Far be it from us to disparage the game of college football. We’ll be watching as Alabama and Texas battle for the BCS college football championship tonight, and we’ll hope for a victory that brings credit to the SEC.
Yet with so many young football players and coaches in high school and college watching the game, along with many of their parents, the occasion of the game tonight presents a unique moment to explore both the accelerating issue of long term brain trauma damage from repeated blows to the head and concussions.
It’s also an apt time to consider the soaring multimillion-dollar contracts awarded to big-college football and basketball coaches while their universities are grappling with severe budget cuts, slicing jobs and classes, and raising tuition on students who can’t even afford to buy a ticket to their regular college games.
Strapped schools, rich coaches
The coaches in tonight’s game are especially well insulated from the dire financial straits that haunt their universities. Texas coach Mack Brown and Alabama coach Nick Saban are among the highest paid college football coaches in the nation.