No, I’m not going to make that argument today.  It is the title of this article only because it’s a question which has been asked by so many well-meaning, but totally misguided, commentators.  This question comes back into play in the wake of the tragic death of a high school football player in New Jersey.  Faced with such a shock, the tendency of some is to advocate that drastic action be taken.  They are wrong.  The “all or nothing” approach is understandable because emotions are running high.  But as in all things, FRANK ON FRIDAY puts aside the emotion and deals with the facts.  According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury, between 1931 and 2014 there were 1,041 deaths directly attributable to playing football at all levels.  There were 691 deaths among high school players.   Because there are more than one million high school football players, that equates to 0.14 deaths per 100,000 players.  The death rate for teenagers is 49.5 per 100,000.  That means a teenager is more than 350 times more likely to die from something other than playing football.  Football’s just too violent?  Your kid is about 83 times more likely to be killed driving to his knitting class than playing football.  The fact is, in recent years there has been a significant reduction in football fatalities.  From 1966 to 1976, there was only one year when less than ten players died, the high was 26 in 1968.  Changes in football rules, coaching techniques and improvement in equipment has resulted in a reduction to about 3 deaths a year.  Still too dangerous?  Other sports also present a risk of injury.   Maybe we should just ban these violent sports?  Well, the activity that accounts for 65% of all the catastrophic injuries in youth sports is cheerleading.  That’s right.  Of course, once we ban all the sports, there will be nothing to cheer for, so that problem will be solved.  But wait a minute, I thought we were concerned about child obesity.  Any exercise requires physical exertion, and thus, a risk of injury.  As much as we might like to, we can’t keep the kids in a bubble to protect them till they’re 21.  Football, and all sports and organized physical activities, do far more good for kids than bad.   We should keep things in perspective.