Dr. Paul Butler, a retired physician and Dover School Board member, isn’t happy about it, but he’s determined that the risk of concussion and brain injury to the district’s young players is too high to let the football program continue.

“I think it’s bad to take this away, I certainly do,” he told “NBC Nightly News.” “But I think it’s worse to let it continue. I think it’s dangerous.”

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Dr. Julian Bailes, a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the Sports Concussion Institute, disagrees. “I think it’s overly radical and it’s not supported by medical evidence,” he said. Bailes is also Neurosurgery Department chair and Co-Director of the NorthShore Neurological Institute, one of the NFL Players’ Association’s neurological consultants and the Medical Director for Pop Warner Football.

But, even Bailes added, “The younger the brain is, the more vulnerable it is to brain trauma.”

The Dover School Board denies the continuation or cancellation of its football program is on its agenda.

Watch the video, which first aired on “NBC Nightly News” on October 7, 2012, below:

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