Column: Soccer posed to become dominant over football in near future
Editor’s note: this column was written as a head-to-head against Jason Sanders. Read his defense of American football here.
Deciding the merits of one thing over another is hardly ever a simple task; in this case, though, it is.
The similarity between futbol, or soccer as we know it, and American football ends in phonetics.
Football has created an atmosphere of spectated violence akin to that of the Roman gladiators or the characters in the popular young-adult novel The Hunger Games.
The comparison between football and a fight to the death is not as far-fetched as it may seem. In fact, a 2013 PBS Frontline report highlights, high school football players are twice as likely to receive a concussion than college players.
More importantly, the prevalence of serious injury in football has pushed away many younger participants in football programs. According to ESPN, Pop Warner youth football participation has consistently fallen in the last three years.
While the future is bleak for American football, soccer has the potential to overtake football’s dominance in the United States.
According to an article in the Huffington Post “Is Soccer Destined to Become America’s Pastime”, US Youth Soccer reports that participation has grown from only 100,000 players in 1974 to over 3 million today.
Additionally, The Huffington Post reports, soccer is the most popular sport among Hispanics and younger Americans.
The decline of football in American culture is imminent. As the health and safety dangers of football are exposed, participation fall and soccer will fill the void.
The future of American sports lies on the pitch, not on the gridiron.
The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author, and do not represent the views of The Wooster Blade as a whole.
