According to the Times Union, Johnstown High School's varsity football team has decided to forfeit the remainder of their season due to a lack of players on their injury riddled roster, which was whittled down to thirteen players earlier this week.

New York State rules state that you have to have 16 players dressed for action to field a team for a game, which seems dangerously low as it is given the brutal nature of football, but Johnstown could not meet that quota.

Left on their schedule were Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, Schalmont, and Schuylerville, with the four losses resulting from the forfeits dropping Johnstown down to 0-7 on the season.

As sad as the story is, I do still applaud the administration and coaching staff of the team for deciding not to do anything reckless such as moving any players up from junior varsity or trying to just throw three more players together in order to meet the minimum number of players. Football is dangerous enough as it is, and to put people who are unprepared for that level of competition in a position to injure themselves would have been irresponsible.

Stories like this lead me to wonder how many parents will stop letting their kids play football in the future. I predict that eventually, more and more schools will suffer the same fate, not because of injuries, but because of parents protecting their children from them before they can start playing.

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