If you thought my recent column calling for the regulation of nationally televised high school football games was dire, take a gander at a recent Slate online piece from author Robert Andrew Powell.

Powell, who wrote the book, "We Own This Game: A Year in the Adult World of Youth Football,' a chronicle of a year in the life of two Florida Pop Warner teams, is far more dark and pessimistic than I could be.

Just because Powell is pessimistic doesn't mean he's wrong or that his warnings aren't valid. Indeed, he has very important observations to make about the price all parties involved pay for attempting to make high school football bigger than it is or should be.