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Heads Up Football Final Project

April 16, 2019

Ragan Collins
Mary Abbott Crain
Amanda Tomas
Nora Klein
Alec Wilson
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Executive Summary:

● Heads Up Football is a company trying to make tackle football a safer game nationwide

with comprehensive player and coach safety training programs.

● Our communication goal was to increase awareness of Heads Up Football among young

people who were likely to become future parents to tackle football players in the next 10

years.

● An overwhelming majority of respondents both in the survey and focus group had never

heard of Heads Up Football before, despite the program’s reach.

● Only the female participants in the focus group indicated they would be worried about

someone they knew in a football game, despite females having a lower likelihood of

tactical football knowledge. Males, who make up the majority of players, seemed to be

more likely to perceive the game as safe in our research.

● The participants in the focus group and the survey generally agreed that Heads Up had

the potential to make the sport safer for their future children, but lacked insight on what

could be done to make the program itself better. This indicates Heads Up Football must

first focus on cognitive variables, as there is a low sense of necessity for the program

among the target public.

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● In the survey, 67.1% of respondents “Strongly Agree” that they were aware of the

incidence of concussion-related injuries, yet 83.1% indicated they would allow their child

to play tackle football in the future. This indicates there is a significant market for Heads

Up to take advantage of, as future parents seem to be health conscious yet desire athletic

success in football and believe it can outweigh potential health risks.

Situation Analysis:

The objective of our research was to gain insight on the awareness levels of tackle

football’s risks, and whether or not Heads Up Football could become a beneficial and

mainstream force in this regard. Our communication goal is to improve the public's awareness as

a cognitive variable of Heads Up Football and its strategies to make football a safer sport,

particularly among young people who will become the future parents of potential tackle football

players.

Company:

Heads Up Football is a company aiming to make tackle football a safer game. Owned by

USA Football, they were founded in 2012 and are now used in more than 7,000 youth and high

school programs. They work with students from elementary to high school age to reinforce

safety by teaching tackle football in a safer manner from the start. Heads Up uses a three-step

plan to make the game safer. This plan starts with training player-safety coaches, who then teach

coaches, parents, and players the proper way of tackling to avoid injuries, among other safety
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skills. Coaches can get certified through the Heads Up Football website which includes topics

such as Coaching 101, Shoulder Tackling, Blocking and Defeating Blocks and more. Their

website also has comprehensive lessons and videos so that anyone interested can learn tackle

football safety practices. Additionally, they offer in-person clinics for coaches across all leagues

and age levels, as well as for parents. Overall, they strive to offer the standard in teaching and

playing tackle football.

The graphic on the previous page, from the Heads Up Football website, indicates the

main organizations that sponsor Heads Up Football. Among these sponsors are many of the main

professional, collegiate, and youth organizations that facilitate the playing of tackle football

nationally. Also included are several medical organizations as well as the premier media

organization for sports, ESPN.

Consumer:

Heads Up Football’s primary consumer publics are parents of athletes, football players,

and football coaches. According to a study on sports participation compiled by Global Pediatric

Health under the National Institutes of Health in 2015, 71% of boys (the main participants in

tackle football) participated in the top 5 most common male high school sports, which included
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football, baseball, basketball, running, and soccer. This suggests the main consumers of the

program are to be male players, as well as the current/future parents of males and the coaches of

males. 15.9% of middle school boys participate in football, while only 12.5% of high school

boys do, suggesting a drop in participation as players age. Therefore, the target player consumers

of Heads Up Football often fall into the younger ranges, which is key if Heads Up Football is to

reverse the decline in participation due to safety.

Among school-age boys, 14.2% of players are white, 16.7% are black, 12.6% are

Hispanic, and 14.2% are another race. Although there are slight differences, overall the racial

composition of players and therefore their parents is mainly uniform, suggesting the same for

Heads Up Football’s consumers. Additionally, although football participation rates differ in

different geographic areas across the United States, Heads Up Football wants to affect the sport

nationwide, meaning their consumer efforts do not necessarily need to be concentrated

regionally. Lastly, it appears that Heads Up Football faces the issue of targeting messages to the

Millennial generation of current and future parents. This generation has been characterized with

being more health-conscious, suggesting a need for the Heads Up Football program to raise its

awareness levels.
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Competition:

Heads Up Football does not have much substantial competition in terms of being a

nationally-renowned and reputable football safety training program. Although other athletic

safety programs do exist, such as youth safety courses through the American Red Cross, National

Youth Sports Coaches Association, and the American Sports Education program, none are

focused entirely on youth tackle football, making them secondary competitors. They are also not

as accredited or respected in this realm — essentially, Heads Up Football corners the market on

youth football safety training.

