- Published on Apr 18, 2012 - Contact Laura Bailey ANN ARBOR,
Mich.—Even two years later, Sarah Clark grimaces sheepishly and
insists she mishandled the concussion her oldest son sustained
in ninth-grade football. "I was woefully unprepared," says
Clark, a researcher at University of Michigan and a self-
proclaimed football mom at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor. "I
did not do a good job at all. I made him do his math homework
that night. I sent him to school the next day." Like Clark, most
parents don't realize the staggering number of hard hits young
players sustain each football season, says Steven Broglio,
director of the Neurotrauma Research Laboratory and assistant
professor at the U-M School of Kinesiology. Concussion gets
quite a bit of media attention, but mainly at the professional
level, Broglio says. Consider the latest to grab headlines:
former Detroit Lions player and "Webster" star Alex Karras,
named as the lead plaintiff in a head injury-related lawsuit
against the NFL. However, most players w