Poor Students More Likely To Play Football, Despite Brain Injury Concerns
Many wealthy families have chosen not to have their children play football, but for lower-income students, football is still seen as a ticket to a better education.
Fears of brain injuries has deterred many parents and their children from choosing to play football.
After years of publicity about how dangerous football can be, football enrollment has declined 6.6 percent in the past decade, according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Those who still play the sport are increasingly low-income students.
Over the past five years in Illinois, the proportion of high school football rosters filled by low-income boys rose nearly 25 percent – even as the number of players in the state has fallen by 14.8 percent over the same period, according to a out this week from HBO's .
