Study links frequent blows to the head experienced by American football players to brain disease. Are changes in players’ health policies needed?

The growing awareness of health risks, especially concussions, in American football can have caused a “notable decline” in football participation among American high school boys, says Roger Pielke Jr. in this essay.

Analysis: The influx of money in US college sports has led to magnificent campus facilities and eye-popping salaries for administrators. Left behind, however, are the athletes themselves, says Prof. Roger Pielke, Jr., arguing that college sports are in for a change.

Since Europeans first arrived in the Americas, native peoples have been decimated. In North America, where assimilation was rare and conquest or theft of land has been the norm, things were particularly harsh. Stereotypical depictions of natives as violent warriors helped legitimise this process, as did a series of derogatory names such as “redskins” and “savages”.

Comment: Ice hockey and football have much to answer for, writes Canadian journalist Laura Robinson in her comment piece on new revelations of hazing and sexual abuse in North American sport. Under the glittering surface a depraved subculture is still not being addressed properly.