Pete Stenhoff was only 16 years old when a single football play changed his life forever.

  After Ramming his head into another player’s chest, Stenhoff, a junior at Chula Vista High School, cracked vertebrae in his spine. He is now paralyzed from the neck down. Having once weighed a solid 210 pounds, he now weighs 172 pounds.

 The injury has forced Pete to not graduate on time. He is now trying to get his diploma by taking correspondence courses.

  Tragically, Stenhoff is not alone, each year 20,000 high school football players are injured, and 7,000 of those injuries are to the neck and head, according to football critics. 840 of those 7,000 athletes are permanently disabled.

  Critics believe that the helmet design is to blame for the multiple neck and head injuries that are suffered by amateur football players.
Stenhoff is not bitter.  “I knew the risks involved when I decided to play football,” he said, “but I wish I would have known just how bad it could be.”