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Current Environment:

Now more than ever, participation in tackle football programs is falling. Although some

of this can be attributed to a rise in the popularity of video games and declining birth rates, much

of the issue stems from concerns that parents have about the safety of the game. These concerns

prompt parents to prohibit their children from participating from a young age, which is bad news

for the sport overall — not only will there be less players, but children who do not grow up

participating in tackle football are less likely to become fans as adults that attend or watch

games. According to forbes.com, 11-player football participation among high school students is

down 6.5%, and that track has passed tackle football as the most popular outdoor sport.

Interestingly, it seems that participation in flag football has risen slightly. These statistics suggest

that while football as a sport remains a worthy pastime, parents and players are simply concerned

about the health risks. Boys especially are increasingly moving to play soccer, volleyball, cross

country, and golf. Additionally, forbes.com writes that as parents’ concern about serious injuries

in football increases, the age at which a child may start playing increases as well — meaning

many children who succumb to the pressure of specializing to another sport at a young age are

lost as potential participants.

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The above graphic from aspenprojectplay.org from their studies on childhood sports

participation shows an 11.8% decline in tackle football participation among young children,

alongside a comparable rise in flag football participation, as well as other sports. This suggests

that the decline in participation is due to safety concerns rather than the popularity of the sport

itself.

Heads Up Football aims to address this decline, as well as the future health of tackle

football players, by offering training programs that emphasize player safety. As

health-consciousness and awareness of brain-related injuries rises, the need for such a program

has risen as well in order to save the sport. Despite the increased spotlight on the potential for

permanent brain injury in tackle football, and tackle football’s wide popularity overall, Heads Up

Football has not become a “household name”. Heads Up Football has made large strides in this
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regard, with over 140,000 coaches certified impacting over 1,000,000 players across the nation.

The magnitude of these numbers, however, does not translate to the overall awareness of Heads

Up Football among future parents of potential athletes. It seems a worthy step in the direction of

reversing tackle football’s decline may be to improve safety standards in tackle football, as it is a

crucial concern of many parents in the decision to allow their children to play tackle football.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

● One of the only football safety programs in the US

● Program is thorough and wide-reaching

● Sponsored and supported by nearly all the mainstream organizations in tackle football

● Participation in their program is simple and accessible, nearly entirely online

Weaknesses:

● Low organizational awareness despite the sport’s popularity

● Safety initiatives are opposed by some who argue the integrity of football is being

tarnished

● Knowledge of football intricacies/injury potential is often only held by experts in the

field (players and coaches); not widely known

● Difficult to ensure/prove Heads Up Football’s initiatives actually help with decreasing

injury

Opportunities:

● Sponsors of program are well-known and trusted, huge potential for impact
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● Targeting young people likely to become parents in the near future can exponentially

grow their base

● Growing awareness of head-related injury may increase need for program

● Rising age of youth football players may lead to more responsible play and demand for

the program

Threats

● Declining participation in youth tackle football

● Fear of head-related injuries in the sport

● Flag football participation rising among youth, as well as other sports

● Adult football players and coaches who believe safety measures will compromise the

integrity of the game

Research Methods: Focus Group

The focus group’s objective was to gauge young people’s awareness of the Heads Up

Football Program and to get a better understanding of their opinions on the sport, in order to gain

insight on increasing awareness among this group. Awareness of the Heads Up Football program

is very low among this group. Thus, Heads Up Football is seeking insight on how to change their

messaging in order to reach this group, which will be the future parents of tackle football players.

The focus group was conducted to collect qualitative data on young people’s awareness,

opinions, and attitudes on tackle football, its safety issues, and other factors that affect Heads Up

Football’s PR messages. Heads Up Football hopes to raise awareness in this way and become the
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premier standard for how tackle football is played, raising safety standards and reversing the

trend of declining tackle football participation.

