Players crash their heads into each other at top speeds while weighing in at well over 200 pounds. Americans have surely created an interesting sport. With football being the number one sport played in the United States,  many of America’s athletes train to be the best at it – over any other sport. The problem is that there are too many American athletes working to be good at a single sport- a sport that is not even in the Olympics – but that is considered to be the biggest sporting event in the world.

Americans are focusing on a sport which only matters to United States. If the U.S. put the same publicity and exposure behind other sports as they do football, America would beat every other country in championships around the world for other sports.

For example, soccer is the number one sport in the world, yet it’s barely one of the top ten most popular sports in America. Every year, the United States men’s national soccer team struggles to even make it out of group stages in the World Cup. The group stages is what qualifies the team to get into the actual bracket stage of the World Cup.  The U.S. men’s national team’s longest World Cup run was in 2002, and they only made it to the quarter finals. That performance is weak considering the number of people and athletes the United States can choose from.

If America didn’t play football, all the great athletes from that sport could play other sports which are included in the Olympics. Just imagine the players who could develop if the United States shared the love with other sports.  

Not only would the United States do better in other sports that are included in the Olympics, but our advertisements would get  worldwide attention. Instead of having Super Bowl commercials, which draw an audience of 114.4 million, the U.S. could have commercials during the World Cup, which draws an audience of 3.2 billion. Hypothetically, nearly half of the entire world would be exposed to U.S. culture and advertisements.

“We do spend too much time and money on football. It’s expensive and no other country plays the exact same way we do,” said senior Max Dilley, former  J.V.football player.

Furthermore, the United States puts a lot of money into football by building huge stadiums. Most of  these stadiums are publicly funded.  Perhaps this money could be put to better use?

It is hard to deny the popularity of football in the United States.

“We do benefit from having a unique sport because it adds to the unique culture and heritage of the United States,” said senior Dean Vagilia.

The fact remains, however, that the focus on football takes away from other sports and athletes.

Not only does focusing on one sport make it unfair for other sports in America to grow, but it also puts America at  risk. The risk is that involvement in football at the high school level is in danger because of the recent  criticism  involving concussions.

This year in football there was a total of 271 concussions recorded in the NFL, and that number continues to climb each year.  If the league has to change the sport by making the field bigger or taking players off the field, then they will lose the fans that like to see the big hits.. All those years of investing in a sport will all go to waste, and America will not have a major sport to focus on.

Though the sport is popular, it is only massive in the United States due to the large fan base. This could cause other sports in America to struggle. This sport is the biggest sport in the United States, and it’s all Americans seem to focus on.

Athletes can even see it at the high school level of play. The number of fans at football games compared to the number that show up to other sports is outrageous. Not only does football get more fans to come out to games, but they get better equipment too. This does not create an equal chance for other sports to thrive in the United States because it is simply not giving them the same chance that football has.