The State of the Game

The last decade overall has slowly changed football from top to bottom, and people have mixed feelings about the direction of the game. Former Hunterdon Central coach Mathew Perotti had some thoughts on how football has changed. “I understand the need for safety, but the pendulum has swung too far.” he said.

So what exactly is all this fuss about?

Every year, the state of New Jersey has put down more regulations on football practice, and the sport in general across the country has gone through a plethora of rule changes. For the 2019-2020 season, further limitations have been put into place. High school football teams are now only allowed to tackle for 15 minutes a week. This doesn’t necessarily prevent other forms of hard contact, but has been put into place in order to limit the amount of situations that could end in serious injury for players.

Another main initiative which is being stressed more and more every year is proper techniques for tackling that will both make the tackle more effective and prevent injury. The main method being pushed and taught is “hawk tackling”, a shoulder leverage tackling technique originally brought to publicity by the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League.

When asked about rule changes and practice changes, most Hunterdon Central Football players simply responded with mixed feelings. Jared Van Veldhuisen, a Hunterdon Central Football player, echoed this sentiment when asked a question about how he feels about recent rule changes, such as practice limitations on tackling and hitting. “I agree and disagree. The problem is, a lot of kids never learn how to tackle properly before highschool, and the game takes an obvious toll on your body. That being said, I do think it’s important to hold back and go half speed sometimes.”

A Washington Post article states that nearly 2500 fewer students played highschool football in the 2017 season than in the 2010 season, making it a 10% drop over that period of time. Even more eye popping: 5 % of this drop off happened between the 2016 and 2017 season, showing how participation is rapidly decreasing.

To put this into a local perspective: In 2015, the class of 2019’s freshman year at Hunterdon Central, a significant amount of kids were cut from the freshman team. The next year, about half of the kids who did make the team stopped playing. Now? The Hunterdon Central football program hasn’t had to cut a single player, from freshman level to varsity, since that 2016 season. This wasn’t just a sudden change of policy. There simply aren’t enough kids coming out for the team to cut anybody.

The summary: kids are not playing football anymore, and those who do are stopping once they get to highschool. The number of participants is dropping more and more every year, and people are trying to find ways to prevent this trend from essentially eliminating the sport altogether. Will they work? Only time will tell.