We began our focus group with questions about the respondents’ athletic experiences to

create context and gauge general athletic awareness. Some of the primary level-one questions

asked in the focus group were: “Have you ever played on an organized sports team?” and “Did

any of you suffer any injuries while playing this sport?” We then began asking questions that

focused on team sports in general and what one can learn from a part of a sports team. We

wanted to gauge opinion about the effects of injuries in sports, including football, and how those

factors related to the benefits of participating.

The level-two questions began to center in more on tackle football itself. We asked

participants their opinion on tackle football as a whole, as well as how they perceived its safety

level. Some of the questions we asked were: “Do you believe football is a worthy pastime? Why

or why not?” and “If you were a parent and your child asked you to enroll them in tackle football

would you allow them to play? Why or why not?” We then moved into level-three questions,

which were more specifically oriented towards gathering opinions on the Heads Up Football

program itself. The beginning of this portion began by asking whether or not participants were

aware of the Heads Up Football program, then showing them an educational video detailing the

program’s benefits. The questions we asked at this point included: “Do you think something like

this could be effective or change the safety level of tackle football?” and “Do you think you

would feel safer about putting your child in tackle football if this program was enacted widely?”
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The respondents were generally unaware of the Heads Up Football program at the start of

the focus group. This confirmed our suspicion at the beginning of our research, but was worrying

for our communication goal of reaching young people and raising awareness of Heads Up

Football. However, they responded positively to the program’s aims once shown, albeit perhaps

not as enthusiastically as one might hope for a program centered around such an urgent issue.

One participant noted most strikingly that “something is better than nothing.” Participants

provided some information indicating that the program’s methods could benefit the safety levels

of tackle football, despite a generally low awareness. For example, Participant 7 noted that “If

they [children in tackle football] are taught at a young age, then they are most likely to grow up

doing it the right way...which limits the chance that they get hurt.” Interestingly, all females

responded that they would be worried about knowing someone participating in a tackle football

game, while the males did not. This is an interesting insight, as the males are less concerned

about serious injury despite being more likely to be aware of the risks. This suggests there may

be a low sense of urgency among young males, who are the most likely players of tackle football

— suggesting why awareness is so low in the first place, and showing Heads Up Football must

emphasize the dangers of tackle football to improve upon this.

All of the respondents reported having played a team sport before, and nearly all had

sustained some type of injury. However, participants agreed the benefits of success in tackle

football outweigh the risk of injury. This suggests either that young people are either unaware of

just how serious tackle football injury can be, or that among young people athletic success is

regarded so highly that the risk of head injury is considered a minimal concern. Additionally,
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participants stated that their previous histories (including injuries) playing team sports make

them feel even more inclined to put their children in tackle football. However, despite the

participants wide agreement that they’d allow their children to play tackle football, they were

unable to offer opinion on whether or not the program could be improved in some way.

Although we had our suspicions, it was still surprising to note just how few of our

participants knew about Heads Up Football or were educated on the severity of head injury

potential in tackle football. The participants were limited by not being fully aware of just how

dangerous tackle football can be, and how much of a difference teaching football differently

makes. It seems that if Heads Up Football wants to become a mainstream part of teaching

football, there needs to be more targeted messaging that conveys the urgency of tackle football’s

risks. The respondents, as a sample of our target public, simply did not have the knowledge to

provide an ideal amount of insight about how Heads Up Football could be perceived. However,

the low level of awareness as a cognitive variable did suggest some insight on what Heads Up

Football should target. This includes emphasizing the gravity of the potential for head injury

among young people, so that if they truly believe that the potential for success in the sport is

worthwhile, they will look toward making the sport safer so their future children can participate.

Certain characteristics of the focus group research method limited our results. The

primary limiting factor was the size and characteristics of the group. The focus group was mostly

female, which meant that many of the participants were less likely to have an insightful

knowledge base on tackle football and its different facets. While having participants that had

more expert football knowledge would have been useful, it is also important to note what
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participants of an “average” football knowledge thought as well, as they are also future parents to

potential tackle football players. The size of the group meant that care should be taken when

generalizing to young people, as this sample was quite small. Although additional focus groups

could be conducted among our target public to assure increased reliability, the responses and care

with which the focus group was conducted assure proper validity. Further results can be achieved

through taking responses from different research methods into account, such as surveys and

experiments. These methods could confirm the reliability of our findings.

