Abstract
Abstract In 1906, medical doctors published a study on the Harvard collegiate football team. They noted, “The percentage of injury is much too great for any mere sport.” Of particular concern were head injuries, which the doctors believed were significant. Subsequent research over the last century-plus has confirmed early worries. Yet the heavy cultural and financial investment in collegiate football has meant a century-long public-relations campaign to increase the social tolerance for the sport's violence and danger. While calls for football's abolishment were regular and strong in the first decades of the game's development, by the 1930s these discussions fell away. Critics were placated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association's continual tinkering with the rules and promises to increase the game's safety, which ultimately has resulted in millions of dollars of research focused on sport-related traumatic brain injuries.
Published Version
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