When my brother was in high school, he was adamant that he wanted to join the football team. My parents were very worried about that. (Keep in mind, this was back in the early 1970’s.) They had heard in recent years how sometimes an athelete that seems to be in perfect health sometimes suffers a massive cardiac arrest in the middle of the field, and dies before ever making it to the hospital! Sure, the schools insisted on each of the kids getting a medical clearance before playing, but at that point in time, they did not even do any kind of diagnostic testing to make sure that the kids did not have any weird heart conditions that had been overlooked by previous physicals.
Times certainly have changed since then! There are entire businesses, such as Wimbledon Heath Partners, that are dedicated to sports medicine. Not just how to fix injuries once they happen, but to run tests to make sure that weird genetic conditions don’t raise their ugly heads in the middle of practice, or a competition. Sports medicine has come a very long way. I am interested to keep seeing whatever happens in the near future regarding American football and concussions. I know that new helmets have been designed, but I have a feeling that American football might just start suffer from this very serious hazard. I think that fewer parents will be giving permission for their kids to play it in school, and that will eventually lead to fewer professionals down the road.
As for my brother, well, he did join the football team, but he came down with mono during the school year, and ended up benched for most of the football season. That broke his heart, but I think that my parents were secretly relieved that he did not spend a lot of time on the field!