Research Methods: Survey

The purpose of this survey was to gather more information about tackle football’s

popularity as a sport, its perceived safety levels, and awareness of the Heads Up Football

program. This data allowed us to gain insight on how to improve the awareness of the Heads Up

Football program, and additionally helped us refine our insights gained during the focus group.

This survey was conducted and distributed using Google Forms. Within a span of 5 days,

154 responses were recorded. To attain these responses, this survey was sent in multiple

organizational group chats, emailed out to other public relations classes, and posted in multiple

Facebook groups. Anyone who saw the survey was able to respond. Three demographic

questions were included, regarding age, gender, and home state. The respondents were 54.5%

female and 44.2% male, while 2 respondents preferred not to say. All participants were born

between the years of 1995 and 2000, while most were born in 1999 (44.8%). 32.5% of
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participants claimed Alabama as their home state, with next popular home states being Illinois

(8.4%), Texas (6.5%), New York (5.8%), Tennessee (5.8%), and Georgia (5.8%).

The survey contained 17 different question of various types including ranking, multiple

choice, attitude statements, and open-ended questions. The questions began by asking about

participants’ history with tackle football, then moved on to attitudes and opinions about the sport

itself, its perceived safety levels, and future participation in the sport in all aspects. Then, the

participants were able to voice if they had heard of the program, how they did (if they were

familiar with it), and whether they thought the program could make tackle football safer. To

encourage people to finish the survey and respond honestly, the questions could be skipped if

they preferred not to answer them. The participants were also able to withdraw at any time.

Results

The survey started with the question, “Have you ever played tackle football?” 60.4% of

the respondents said “No,” while 39.6% of the respondents said “Yes.” The respondents were

then asked to indicate how many years they played tackle football. The answers received ranged

from “one time in the gym” to 13 years, meaning a wide variety of tackle football experiences

were represented in this survey.

Q8 - Respondents were asked to indicate how they felt about the statement, “I think there needs

to be a bigger emphasis on safety for young children learning to play tackle football than there is

now.”
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64.3% of respondents either agreed (4) or strongly agreed (5) with this statement. 20.8% selected

“Neither agree nor disagree (3),” while 8.4% selected “Disagree” and 6.5% selected “Strongly

Disagree.” This indicates a significant market for Heads Up Football to capitalize on, as it

appears young people may agree that there is a need for teaching the sport in a safer way. With

Heads Up Football’s entire mission being teaching tackle football safely, a significant lack of

awareness was exposed by this question as well.

Q10 - Do you think the risks of playing tackle football are often overlooked?

When asked their thoughts on

whether the risks of playing

tackle football are overlooked, 27.3% respondents indicated “Yes,” 23.4% indicated “No,” and

49.4% indicated “Somewhat.” These relatively neutral responses indicate that the urgency of the

risk of head-related injury is not commonly agreed upon, or that current practices in football

seem sufficiently addressed. For Heads Up Football, this confirms that there is a great need to

emphasize risk to youth brain health in order to create a larger demand for their program among

young people.

Q17 - If you answered yes to having heard about the program, do you think this program would

make tackle football safer?

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69.6% of respondents indicated “Yes,” while 30.4% indicated “No.” Almost one-third of the

participants indicating “No” is an interesting response — this means nearly ⅓ of those who know

about the program believe it won’t be effective in making tackle football a safer sport. This is

concerning, as safety is Heads Up Football’s primary initiative. This may suggest that Heads Up

Football must target more messages towards showing how their version of safer childhood play

can reduce injury, even to those not necessarily knowledgeable about the sport.

Other interesting findings included that most participants believed potential for

concussion or brain-related injury is the most dangerous part of tackle football play when asked

to rank potentially dangerous aspects of the game. Clearly, our respondents are aware of

brain-related injury and its dangers but not just how prevalent they are in tackle football itself, as

they did not necessarily agree to keep their children out of the sport or that Heads Up Football

will help in that regard. Additionally, 49.4% of respondents believed 11-14 years old is the

appropriate age range in which to begin playing tackle football when asked, while 40.4%

indicated 6-10 years old and just 9.7% selected 15+ years of age. This suggests the age at which

young people believe it is appropriate to play tackle football is rising. For Heads Up Football,

this means that moving more resources towards targeting the youngest football players may

expand their base.

