New headlines this week are raising concerns for parents of high school football players.
According to a study published from researchers at Mass General Brigham, Boston University and the Concussion & CTE Foundation, one in four former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 might have had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). There were 338 brains donated to study, and 315 of them had evidence of CTE, a brain disorder that can happen because of repeated injuries to the head.
Allan Walsh, a sports agent and lawyer, said in a tweet: “This is a crisis.”
Parents have previously debated among themselves the risks and rewards in letting a son or daughter play a contact sport, but this new study regarding football head injuries is once again going to rattle, if not cause a retreat, from some allowing family members to participate in football.
“It causes concern,” said Mike Hamilton, a former high school football and basketball coach who has a son playing football at Chatsworth High. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Do I want him to play?’ I’m apprehensive. He has a passion for the game. He’s conscience about his health. What gives me relief is knowing that practices are going well. There are protocols parents should abide by. We didn’t let our son play football until he got to high school because of the hits.”
Tim Moscicki, an athletic trainer at Loyola High for 38 years, said much has changed for the better in protecting football players from concussions and other head injuries. He said new policies, improved equipment, a focus on tackling fundamentals and new protocols are all having an impact.
Loyola athletic trainer Tim Moscicki doing baselining of students in 2014 to help diagnose concussions.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
He remembers the days when coaches would say, “He got his bell rung.” The player would sit out a few plays, then get put back in. Now that term is barred from everyone’s vocabulary. New rules requiring players to sit out a minimum of seven days following a concussion while needing clearance from a doctor to return and tackling restrictions put in during weekly practices show the CIF is taking CTE concerns in a serious matter for high school sports.
“To me. football has gotten a lot safer,” Moscicki said. “Right now, given what’s in place, it’s safe to play football. Kids are being held out now when they develop any kind of symptom. Back in 1990, if a kid had a concussion and they were free of symptoms for 24 hours, we’d give them their helmet back, ‘You can play.’
“My thing it’s still up to parents if they want their sons to play football. My youngest played football, oldest played lacrosse. There’s always a risk. There’s a risk riding a bike. There’s risk playing baseball. It’s a just a little higher in the full-contact sports. The standards have changed so much. There really wasn’t a return to play protocol in the ‘70s ‘80s and ‘90s.”
Moscicki was one of the first high school athletic trainers to do baselining of all students, giving them tests of their balance and brain functions so it can be used and compared with a similar exam if the student is suspected of having a concussion. Loyola also started a return-to-school program because students with concussions have headaches that also affects their school work.
Parents must understand “you cannot prevent a concussion,” Moscicki said.
“If you get hit hard enough, there’s nothing out there that would 100% prevent a concussion,” he said. “A concussion happens as a result of your brain hitting the inside of your skull.”
The good news is everyone seems to be endorsing funding research into head injuries, including the NFL. It’s still too early to conclude where the research is headed.
That’s where parental choice comes into play.
“Football is a sport,” Moscicki said. “You don’t have to play it. You don’t have to watch it.”
And yet, the Super Bowl is the most watched annual television broadcast in the United States, with lots of monetary rewards for those who participate.
There are many challenges ahead. Pierce College and Orange Coast College paused their junior college football programs this year for lack of players. Junior varsity programs at lots of high schools have been discontinued for lack of players. A CIF participation survey for 2025-26 found 11-man football is the most popular boys sport with 87,718 participants, a drop of 4% from last school year.
“Anything that’s a contact sport runs a risk,” Hamilton said. “You want to protect your son.”
Some locals claim the tunnel is haunted by the ghost of a murdered teenager.
02:13, 29 Aug 2026Updated 08:29, 29 Aug 2026
The tunnel is said to be haunted(Image: Getty)
Hidden at the bottom of the world is a tunnel which is shadowed in years of history. Thousands of cars travel through it daily, and as they do, they sound their horns.
The tunnel is a cacophony of beeping and tooting at all hours of the day and night – all thanks to a murder which has haunted the city since 1931. The Mount Victoria Tunnel is part of a well-used stretch of highway in Wellington, New Zealand.
According to legend, the reason drivers lean on their horns as they travel through the tunnel is in tribute to murdered teenager Phillis Symons.
Phillis was buried alive in dirt fill during the tunnel’s construction.
She was only 17 and was pregnant when her boyfriend George Coats, a worker on the construction of the tunnel, knocked her unconscious with a pipe.
