FRONTLINE
FOOTBALL HIGH
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17 @ 10:00PM
Corporate sponsorships, nationally televised games, minute-by-minute coverage on sports websites — for players, parents and coaches, high school football has never been bigger. But is enough being done to ensure players’ safety as the intensity of the sport grows? In Football High, FRONTLINE investigates the new face of high school football.
Football observers and sports journalists alike agree that on average, high school players’ size, speed and strength have increased dramatically over the past five to 10 years. At Euless Trinity in Texas, which has been ranked the No. 1 high school team in the country, 18 of the 89 varsity players weigh over 250 pounds. “The ramping up of pressure on high school kids … and the increase of media attention on high school football, my God, in the last 10 years, it’s become like a little NFL,” says Gregg Easterbrook, a writer and columnist for ESPN. “If you look at it position by position, you can only compare it to NFL teams,” says trainer Kelvin Williams. “It’s just crazy. They are huge.”