These findings provide several insights confirmed in our focus group — namely, that

despite respondents being generally aware of tackle football’s risks, they are still very inclined to

participate in tackle football in all aspects. Also, the survey confirmed that despite low awareness

of Heads Up Football, respondents somewhat believe in its ability to make the game safer as the
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risk of injury in football becomes a more mainstream issue. This confirms there is a wider public

than has been previously targeted that would benefit from Heads Up Football’s programming,

and that there is an interest in football safety education. However, it was interesting to note that

while there was a wide awareness of brain-related injury, an overwhelming urgency for safety in

football was not indicated, meaning there is a disconnect there that Heads Up Football must

address.

One of the research limitations we faced was validity, as there was little incentive for a

participant to provide an honest answer. While the higher volume of responses assured better

reliability over the focus group method, the online survey method meant respondents were

potentially more likely to provide inaccurate or dishonest responses. While this should absolutely

be taken into consideration, the care with which the questions were written and the survey’s

construction assure a certain degree of validity.

Another limitation was the difficulty in achieving maximum generalizability in our

survey. As the survey was conducted from a convenience sample of University of Alabama

students, this somewhat limited the demographic diversity of our respondents. The majority of

the respondents were from Alabama and popular University of Alabama feeder states. As

attitudes and opinions about tackle football can vary depending on geographic location, this must

be taken into consideration when analyzing the responses. However, care was taken that

responses were collected from every region. To assure generalizability among young people

nationally, it would be prudent to conduct this survey at different universities in different regions

of the United States.

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Research Methods: Experiment

In our research, we learned that while Heads Up Football is the most competitive and

comprehensive football safety training program in the US, future potential users of the program

are almost entirely unaware of Heads Up Football or the need for it. Thus, we are creating a

public relations experiment to test the recall of a video message that is aiming to create a

stronger relationship between Heads Up Football and its publics. The goal is to find a message

that sticks and has the potential to raise awareness of the Heads Up Football organization among

young people.

The independent variable we intend to manipulate is the delivery of the message relaying

the facts about Heads Up Football. We will test two different video messages with the same

script, relaying facts about the Heads Up Football program. One video will show an athlete that

was severely affected by a head injury while playing football, and show him stating facts on the

program. The other video will show an athlete with a positive history in the sport of tackle

football state facts about the program. We are trying to influence the cognitive variable, by

seeing how the context of the speaker (either negative or positive) will affect how much viewers

retain/know about Heads Up Football going forward. We are testing this as it is important to find

out which approach is the most effective in raising awareness for the Heads Up Football

program. Our research has shown that many people in the demographic group we have studied

are not even aware that this program exists, so testing how to best achieve wider awareness is

essential.
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The dependent variable we intend to observe and measure is the participant’s recall of the

Head’s Up Football Program. By observing which message delivery inspires the best recall of

information about Heads Up Football, we can make recommendations on which type of

messages will be best to raise awareness. The dependent variable will be observed and measured

as researchers will contact the participants one day after exposure, and ask them to state what

they recall from the video after viewing. The video that the most participants recall the most

copy points from will be declared the more “effective” message in raising awareness for Heads

Up Football.

In this experiment, we want to recruit respondents that are college students from ages

18-25 who plan on having children in the next 10 years. This population is relevant because they

will be the next generation to have children. Therefore, it is important to find out how best to

raise awareness of this program among their age group, as they will be the group most likely to

make the decision to put their children in tackle football in the near future. We will recruit

subjects by setting up a portable lab. We will hire a research team to set this lab up at tailgates

throughout college football season at popular games all over the United States. The team will

invite respondents to participate, step into the lab, and watch the video message. The respondents

will be assigned in an alternating fashion to view either the video of a healthy and successful

player as opposed to an injured one. The team will travel to 20 universities and sample 100

students at each one, 50 males and 50 females. The total sample size will be 2,000 students, with

1,000 males and 1,000 females.

