There is a lot to celebrate now. And yet, as Armstrong and anyone who cares about American football and its long-term viability know, the current team also hides a bitter truth.
Beyond the elite of the elite, a lot of things have remained the same. “Everyone knows access is a problem and football is widely seen as a sport for wealthy white kids,” said no less than American Football President Cindy Cone at the Project Play Summit in the United States. ‘Aspen Institute in May. “I’m not going to rest until every child who wants to play our game will not only have access to our game, but also the opportunity to succeed.”
As with other sports seeking to expand the demographic and talent pool of young players – tennis and baseball, for example – this is partly an economic problem and partly related to the difficulty of blowing up the ingrained stereotypes held by people of all races about who can thrive in which sports.
In a country where institutional racism and segregation have made enrichment a sometimes insurmountable obstacle for most black and brown families, the cost is preventing football from fulfilling its true promise. The Aspen Institute recently found that the price of a typical youth football season hovers around $1,188, more than baseball and basketball families require. Football, less dependent on traveling teams, costs about half as much.
No wonder youth soccer participation is stuck in a cycle of bumps and dips that prevent the game from gaining traction. For children aged 6 to 12, participation in outdoor football stood at 10.4% in 2009, dropped to 7.4% in 2018, increased the following year and fell to 6, 2% in 2020, according to the Aspen Institute.
Ask Armstrong about it, and he’s ruthless. He’s spent much of the last decade in Nashville, trying to get kids to play a game that’s rooted in the suburbs, and focusing as much attention as possible on steering young people of color toward the game and their rise in the ranks. .
His heroes Soccer Club has 550 players and several teams, from recreational to elite level. It makes up for what it lacks in dedicated facilities with gumshoe resolution, scouring the city for available space on public lands and often paying its players entrance fees and providing clothing. Young players vary the spectrum economically. Some are white, others black and Latino. There are migrants from Africa, Asia, Mexico and South and Central America.
