of non-injured, non-medicated players."

I'm all for pushing kids to have fun and play football but that's unacceptable with these extreme injuries and other issues. The players health and mental needs should be taken into consideration first

Im watching this while recovering from a concussion and I can only ask, “ Is it worth it?”

"I'm going to hurt you if you cower down!" Talk about a coach that should not be coaching ANYONE!

Private schools and public schools should not be playing against one another. One program has money to buy the best, and the other has taxpayers. Not fair and usually not competitive.

I think it says more about the parents than their kids.

Damn that Trinity team looked like a college team.

As a Soccer coach with a National License, this entire sport is repulsive to me. It’s dangerous to the athletes and promotes all the wrong values. Beyond CTE, etc…. the cases of domestic violence related to players is appalling. Unfortunately I don’t see this dragon disappearing anytime soon, but I would be extremely happy if it did. Btw, Football is played with your FEET!

i’m only 23 played footlball my whole life. MY BODY ACHES NOW! 1000% not pressuring my son to play this sport no matter how much i loved it

2:13 "...a 16-year-old, 250-pound..." Is that even a normal weight for a male US American teenager? Sorry for asking, but I'm just shocked at his bodyweight.

Playing football was the best learning experience. Learned so many life lessons. Enjoyed my teammates and being part of a team.

The coach says you have to practice, not when practice takes your life, 100 degree heat, sad.

"You can't play worried about injury..." - these guys understand that they are playing a violent sport. This is what societies have done with their fighting age youth during times of peace throughout human history.

looking forward to this

Our definition of a concussion needs to change, that seems pretty obvious, call me crazy🤦‍♀️

If you don't have a certified trainer, don't have a football team

There's no guarantee that they'll make it to the NFL.

Good docu Frontline, big fan here. I think you guys should do one about what goes on similarly with high school marching bands in relation to this. Lots and lots of injuries in it too. The light never gets shed on that. Speaking from personal experience.

Football is abusive on so many levels. Parents and communities need to walk away and focus on other activities.

So many kids destroying their bodies for nothing. You can learn hard work and discipline in so many other ways. Slamming into each other and giving each other brain damage for a less than 0.01% chance of making it into the NFL is crazy to me. And it's sad to see that so many parents are forcing kids to play this sport from the moment they can walk and before the kids can even decide if they want to play or not.

This hits extra hard today!!! I hope the people will finally force the NFL to protect the players better.

The most valuable major you can "study" in the US is football. If you're poor, it doesn't matter how smart you are, you're limited to being poor. But if you're poor but physically large and good at football, you can make millions. I knew a guy who was dumber than a box of rocks but had a full-ride scholarship to Stanford because he was good at football. By "good" mostly meant, he really liked hurting people. He could go out on the field and break arms, etc., and it was approved of. After Stanford, he was set for life because he'd played football for Stanford. He went into the juvenile penal system because in that system, he could beat the shit out of teenagers and no one would say a thing. This is what the US places a high value on.

That coach saying its the favor of God 🙄 I must have missed that chapter in the bible where it talks about the importance of winning at football

The schools need to be sued by the parents of those kids. The coaches directed them to exercise outside in over 100 degree heat, that’s torture, not sports. There’s no justification for this obscenity.

Well done, Frontline ! As always. --------SO grateful I never played HS sports. Instead, after school, I worked every day as a janitor's helper, at an elementary school in Denver. I earned my money for college, never went into debt, & for 10 years, from 9th grade, up to the 6 years I took to graduate from CU-Denver, I had a part -time job during the school year, & a full-time job during summers. I wanted badly to play HS sports, but so grateful I went to work instead..-------Football is a collision game & injury is inevitable. No thanks. --------MJL, 76 y/o

I like all the positive attributes playing football gave me like learning how to work with and respect others, accountability, not giving up, mental and physical toughness but after watching this I have some mixed feelings. Alot has been done since my playing time to make the game safer but its still a very violent sport. God bless all who play and have played!!

so this aired in 2011, so these kids are in their late 20s now. I wonder what they're doing now.

The studying of high school players without concussions seems iffy. Even high school athletes in various sports know that reporting concussion symptoms could cause them to not be able to participate for some time. I've known plenty of people in motocross, especially teens, who do not say anything after clearly having a concussion. It's likely that there are many players at the larger football programs who keep quiet after being injured like that.