George then dumped Phillis in the dirt fill. Her body was found hunched over, meaning she had tried to escape the soil.
George was sentenced to death for the murder, and was hanged in December 1931.
The tunnel was opened to the public in the same year.
Now, almost a hundred years later, the 632 metre long tunnel echoes constantly with the sound of car horns which residents believe either wards off spirits, or pays tribute to the memory of Phillis.
Some locals say the tunnel is haunted – others say the constant beeping is the only thing that haunts the road.
The tunnel is the subject of a £1.27billion (between NZD$2.9b and NZD$3.8b) infrastructure project which would see a second tunnel built alongside the first to try and alleviate the severe bottlenecks which occur in the tunnel.
The current one is only two lanes, and frequently closes due to crashes, causing traffic jams that can last hours.
According to RNZ, the project has been granted fast track approval – but as of last week there was still no expected start date.
Ireland’s Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said on Monday that he condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the “reckless criminal behaviour”.
“I also want to emphasis that anyone who makes the decision to drive a vehicle deliberately the wrong way down a motorway is engaged in lethally dangerous behaviour and it must stop,” O’Callaghan said.
He said he spoke with the Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly on Monday and had emphasised to him that the gardaí “will have whatever resources they require from government in order to respond to this threat to public safety”.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said tougher laws are needed to deal with people driving in dangerous ways.
GRA’s James Morrisoe said people are playing “Russian roulette” with their own lives and lives of innocent members of the public through dangerous driving.
Martin added that it was the “second appalling crash we’ve seen on our roads in a matter of days as a result of the reckless driving of a car on the wrong side of the motorway, endangering the lives of innocent road users”.
He said it was an “irresponsible and dangerous act, and it is shocking that in some cases it is being done for likes on social media”.
O’Callaghan said it was important to emphasis that social media companies “have a big responsibility in respect of this”.
“They emphasis in their codes of practice that they will not allow any postings that glorify criminal behaviour.
“Regrettably, that hasn’t been happening and social media companies need to step up to the mark as well in respect of their own responsibilities.”
Commentary: New CTE study renews parental concerns about teenagers playing football
New headlines this week are raising concerns for parents of high school football players.
According to a study published from researchers at Mass General Brigham, Boston University and the Concussion & CTE Foundation, one in four former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 might have had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). There were 338 brains donated to study, and 315 of them had evidence of CTE, a brain disorder that can happen because of repeated injuries to the head.
Allan Walsh, a sports agent and lawyer, said in a tweet: “This is a crisis.”
Parents have previously debated among themselves the risks and rewards in letting a son or daughter play a contact sport, but this new study regarding football head injuries is once again going to rattle, if not cause a retreat, from some allowing family members to participate in football.
“It causes concern,” said Mike Hamilton, a former high school football and basketball coach who has a son playing football at Chatsworth High. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Do I want him to play?’ I’m apprehensive. He has a passion for the game. He’s conscience about his health. What gives me relief is knowing that practices are going well. There are protocols parents should abide by. We didn’t let our son play football until he got to high school because of the hits.”
Tim Moscicki, an athletic trainer at Loyola High for 38 years, said much has changed for the better in protecting football players from concussions and other head injuries. He said new policies, improved equipment, a focus on tackling fundamentals and new protocols are all having an impact.
Loyola athletic trainer Tim Moscicki doing baselining of students in 2014 to help diagnose concussions.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
He remembers the days when coaches would say, “He got his bell rung.” The player would sit out a few plays, then get put back in. Now that term is barred from everyone’s vocabulary. New rules requiring players to sit out a minimum of seven days following a concussion while needing clearance from a doctor to return and tackling restrictions put in during weekly practices show the CIF is taking CTE concerns in a serious matter for high school sports.
“To me. football has gotten a lot safer,” Moscicki said. “Right now, given what’s in place, it’s safe to play football. Kids are being held out now when they develop any kind of symptom. Back in 1990, if a kid had a concussion and they were free of symptoms for 24 hours, we’d give them their helmet back, ‘You can play.’
“My thing it’s still up to parents if they want their sons to play football. My youngest played football, oldest played lacrosse. There’s always a risk. There’s a risk riding a bike. There’s risk playing baseball. It’s a just a little higher in the full-contact sports. The standards have changed so much. There really wasn’t a return to play protocol in the ‘70s ‘80s and ‘90s.”
