The combine of professional football teams, colleges, media outlets, and high schools has created a huge scheme in which each of the combine members receives huge profits which are only shared with a few thousand professional players. All but a few hundred elite players per year, out of more than 1 million athletes involved at the high school and college levels, is ever paid for their involvement with the sport. All players are prone to irreversible brain damage and other medical consequences of playing. Their educations are interrupted by punishing practice schedules and travel commitments that make full and effective participation in the classroom virtually impossible.
This is a national tragedy.