‘While Fans Fret Over Michael Vick’s Fantasy Stats, America’s Youth Football Death and Disability Toll Mounts’ … today at Beyond Chron

After dropping off my son at UCLA last week, I took the 101 back north. In Westlake Village, at the tip of Los Angeles County, I passed by the Oaks Christian School, the football factory that has attracted the sons of jockocratic celebrities, including Will Smith and Joe Montana. Soon I was driving through the Ventura County city of Oxnard, which I used to know mostly from the references to it by James Garner’s dad on The Rockford Files.

Today, Oxnard is on the map as yet another grim capital of the skyrocketing youth disability and death wrought by our culture’s insane obsession with football.

Last Friday, Adrian Padilla, a safety for the Oxnard High School team, suffered a serious concussion in the game at San Luis Obispo. After walking off the field, he collapsed on the sidelines. Padilla, 17, underwent emergency brain surgery at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.

CONTINUED TODAY AT BEYOND CHRON, THE SAN FRANCISCO ONLINE NEWSPAPER:

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/While_Fans_Fret_Over_Michael_Vick_s_Fantasy_Stats_America_s_Youth_Football_Death_and_Disability_Toll_Mounts_9535.html