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The experiment’s results are going to help the client decide how best to develop and share

Heads Up Football’s message. This will help Heads Up Football achieve the communication goal

of raising awareness about its program among future parents. In terms of business goals, finding

an effective way to raise awareness may help boost future participation in the program.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Insight #1: Males and Females Perceive Safety in Tackle Football Differently

When asked if tackle football was a safe sport during the focus group, ⅔ of female

participants answered “No” on the first inquiry while both of the male participants answered

“Yes.” Although this is quite a small group to draw conclusions from, it suggests there may be a

difference in how males and females perceive safety in relation to sports. Interestingly enough,

only female participants agreed that they would be constantly worried about someone they knew

participating in a tackle football game. This is despite their knowledge of football safety

technicalities and tackle injuries being generally low — indicating that even though they likely

did not quite know the intricacies of football risks, they still perceived the game as unsafe. The

male participants, however, despite having higher knowledge of football complexities, did not

express as much concern. This raises concern, as the most common players and coaches of tackle

football are males. As males seem to be more unlikely to perceive the game as unsafe yet make

up the majority of players, it would be an important move for Heads Up Football to create

campaigns that educate the public on just how dangerous tackle football can be. Creating more

comprehensive educational campaigns in schools and football camps on the risks of tackle

football injuries would not only create a sense of urgency, but it would also spur a heightened
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awareness of Heads Up Football itself. The prevalence of former male professional football

players with permanent brain injury can be utilized as an informational strategy in order to

persuade young males players of the dangers. Additionally, if the dangers of tackle football were

more mainstream, more football teams would utilize the services of Heads Up Football overall.

Insight #2: Athletic History Does Not Change Perception of Tackle Football Safety

All participants in the focus group reported having played a sport before, and ⅞ of them

claimed they had sustained some kind of injury before. Despite this, they claimed both contact

and non-contact sports are risky and therefore football’s risks do not outweigh its advantages

(success, life lessons, fitness, etc). Participants in the focus group also unanimously agreed that

the further implementation of Heads Up Football programs would make them feel safer about

putting their children on tackle football teams, and that their previous experiences with sports

and injuries would not affect their decision to allow their children to play football. In fact,

participants agreed that if anything their past experiences would make them more likely to do so.

What this means for Heads Up Football is that they need to target messages toward challenging

the misconception that football is equal in risk to other sports. It seems the reason that

participants did not feel a sense of necessity or urgency in the case of Heads Up Football is

because they genuinely do not understand just how severe tackle football head injuries can be

compared to other sports. This was confirmed in the survey, as 67.1% of respondents “Strongly

Agreed” that they were aware of the incidence of concussion-related injury in tackle football, yet

83.1% indicated they would allow their child to play tackle football in the future. Educating the

future parents of tackle football players on the risks, while showing that proper safety technique
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is the way to keep the sport alive will create the necessity among the target public for the Heads

Up Football program. As it is clear tackle football remains popular among young people, this

will bring the program into a more positive light and making it an integral part of teaching

football in the future.

Insight #3: Heads Up Football Has Mainly Reached Experts and Players

All the participants in the focus group, despite variations in knowledge of football, were

unaware of the Heads Up Football program. In the survey, only 18.2% of the respondents

indicated they had ever heard of the Heads Up Football program before, despite 39.6% of the

respondents having played tackle football. Although all the focus group participants were

exposed to the mission of Heads Up Football after viewing the focus group video, those

participants were not knowledgeable enough nor enthusiastic enough to provide insightful or

passionate supporting opinions on the program’s effectiveness. The participants in the focus

group generally agreed that it had the potential to make the sport safer, with one participant

noting that “something is better than nothing.” The survey confirmed this, with 69.6% of

respondents that had heard of the program indicating they believed it could make the sport safer.

The focus group participants were unable to offer opinions on if the program was missing a

component that they should address in terms of teaching football better. It seems that the

awareness and concern for injury is mostly shared by experts in the sport, which is not the target

of Heads Up Football. In order to increase the reach and visibility of the program among future

parents, it is important that their future communications target a more general populace. Heads

Up Football must influence a public opinion that is aware of risks and demands safer football
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practices — which would in turn create a bigger demand for them. A potential avenue to

research could include seeing if participants responded differently to the necessity of

implementing Heads Up Football programs after being presented with statistics, videos, and

other content that educated them on the reality of the situation.

