Illinois state Representative Carol Sente, a Democrat, has introduced a bill that would mandate that all high schools in the state have no more than one full-contact football practice a week.
The legislation, Sente says, is intended to “preserve the game of football, but make it safer for participants.”
Sente said she discussed of concussions with a neurologist “who suggested eliminating all contact in football.”
After President Barack Obama told the New Republic in an interview published before the Super Bowl that the game “will probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence,” a national dialogue ensued and NFL players were asked what they thought of Obama’s comments in light of the suicides of prominent former players like Junior Seau, who was suffering from brain disease from too many concussions.
Republican governors, like Virginia’s Bob McDonnell, have noted these issues should be left to the schools, coaches, parents, and high school football teams and not up to the states.
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