Abolition or Reform? A Review of Historical Perspectives on Football Safety From the 1890s to 1950s and How They Shape Youth Football Debates Today

This essay provides a synthesis of secondary literature and primary sources to trace debates about football's safety and value. It examines ideas from the Progressive Era to the 1950s and shows that such perspectives inform how the American public grapples with increasing research on the risks of repetitive brain trauma and the acceptability of football for younger children in the 21st century. Whether football's risks were celebrated as inherently good, treated as short-term nuisances that could be minimized through safety reforms, or decried as long-term calamities preventable only by abolishing the sport has always depended on deeply contested social values that remain in tension and unresolved.