The injuries borne by players of American football have attracted the scrutiny of economists wrote Gina Kolata:

• Researchers found that without contact football there would be 50,000 fewer injuries in college alone. In high school the number would be 600,000.
• High school athletes have more injuries because there are a greater number of them, they’re less skilled, and they have less experienced coaching staff supporting them.
• College injuries cost society at least $1.5 billion a year, while high school ones cost $19.2 billion.
• This includes the direct costs of the injury – indirect ones like living with long-term pain because of ligament damage, or the heightened risk of arthritis aren’t included in the estimate.
• Insurers are starting to take note and have begun driving costs up so high that many schools are considering abandoning the sport entirely.
• There is an increasing number of parents who wouldn’t want their child participating in a sport where television producers on the professional level use parabolic mikes to capture the sound of heads cracking.

Read more on The New York Times.

Via: Marginal Revolution