All Articles by Brooke de Lench

For those of you who may be wondering why you haven't seen a blog from me in recent weeks, there is a simple answer: I have been head down (pardon the pun) finishing up MomsTEAM's high school football concussion documentary, The Smartest Team.

Two news items on the subject of brain trauma in high school football, however, hit my desk over the past week which deserve comment.

Yesterday, the last day of what has been a very long, yet rewarding year as the publisher of MomsTEAM, I took some time to read many of the blog entries that I and our other bloggers contributed during the past year, and reviewing 365 days of Facebook and Twitter posts.

First, a confession: I began 2012 vowing to write a blog every day. Like many who make New Year's resolutions, I started out with the best of intentions, and kept up a pretty good pace in the first month or so of the year, but then a major opportunity presented itself - a plea for help from a football mom in Oklahoma - that made a daily blog no longer possible. (More about that in a moment)

Last Friday, I participated in a roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C. conducted by the Aspen Institute's Sports & Society program called "Playing Safety: The Future of Youth Football?" It was moderated by ESPN's Tom Farrey and, in the phrase made famous by the movie Casablanca, rounded up all the usual suspects on concussion safety and football, including MomsTEAM concussion expert emeritus Dr. Bob Cantu, USA Football Executive Director Scott Hallenbeck, and NFL Player Association President DeMaurice Smith, among other luminaries from the world of football and journalism. I was indeed honored to be asked to join those debating the future of the sport.

The Pop Warner concussion scandal - one that, sadly, occurred right in my backyard here in Massachusetts - has put youth football under the microscope once again.