Bruce Arians Comments on Football Amid Criticism About Safety

Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians isn't letting the heightened concern over the risks of playing football diminish his passion for the sport.  

Speaking Friday to a group of high school coaches at a clinic sponsored by the Cardinals, Arians discussed what coaches at the youth levels need to do to ensure football's continued survival, per Robby Baker of KPNX in Phoenix:

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This is our sport, it's being attacked. We have to stop it at the grass roots. It's the best game that's ever been invented. And we have to make sure that moms get the message, because that's who's afraid of our game right now. It's not dads it's moms. Our job is to make sure the game is safe, at all levels. The head really has no business being in the game. There's a lot of different teachers, but when I was taught how to tackle, and how to block, it was on a two-man sled. You did it with your shoulder pads. That's still the best way to do it.

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Many took umbrage with the idea that mothers are the only parent concerned with their children's health. Both Sports Illustrated's Melissa Jacobs and CBS Sports' Amy Trask voiced their criticism:

Arians clarified the meaning behind the comments:

While he didn't say it in the most eloquent way, there's no question the NFL's future hinges greatly on kids playing the game at a young age and continuing to do so through high school and college. Major League Baseball is dealing with a similar problem—granted, for different reasons altogether.

Both The MMQB's Emily Kaplan and the New York Times' Ken Belson wrote in the last year about how participation in high school football is dipping slightly across the country.

Football isn't on the verge of dying in the United States. It remains wildly popular—35 percent of participants in a 2014 Harris Poll listed football as their favorite sport—and flag football, which is seeing healthy growth—provides a safer alternative to Pop Warner leagues. 

Continued international expansion will only serve to increase the NFL's revenues and ensure the long-term viability of the sport as well. However, the NFL will likely still try to avoid the perception that the game is inevitably unsafe.