Saber tooth tigers, dodo birds and hoop skirts have something in common. They aren't around anymore.

A recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association has journalists and sports writers all abuzz with headlines like CNN's "99 percent of deceased football players have Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy" or CBS' "Widespread evidence of CTE among football players." Brian Ross, writing for the Huffington Post wrote "The NFL May Deny, But The Science Doesn't Lie. Football? Bye Bye."

Is the game of American football facing extinction?

The article by Ross accused the NFL of minimizing the numbers of athletes who may develop brain disorders due to head trauma. Even with the low numbers Ross referred to, the NFL is on the hook for billions of dollars in compensation. Ross conjectured that since over a million players play high school football annually, if only 20 percent of those developed CTE in their lifetimes then high schools would owe their former athletes $2.48 trillion dollars.

Ross went on to bemoan the fact that the game of football is a tremendous financial burden for what is, at the end of the day, an "entertainment."

While you might make a good case for college and professional football athletes being entertainment, I would take great exception to labeling high school football strictly entertainment. I would daresay Mr. Ross has not experience working with or being around high school football.

Ross cited a report in 2009 where 42 high school football players were studied. The studied athletes sustained 32,510 impacts over that season and the Huffington Post writer cited it as being comparable to being involved in 774 car wrecks or more. I find that analogy to being more than ridiculous, however. Getting pushed out of bounds on a football field is hardly like being involved in a highway head on collision.

There is room for scrutinizing the effects of brain injury with regards to the NFL. The NFL has long been guilty of looking the other way when it came to addressing health issues of their players. It used to be that there was widespread steroid abuse among players, particularly linemen. Football contracts are lucrative, and those 6'5" 300-pound men in the trenches were juicing and shooting up pharmaceuticals in the 1980s to stay in the game or to have an edge.

Then a report came out that the average lifespan of an NFL lineman in the 1980s was something like 50 years. Heart attacks, brain issues and a host of physical problems brought on by steroid abuse led to the league finally banning those substances, but only after it became widely known.

In 2001, Dallas Cowboy star quarterback Troy Aikman decided to retire a bit early after he had sustained multiple concussions in the course of his career. He was attacked by some for being cowardly, but he got out when he realized what might be at risk.

A year later, former pro-bowler "Iron Mike" Webster of the Pittsburgh Steelers died of a heart attack at age 50. He suffered from dementia and was exhibiting extremely erratic behavior before his death. Dr. Bennett Omalu, a pathologist who immigrated here from Nigeria, sought to discover the reason behind someone so young developing the condition he had.

Omalu discovered that Webster's brain was inundated with tau proteins, which greatly impair cognitive function and moods. Having no knowledge of football and seeking to publicize what he had discovered, Omalu named the condition "chronic traumatic encephalopathy." He was sure the NFL would like to know about his findings so they could better serve their players. What happened was that the NFL did its best to suppress the report and vilified Omalu, and seeking to discredit him personally.

However, the word was out and when the NFL was exposed, they had to address the problem. Players then began to organize, congressional hearings were held, and in 2015, the movie "Concussion" came out with Will Smith portraying Dr. Omalu. There is now no doubt that severe trauma to the head repeatedly has the potential of debilitating injury.

In those alarming stories put out by the main stream media, figures were cited stating that 21 percent of high school players would likely develop CTE. For all the above reasons, the various reporters predicted that insurance rates would skyrocket to the point of making the game of football unsustainable financially and that we would soon see the end of the sport.

Now for the good news.

Although the breathless wide eyed stories reporting that 99 percent of pros, 91 percent of collegians and 21 percent of high schoolers have been proven to be susceptible to CTE, the study they based their whole reportage on is not valid in he way they have portrayed it.

Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathy of the VA in Boston, was the physician cited in the negative stories. She reported in her submission to the Journal up front that her results were not the result of random sampling. The 200 brains she studied were ones that were donated to her hospital, and they were from people who obviously had CTE from a review of their health problems. She never claimed the numbers applied to all football players, but only to those she was presented with.

Tyler Duffield, PhD, is a pediatric neuropsychologist in Oregon. He noted that in the cited study, only 14 brains were studied that just played high school football. As over a million high school students play football every year, Duffield remarked that "It is difficult to make any definitive conclusions" from such a tiny sample. At best, Duffield related, research is mixed.

Then Duffield made a statement that sheds a better light on the subject.

"For some individuals," Duffield said, "playing sports is the most meaningful aspect of their life, and I wonder who we are as providers to take that away from them with all the positive aspects sports can provide athletes."

What is motivating these reporters and writers to twist Dr. McKee's report into saying something that she never meant? Has anyone heard of "fake news"?

I would wager dollars to doughnuts that the authors of those various news articles don't like football, and likely most American traditions. They would probably support the "safe places" that have popped on American college campuses where students can go if they feel threatened by something or anything. If they had their way, they would reduce the American population to what my dad would refer to as "pansies."

Football is not for everyone and it is a rough sport. Every step must be taken to make it as safe as possible. Rules are constantly being tweaked or changed to make the sport more safe, such as the open hands rule that will come into play this year. This rule requires defenders that are coming in on the blindside of a player to extend open hands to make contact. In the past, defenders could just level a player with a high risk of injury at play.

Football began in the 1800s, with pads and helmets not in use in the beginning. Players were actually getting killed in games until Teddy Roosevelt made it a requirement that men wear helmets and better padding. Over the years, newer equipment and better ways of training keep making the sport safer than it was before.

I would like to point out that without a trained, motivated military, we would not have a country. For a fact, most men in the military participated in contact sports before entering military service. There are things you can learn in football or other sports that can't be learned anywhere else.

Think about this. If the United States were to become involved in another shooting war to the point of needing large numbers of soldiers, who would make better ones. Would it be those who participated in "rough sports" or those people who needed safe places in college to run to if they heard a word or thought that upset them.

In my three years of high school, injuries were unheard of at our school. The coach played at least 40 players, the field was well cared for, and we had the best equipment there was, relating to safety. We also had an excellent training program that prepared the players for the rigors of contact sport. The same conditions exist here at Pea Ridge High School.

Concussions are a serious thing. The results of Dr. Omalu's findings has resonated all the way to Pea Ridge. We have a trainer who examines players on the field, and if one is in danger of having had a concussion, he won't be back on the field.

There is an element of risk in any contact sport. There is also an element of risk of walking out the door of your house every morning. Riding bikes is risky, crossing streets carries danger, with swimming, running, and even playing tag not without risk of injury.

From the moment someone is born to the end of their life, risk and danger will always be present. We can and should minimize it as much as possible.

But not to the extent of taking the life out of life.

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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools and writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].