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Harold Omnifuture's avatar

High school football is nearly 80% white!

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Jackson's avatar

I think you're off by a bit....in 2018 the percent of white high school football players was like 30%.

Regardless, the imbalance in pro sports is likely due to the relative lack of opportunity for the dominant demographics. If you've got solid academics and professional opportunities, you're less likely to put in the physical effort and academic sacrifices required of college and professional athletes. . . particularly because the short term and life time earning potential of that career is typically quite low. Even if you do make the cut.

https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/news/african-american-youth-more-often-play-sports-to-chase-college-pro-dreams

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disinterested's avatar

Did you mean 30% non-white because otherwise that makes no sense. 70% of people in the US are white, so it would be very odd indeed if they didnтАЩt make up a majority of high school football players.

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Jackson's avatar

It's in the article with link to the original study.

> African-American youth are nearly three times more likely than White youth to play tackle football. That gap reflects a trend also seen in high school football. According to the New York Times, in 2006, 70% of high school football players were White and 20% were African-American; by 2018, those figures were 30% White and 40% African-American.

The article also states that the main motivation is dreams of playing pro.

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disinterested's avatar

HereтАЩs the NYT article it links. It does not say that. ThereтАЩs a chart about races and eyeballing it (thereтАЩs no axes), it looks more like 60% white, 20% Hispanic*, 20% black. So your article is just wildly off.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/08/sports/falling-football-participation-in-america.html

*which includes white hispanics

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Jackson's avatar

That's only 1/2 the link -> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/08/sports/falling-football-participation-in-america.html

It pretty clearly says black and hispanic players make up a plurality now.

> The people who play the game are changing, too, with the number of white players diminishing as black and Hispanic players increasingly make up a larger plurality of the player pool.

I don't have a subscription and don't see the chart you're referring to.

But I found this Atlantic article referencing about the same numbers...BUT phrased differently. And probably identifies where the Aspen Project reporter got it wrong

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/football-white-flight-racial-divide/581623/#

They say 30% of white kids play, while 44% of black kids play tackle football. Not that's a proportion that plays, not the proportion of players.

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disinterested's avatar

Oops, I just messed up the link. ThatтАЩs the one I intended. It has the chart.

All I can say is, that quote doesnтАЩt match the data they present, which clearly shows a majority of football players are non-Hispanic white. The 40% figure for black players is seemingly totally made up.

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disinterested's avatar

This data seems suspect. First of all, itтАЩs *job* data, nothing to do with high school, and second of all, who is being counted as a тАЬfootball playerтАЭ here? ItтАЩs clearly not NFL, since the average salary is $50k, and the US doesnтАЩt really have a semi-pro or AAA football league. Also, the average age is 39? This seems totally made up.

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Jackson's avatar

Those are jobs. I linked to the article that references the original study and source.

> African-American youth are nearly three times more likely than White youth to play tackle football. That gap reflects a trend also seen in high school football. According to the New York Times, in 2006, 70% of high school football players were White and 20% were African-American; by 2018, those figures were 30% White and 40% African-American.

For youth sports, tackle football in particular, 30% white, 40% african-american.

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Harold Omnifuture's avatar

the heading is "FOOTBALL PLAYER STATISTICS" I dunno what to tell you.

Go watch any high school football. It's mostly white because students are mostly white. All this in service of stats that you *know* aren't correct?

If you want to stand by this nonsense, I can only assume you're an idiot.

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Jackson's avatar

The article I linked (and first read) got it wrong and I continued to dig and found the correct source. (below is paraphrased from that thread)

-------------

But I found this Atlantic article referencing about the same numbers...BUT phrased differently. And probably identifies where the Aspen Project reporter got it wrong

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/football-white-flight-racial-divide/581623/#

They say 30% of white kids play, while 44% of black kids play tackle football. It's the proportion of each that plays, not the proportion of players as in the first article.

*edit*

Regardless, from your response it's clear you're an asshole.

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