"beat peoples brains in" interesting choice of words. I coached youth football for 20 years but when my grandson asks me if he should play I will probably try to talk him out of it. Just my opinion.

The Shiloh trainers and coaches are a disgusting joke for putting a concussed player back in.

With the amount of cases in which cte was found postmortem, I am even concerned I might have it myself. I mean I'm yet to see a case in which an ex player was examined for cte and it wasn't found. Even in younger guys. I'm 39 and only played through high school but unfortunately when I was a kid(12-18) There wasn't much knowledge on head injuries in football and precautions were not really taken. I remember being 12 years old in practice and the coach would give one guy the ball and have another guy line up 15 yards away facing him and we had to go full speed at each other and try to go through the other guy. There was no juking aloud. I hated it as a smaller guy. I was fast and my style was to go around you but they made us do stuff like that almost every practice. I was hit so hard once I threw up. I know I had a concussion several times and didn't even know what was happening. Anyway I never in my life suffered from depression or had concerns about my mental health until the last year. I was just picked up by ambulance and cops the other night because my family was concerned I might be a danger to myself due to some comments I made on the phone to them. I don't think I was suicidal per say but I had recently noticed I had been wanting to do nothing but sleep. I would get up to eat but other than that I wanted to shut the world off every min. I could. Before I realized it I looked around and my house was disgusting. I wasn't doing jack and realized for the first time in my life I was going through depression. I always thought I was to strong mentally for that to happen to me. So when the ambulance came and cops forced me to go to the hospital I decided to be honest and maybe get help for my condition. They prescribed me anti-depressants and I need to take them but I've been on the fence. To tell the truth I first thought about Tom Cruise and his rant against medication for depression. I mean he really laid into Brook Shields on national television. So there was that coming from the guy I thought was so cool as a kid in Days Of Thunder and Top Gun. Then I realized he was a huge prick and his comments were very ignorant. Im going to take them because I can't fix it on my own. Whenever I think I've got it I end up in the dumps for 3 days. Oh yeah the night they took me to the hospital I didn't get released until 3:30am. I didn't have my wallet and I had no one to call for a ride. Ive recently been separated from my wife of 17 years and my family doesn't live close so I took off walking home on the interstate 23 miles from home. Dwayne Haskins crossed my mind too. I intended to hitch hike wich Is something I also never thought I would do. Didn't work. About 10 miles in I realized I hadn't had any fluids since before I went to the hospital like 10 hours earlier so I started to panic and drank from partial water bottles on the ground. Anyways I finally made it home like 5 hours later and about died. If I wasn't before I was definitely questioning my mental health at this point. Anyways guys take care yourselves. Look out for changes in your thinking and feelings and seek help if you need it

This is pure Gold! Friday Night Lights Baby!!

If the "adults" in the room fail to protect the kids they should have to pay for it. YOUR JOB was to protect the kids. Not exploit them. You failed.

Once again,a touchdown for Frontline!👍🏽

300lb high school linemen? 240lb HS linebackers? I guarantee they're not getting that big just on food, protein powder and creatine.

No policy means football is more important than the health of our students.

Frontline should do a special on High School Cheerleading, which is statistically more dangerous than High School Football.

When I was in high school a majority of the team was on the sauce/ gear whatever one wants to call it lol. It was surprising how many guys were using PEDs.

The heat is scorching out there but you can't expect playing outside in the heat after coming from an air-conditioned room. You got to acclimate the body. Especially when you are handling kids.

"I just have to let him live his life" after Will her son was hospitalized for more than 3 weeks... These are the worst parents on the planet!

The culture of high school football is a weird weird thing.

I remember the morons on my high school's football team. All were so convinced that they would get a college scholarship and thereafter go on to play pro football. A few got there. But the vast majority went nowhere, not even to a four-year college degree. As General MacArthur said: "High school sports prepare young men for war." That's the reality for these boys.

Those coaches could care a rats butt about kid’s health and safety. They just want to win.

I played HS ball back in the 1980s. Cross town bragging rights was our thing. But, national television? Yikes.

Top-flight high school players often play offense, defense ,and special teams. So effectively they see more than twice the playing time of college and pro. Huge oversight in the documentary and common oversight on all documentaries focusing on high school football brain injury.