Focus Story Structure: Football Injury

When teenage boys join the football team, they don't typically think about the severe risks involved, until it's too late. Unfortunately, that was the case for 16-year-old Pete Stenhoff.

Stenhoff, a junior and football player at Child Visa High School in Redmond, California, cracked his vertebrae while slamming into the ball carrier's chest. He is not confined to a wheelchair.

Considering his injuries, Stenhoff is not bitter. "I knew the risks involved when I decided to play football," he says, and adds, "I wish I would have known just how bad it could be."

Each year, there are 20,000 injuries in high school football; Twelve percent of them permanently disable the victims, a thirty-five percent of the injuries are to the neck and head. Most critics blame the helmet.