DE PERE, Wis. — Football is a fast game. It's a collision game. Is football a safe game?
"Football can be a tough sport," middle school football coach Tim Talbott said.
"It is a concern," Tim Majewski said.
The WIAA said football is the sport with the highest risk of concussions.
"My other nephew played for West De Pere last night and he ironically got a concussion, so it hits close to home," Majewski said.
Thursday night, Packers running back Jamaal Williams left the game on a stretcher after a scary hit. Later, an Eagles player also left and was diagnosed with a concussion.
Talbott hopes they can minimize those hits at the youth level.
"We go through USA Football, and they have a whole concussion protocol and a whole system on safe tackling, safe play," Talbott said. "We spend three days of just camp, tackling camp, on how to teach safe tackling."
Talbott said the training began within the last three years.
"It's done a lot for our knowledge and helping the kids be safe," he said.
The WIAA concussion information page says 'if you suspect a player may have a concussion, that athlete should be immediately removed from play.'
"It's not like it was 100 years ago when i played football," Talbott said.
"Yeah, when i was a young guy we didn't think too much about concussions - is it two fingers or three fingers," Majewski said.
While their can be a debate about whether football is a safe game, the people we talked with agree that at a youth level, it is on track to becoming a safer game.
