The Rough and Tumble

Abstract

Whether a child’s death or injury associated with playing football could in fact be attributed to football was a crucial question in evaluating the sport’s risks. On a technical level, doctors debated such issues as whether heat strokes that athletes suffered while playing in hot weather constituted a direct or indirect injury. More broadly, doctors, coaches, parents, and sports supervisors debated whether certain risks were unique to the particular nature and techniques of football, or simply inherent to the “rough and tumble” of an active childhood. Putting football’s risks in context often involved comparisons to other activities, from driving to boxing to playing baseball. As doctors sought to identify ways to minimize the dangers, their beliefs in the sport’s social benefits shaped their interpretation of those dangers. The conceptualization of football injuries as a medical issue was deeply tied up with ideological, moralistic, religious, and nationalistic beliefs about the role of youth sports.