Tackle Football and Traumatic Brain Injuries

American tackle football is an industry like any other. And like many industries, it sells a product that is dangerous to those who use it—or, in this case, those who play it. Daniel S. Goldberg explores the connections among traumatic brain injury, collision sports, and the industry's continuing efforts to manufacture doubt. Focusing especially on youths and adolescents—the most vulnerable population that comprises over 99% of tackle football players in the US—Goldberg addresses the ethical and social implications of their participation in tackle football. As the tackle football industry has consistently worked to mask the health hazards, it has used a particular tool that has proved highly effective in achieving this subterfuge: the manufacture of doubt. Goldberg advocates for using public health laws as a tool for countering these efforts at obfuscation, and he outlines specific policy proposals intended to address the population health and ethical problems presented by tackle footb