Insight #4: Negatives of Tackle Football Are Overlooked In Light of Professional Success

Although the participants of the focus group were educated on the Heads Up Football

program after viewing the educational film, they still seemed to believe that the possibility of

playing professionally is beneficial. As reported in our research, most of the survey respondents

would consider themselves tackle football fans and enjoy watching collegiate/professional level

tackle football. During the focus group, the respondents also generally agreed that the potential

for a child to succeed professionally in football exceeds the risk of brain injury. One respondent

said that it “it is better to take the risk of getting hurt because the outcome could end up being

greater than those risks.” This was confirmed by the survey, as 83.1% of respondents indicated

that they would still allow their future child to play tackle football. It appears that among the

target public of young people, it is perceived that potential for professional success greatly

outweighs the risk of permanent concussion-related injury. This means there is a market for

Heads Up Football to develop a message to take advantage of the fact that there is still a great

desire among young people to achieve professionally in tackle football. Heads Up Football can

develop a message that emphasizes that despite the great risks of tackle football play, learning to

play safely can make you an elite player in the sport with the advantage of minimized injuries.

For example, Heads Up Football can partner with college recruiters to create campaigns that give
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the best exposure to high-school players that have been trained in all the safety measures of

Heads Up Football, giving them the advantage over their competition. If Heads Up Football

certification is made a necessity for advantages in college football recruitment, younger players

as well as coaches will make the effort to participate in the program and spread awareness.

APPENDIX
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Focus Group

Moderators Guide Questions:

Level 1

1. Have you ever played on an organized sports team? If so, what was the sport?
2. What are your experiences with playing sports when you were younger?
3. Did you have any sports achievements?
4. Did you ever get injured during your sport of choice?
If so, please describe your injury.
5. How long was the recovery process?
6. Did you ever get to play your particular sport again?
7. What would you say are the most common injuries you see in your sport?
8. Are there any life lessons you would say you've taken away from playing sports?
Elaborate!
Level 2
9. What is your opinion on tackle football?
10. Would you regard tackle football as a safe sport? why?
11. Do you believe football is a worthy pastime? Why or why not?
12. If you were a parent and your child asked you to enroll them in tackle football
would you allow them to play? Why or why not?
13. Would you be constantly worried if you had someone you knew in a tackle
football game? Would you not think anything of it?
14. Do you think the positives of a student potentially succeeding at tackle football
outweigh the risks?
Level 3
15. Are you aware of the Heads Up Football program? If so, please describe it.
16. Do you think something like this could be effective/change the safety level of
tackle football?
17. What do you think are ways we can make tackle football safer? What exactly do
you think is unsafe about tackle football?
18. Do you think you would feel safer about putting your child in tackle football if
this program was enacted widely?
19. What are the positives based on your opinion of this program?
20. Do you still see anything wrong with this program?
21. Does your decision to play or not play sports affect potential future decisions to
let your children play sports?
 27

22. After hearing about this program would you allow your children play tackle
football?

Survey

Tackle Football Base Questions:

1. Have you ever played tackle football?

a. Yes
b. No

2. If yes, you have played tackle football, how many years did you play? (fill in the blank,
never played tackle football).
__________ years

Strongly Disagree/Strongly Agree Questions

3. I think I know a lot about tackle football.

a. Strongly disagree
b. Strongly agree

4. I consider myself a fan of tackle football.

a. Strongly disagree
b. Strongly agree

5. Tackle football is a physically dangerous game.

a. Strongly disagree
b. Strongly agree.

6. Rules can be changed to make tackle football a safer game.

a. Strongly disagree
b. Strongly agree

7. I am aware of the incidence of concussion-related injuries as a result of tackle football.

a. Strongly disagree
b. Strongly agree
 28

8. I think there needs to be a bigger emphasis on safety for young children learning to play
tackle football than there is now.
a. Strongly disagree
b. Strongly agree

Tackle Football Attitude/Safety Questions

9. How likely are you to support the game of tackle football?

a. Very likely
b. Somewhat
c. Not at all

10. Do you think the risks of playing tackle football are often overlooked?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Somewhat

11. If you have a child, will you allow your child to play tackle football?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Maybe

12. Given the potential of tackle football-related injury, rank the following based on what you
think is the most damaging aspect of playing tackle football.
a. ____ improper tackling technique
b. ____ insufficient protective equipment
c. ____ dehydration and general athletic stress
d. ____ potential for concussion or other brain-related injuries
e. Other: _____________