Moscicki was one of the first high school athletic trainers to do baselining of all students, giving them tests of their balance and brain functions so it can be used and compared with a similar exam if the student is suspected of having a concussion. Loyola also started a return-to-school program because students with concussions have headaches that also affects their school work.
Parents must understand “you cannot prevent a concussion,” Moscicki said.
“If you get hit hard enough, there’s nothing out there that would 100% prevent a concussion,” he said. “A concussion happens as a result of your brain hitting the inside of your skull.”
The good news is everyone seems to be endorsing funding research into head injuries, including the NFL. It’s still too early to conclude where the research is headed.
That’s where parental choice comes into play.
“Football is a sport,” Moscicki said. “You don’t have to play it. You don’t have to watch it.”
And yet, the Super Bowl is the most watched annual television broadcast in the United States, with lots of monetary rewards for those who participate.
There are many challenges ahead. Pierce College and Orange Coast College paused their junior college football programs this year for lack of players. Junior varsity programs at lots of high schools have been discontinued for lack of players. A CIF participation survey for 2025-26 found 11-man football is the most popular boys sport with 87,718 participants, a drop of 4% from last school year.
“Anything that’s a contact sport runs a risk,” Hamilton said. “You want to protect your son.”
Source link
‘Haunted’ tunnel at the bottom of the world could be extended in £1.27billion project
Some locals claim the tunnel is haunted by the ghost of a murdered teenager.
02:13, 29 Aug 2026Updated 08:29, 29 Aug 2026
The tunnel is said to be haunted(Image: Getty)
Hidden at the bottom of the world is a tunnel which is shadowed in years of history. Thousands of cars travel through it daily, and as they do, they sound their horns.
The tunnel is a cacophony of beeping and tooting at all hours of the day and night – all thanks to a murder which has haunted the city since 1931. The Mount Victoria Tunnel is part of a well-used stretch of highway in Wellington, New Zealand.
According to legend, the reason drivers lean on their horns as they travel through the tunnel is in tribute to murdered teenager Phillis Symons.
Phillis was buried alive in dirt fill during the tunnel’s construction.
She was only 17 and was pregnant when her boyfriend George Coats, a worker on the construction of the tunnel, knocked her unconscious with a pipe.
George then dumped Phillis in the dirt fill. Her body was found hunched over, meaning she had tried to escape the soil.
George was sentenced to death for the murder, and was hanged in December 1931.
The tunnel was opened to the public in the same year.
Now, almost a hundred years later, the 632 metre long tunnel echoes constantly with the sound of car horns which residents believe either wards off spirits, or pays tribute to the memory of Phillis.
Some locals say the tunnel is haunted – others say the constant beeping is the only thing that haunts the road.
The tunnel is the subject of a £1.27billion (between NZD$2.9b and NZD$3.8b) infrastructure project which would see a second tunnel built alongside the first to try and alleviate the severe bottlenecks which occur in the tunnel.
The current one is only two lanes, and frequently closes due to crashes, causing traffic jams that can last hours.
According to RNZ, the project has been granted fast track approval – but as of last week there was still no expected start date.
Source link
Kildare: Boy, seven, among four injured after crash that killed five teenagers
Ireland’s Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said on Monday that he condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the “reckless criminal behaviour”.
“I also want to emphasis that anyone who makes the decision to drive a vehicle deliberately the wrong way down a motorway is engaged in lethally dangerous behaviour and it must stop,” O’Callaghan said.
He said he spoke with the Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly on Monday and had emphasised to him that the gardaí “will have whatever resources they require from government in order to respond to this threat to public safety”.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said tougher laws are needed to deal with people driving in dangerous ways.
GRA’s James Morrisoe said people are playing “Russian roulette” with their own lives and lives of innocent members of the public through dangerous driving.
Martin added that it was the “second appalling crash we’ve seen on our roads in a matter of days as a result of the reckless driving of a car on the wrong side of the motorway, endangering the lives of innocent road users”.
He said it was an “irresponsible and dangerous act, and it is shocking that in some cases it is being done for likes on social media”.
O’Callaghan said it was important to emphasis that social media companies “have a big responsibility in respect of this”.
“They emphasis in their codes of practice that they will not allow any postings that glorify criminal behaviour.
“Regrettably, that hasn’t been happening and social media companies need to step up to the mark as well in respect of their own responsibilities.”
Irish broadcaster RTE is reporting, external that the family is from the Carlow area.
It adds that several of the boys who died in the crash had “strong links” to Carlow town and to Athy in County Kildare.
Source link