By Dylan Drews
@redlineproject
For generations, youth tackle football has been a staple of American culture. Friday night lights and Pop Warner championships have shaped communities across the country. However, over the past couple of decades, there has been a shift away from tackle football.
Youth football programs who were once overflowing with players are now quietly shrinking. Rosters are dwindling, leagues are merging and, in some cases, entire programs are shutting down. Parents aren’t signing up their kids at the rates they used to amid safety concerns. They are opting for “safer” sports such as baseball or basketball.
The decline of youth football isn’t the result of one singular issue. It is a combination of cultural, medical, social and economic pressures that are changing how families view the sport. Concerns over long-term brain injuries like Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) have influenced many parents to enroll their kids into safer options. Competition from other sports is intensifying and the values of the younger generation have changed the role youth sports play altogether.
Football participation isn’t exactly disappearing, rather it is in the middle of a transformation. Programs from the elementary level to the NFL are being forced to adapt. The biggest shift has been the growth of flag football.
Last year, over 1 million children ages 6 to 12 regularly played flag football, while tackle football had approximately 725,000 participants, according to data from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.
(Source: Sports and Fitness Industry Association | Chart: Dylan Drews)
Safety
Brain injuries have reshaped how people view football. A sport once viewed as a character-building experience is now criticized by many due to medical concerns.
The medical research supports those fears. According to the National Institute of Health, CTE consists of tangles of a protein called tau build up in the brain after repeated head collisions, leading to brain damage similar to what is seen in Alzheimer’s disease. The scariest part of it all for parents is that research suggests that repeated non-concussive head injuries, the collisions that happen on every play, are major causes of CTE, not just concussions.
A 2023 National Institute of Health study of 152 deceased athletes under 30 who were exposed to repeated head injury through contact sports found that 41% had CTE, and 71% of those with CTE had not even played at a professional level. What’s even more frightening is that research indicates that the risk of CTE doubles for every 2.6 years spent playing football, according to a CNN article.
Riverside-Brookfield High School Football Coach Sam Styler said that the concerns are both widespread and real.
“Safety concerns are definitely impacting the number of athletes coming out of football as a whole. Our numbers have been pretty good for the last few years,” Styler said.
Audio: AI-generated podcast of this story
It wasn’t always that way. Before Styler took over, Riverside-Brookfield’s program had hit a low point.
“The year before I took over as head coach, we were down to 27 players on varsity. The last four years, we average around 50,” Styler said.
That impressive turnaround is not random. It’s the product of attempting to make football as safe as possible and showing families exactly how his program operates.
Participation
The story is less about football dying and more about it transforming. With concerns about CTE, many families have opted for flag football and other alternatives.
When fewer kids enter youth leagues, fewer reach high school with experience. And when participation patterns shift, college recruiting must adapt.
Decreased early development leads to more injuries. More injuries leads to more parental fear. More fear leads to less participation in tackle football. This sparks growth in flag football, which develops different skills than tackle football.
Some communities are stuck in this cycle. Others, like Riverside-Brookfield, have adapted and put safety first. Still, the conversation about safety remains.
Not Every Community Is Declining the Same Way
While the national data shows a decline in youth participation, some areas have been able to resist the trend because of strong, well-organized youth programs.
Styler said his community has been an exception. Thanks to a strong feeder system in suburban Chicago, his numbers have remained steady even as other programs struggle.
“I think we have seen our numbers stay pretty consistent with the amount of athletes that come in with football experience. We are extremely fortunate to have a youth program that feeds into Riverside-Brookfield [the BFCA Jr. Bulldogs], and they provide opportunities for kids in the area to get involved with either tackle or flag football,” Styler said.
This stability has kept football at Riverside-Brookfield thriving. However, even in a strong program he’s seen shifts in when students decide to join. They aren’t just coming from youth leagues, more upperclassmen are trying football for the first time.
“Since I have taken over as head coach, we are seeing more athletes come out for football for the first time later on in their high school careers,” Styler said. “Some may be apprehensive about joining football coming into high school, but after they develop and see how we do things in our program, we have noticed there are more upperclassmen coming out for the first time than ever before.”
Even in a stable program, the hesitations surrounding the sport are clear.
A New Era of Safety Measures
As safety questions are being raised, many coaches have realized that they have two choices: evolve or lose players. Programs across the country have revamped their training methods, reduced contact, and invested in new technologies.
Styler’s program is among those leading the way.
“To start, we only have one full-contact practice a year,” he said. “The rest of the season, we are doing drills to simulate full-contact and make sure our athletes understand proper tackling technique.”
Limiting contact is just one part of the change. The other is strengthening and conditioning.
“Additionally, we spend a ton of time in the off-season and in-season in the weight room to ensure our athletes are strong enough and conditioned enough to participate in football,” Styler said.
This year, Styler’s program added yet another layer of protection.
“We just purchased Guardian Caps this past season for our entire program as an extra precautionary measure,” Styler said.
The investment appears worthwhile. Guardian Caps are soft-shell pads that can absorb at least 10% of the force of a hit, according to ESPN research, and that force reduction rises to 20% when all players involved in a collision are wearing them, according to an NBC New York article. The NFL reported a 52% reduction in concussions among players wearing Guardian Caps compared to the previous three years, reports. These covers, now used widely in college football and the NFL, represent one of many signs that the sport is adjusting at all levels.
For Styler, the key to retaining players isn’t just using these new tools, it’s making sure the community sees them too.
“I’m sure parents are always worried about safety concerns,” he said. “We try to do our best to be as transparent as possible with how we run our program. I have found this transparency has allowed our parents to trust that we are doing everything possible to keep our athletes safe.”
In a time when trust has become so fragile, transparency has been the key.
Why Still Choose Football?
Despite the changes, the sport offers something that many still greatly value. Of course, football is a very physically demanding sport, but it is also emotionally and psychologically transformative.
Styler believes the life lessons football teaches are far too valuable to miss out on.
“I believe there is no greater sport to teach the challenges of life than high school football. There are so many great benefits to the sport, and in our program, we aim to best prepare our players for life through this great game,” Styler said.
Injuries, he admits, are part of the sport; however, that is true everywhere.
“While injuries are a part of the game, they are a part of almost every sport that is offered to high school athletes. We do everything in our power to make this sport as safe as it possibly can be,” Styler said.
For Styler, football isn’t just about competition. It’s about learning accountability, routine, teamwork and resilience. These are qualities he believes are harder to teach in other environments.
This resonates with many other families, helping counter the fears that have dominated headlines over the years.
Is Youth Football Dying? Or Just Changing?
The transformation of youth football is very evident; however, the sport is not collapsing, it is adapting. As the foundations of the sport are changing, every level from elementary to the NFL is being forced into this change.
The biggest shift has been the growth of flag football. Last year, over 1 million children ages 6 to 12 regularly played flag football, while tackle football had approximately 725,000 participants, according to RMStudy. CBS News has reported that nearly half a million girls between ages 6 and 17 played flag football last year, a 63% increase since 2019.
The flag football shift is very clear. A CDC study found children between 6 and 14 sustained 15 times more head impacts playing tackle football than flag football, and experienced 23 times more high-magnitude head impact events each season, according to CBS News.
For parents who are still seeking the teamwork and athleticism of football without the collision risk, flag football has become the obvious choice. The NFL is also pouring millions into youth football programming, creating an entirely new pipeline for the sport.
Football may never return to the participation highs of the early 2000s. But it is evolving, and perhaps becoming safer and more intentional in the process. Programs that embrace the changes may survive.
Those that resist may fade away.