It says in the article that more kids play football than baseball and basketball combined in high school. I suppose if they screen for concussions and you don't play past college you'll be OK. I don't really buy the excuse parents give[/b] that all collisions are going to lead to long term damage. God knows I had lots of concussions when playing, including in my legendary college stint, and I'm fine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/health/concussion-fda-bloodtest.html
Pretty sure the parents get that excuse from doctors and peer-reviewed medical studies.
The studies I have seen have almost always been NFL players' brains. There is some scant studies done of high school and college players that I've seen, but mostly the results seem indeterminate and the anecdotal evidence doesn't support it. Most that just played through college are OK. It's the types that did a 10 year stint as an NFL linebacker that have problems. A lot of parents are probably looking for confirmation bias to keep their kid out of collision sports. How many will play NFL? Not many.
It's lower in high school, but college players are almost guaranteed to get it.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/sports/football/nfl-cte.html?_r=0
CTE was found in the brains of 3 of 14 high school players (21 percent), 48 of 53 college players (91 percent), and 110 of the 111 former NFL players .
There's selection bias since you probably aren't going to donate your brain if you don't suspect CTE, but the sport is likely fucked long-term.