The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that from 2005 to 2014 a total of 28 deaths or 2.8 deaths per year occurred in high school and college football from traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, according to information from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. 24 of the deaths were in high school and all happened during the last five years of the study from 2010 through 2014.
The CDC and NCCSIR found the most common playing positions of those fatally injured were running backs and linebackers. The report states approximately 18-percent of identified high school brain injury deaths were preceded by an earlier concussion, which might have led to second impact syndrome. Among the 24 high school fatalities, 20 or 83-percent, occurred during a game and during the regular season; 17 of the deaths involved tackling or being tackled. Of the 28 deaths, head first/head down contact was identified in eight of them.
The study goes on to state that the 2.8 deaths per year is down from a previous study between 1990 and 2010 that reported 3.1 deaths per year.