13. At which of the following ages do you think it is appropriate to start playing tackle
football?
a. 6 – 10 years old
b. 11-14 years old
c. 15 years old or older
 29

14. How many times per day do you visit football-related media, such as websites, podcasts,
television shows such as Sportscenter or other sports media?
a. Never visit football-related sports media
b. 1 – 5 times per day
c. 6 – 10 times per day
d. 11 – 15 times per day
e. 16 times or more per day

15. Have you heard of the Heads Up Football Program?

a. Yes
b. No

16. If you answered yes to having heard about the program, do you think this program would
make tackle football safer? Yes or no

Open Ended Question

17. If yes, you have heard of the program, how did you hear about it?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Demographic Questions

18. Are you a student at the University of Alabama?

a. Yes
b. No

19. What year were you born?

____________

20. Sex
a. Male
b. Female
c. prefer not to answer
 30

21. What state do you consider to be your home state?

(drop-down menu)

Experiment

We are creating a public relations experiment to test the recall of a video message that is

aiming to create a stronger relationship between Heads Up Football and its publics. We will see

which form of message delivery will be more effective in relaying Heads Up Football’s message

and create awareness. The aim of the message is not simply to generate sales or measure

impressions, as an advertising experiment might. Its goal is to find a message that sticks and has

the potential to raise awareness of the Heads Up Football organization.

The independent variable we intend to manipulate is the delivery of the message relaying

the facts about Heads Up Football. We will test two different video messages with the same

script, relaying facts about the Heads Up Football program. One video will show an athlete that

was severely affected by a head injury while playing football, and show him stating facts on the

program. The other video will show an athlete with a positive history in the sport of tackle

football state facts about the program. We are trying to influence the cognitive variable, by

seeing how the context of the speaker (either negative or positive) will affect how much viewers

retain/know about Heads Up Football going forward. We are testing this in order to find out

which approach is the most effective in raising awareness for the Heads Up Football program.
 31

Our research has shown that many people in the demographic group we have studied are not

even aware that this program exists, so testing how to best achieve wider awareness is essential.

The dependent variable we intend to observe and measure is the participant’s recall of the

Head’s Up Football Program. By observing which message delivery inspires the best recall of

information about Heads Up Football, we can make recommendations on which type of

messages will be best to raise awareness.

The independent and dependent variable are related because the way in which a message

is delivered can affect viewers’ recall of the facts presented. We believe that the context and

delivery with which the facts are stated can change how much audiences are likely to remember

from a certain message. The publics that Heads Up Football want to reach and increase

awareness among will be most affected by a certain type of message delivery, and we are going

to test for the most effective kind.

The dependent variable will be observed and measured as researchers will contact the

participants one day after exposure, and ask them to state what they recall from the video after

viewing. The video that the most participants recall the most copy points from will be declared

the more “effective” message in raising awareness for Heads Up Football.

We want to recruit respondents that are college students from ages 18-25 who plan on

having children in the next 10 years. This population is relevant because they will be the next

generation to have children. Therefore, it is important to find out how best to raise awareness of

this program among their age group, as they will be the group most likely to make the decision to

put their children in tackle football in the near future. We will recruit subjects by setting up a
 32

portable lab. We will hire a research team to set this lab up at tailgates throughout college

football season at popular games all over the United States. The team will invite respondents to

participate, step into the lab, and watch the video message. The respondents will be assigned in

an alternating fashion to view either the video of a healthy and successful player as opposed to

an injured one. The team will travel to 20 universities and sample 100 students at each one, 50

males and 50 females. The total sample size will be 2,000 students, with 1,000 males and 1,000

females.

The experiment’s anticipated results are going to help the client decide how best to share

Heads Up Football’s message. This will help Heads Up Football achieve the communication goal

of raising awareness about its program among future parents. In terms of business goals, finding

an effective way to raise awareness may help boost future participation in the program.
 33

APPENDIX

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2018/08/31/why-high-school-football-is-dying-a-slow-de

ath-its-not-just-concussions/#5ae970257540

https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/2018/09/03/safety-concerns-drop-youth-football-partici

pation-us-colorado/1134593002/

https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/kids-sports-participation-rates

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4784630/

https://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/coaching-education-programs-for-high-school-and-yo

uth-coaches