Commentary: Popular or not, football and its destructive effects don’t belong in our public schools

This month, the American ritual of preseason football practice gets underway for more than a million boys, from teenagers down to as young as 5. If the past is prologue, one or more of these boys will drop dead somewhere before making a single block or tackle — just from their coaches’ over-the-top drills to get them into playing condition and, even more important, to make them “tougher” specimens of masculinity.

In one of the shames of national life, a colliding game meant for self-selected gladiators somehow became a platform for young male aspiration.