In Defense of Football — assess the risks, optimize the benefits, and understand concussion prevention and management, from Dr. Nick Schmidlkofer, DC, DACNB.
In Defense of Football — assess the risks, optimize the benefits, and understand concussion prevention and management, from Dr. Nick Schmidlkofer, DC, DACNB.
Football is the ultimate team sport. It teaches kids time management, work ethic, mental and physical toughness, delayed gratification, and integrity — along with the social skills that come from communication, cooperation, and servant leadership. I believe it does this better than any other sport.
I also know the risks are real. Concussion rates in football are higher than in most contact sports, and the long-term questions around repetitive head impacts deserve honest answers, not headlines. As a doctor who treats these injuries and a coach who stands on the sideline, I've seen both sides up close.
This book — and this site — exist to help parents, coaches, and clinicians weigh that risk clearly, and to make sure every child who wants to play still gets the chance. Read more on the blog, or get in touch.
Warmly,
— Prep Sports Weekly
— Youth Coaching Review
— Sideline Health Journal
— Parent & Athlete Magazine
— Wisconsin Prep Report
— The Team Physician's Digest
Hardcover
Dr. Nick is a Chiropractic Neurologist who assesses and treats conditions of the nervous system through neurological rehabilitation. Working from the principles of Functional Neurology, he evaluates how a patient's brain responds to external stimuli, then builds and adjusts an individualized treatment plan using strategies like vestibular rehab, vision therapy, eye movement exercises, physical rehab, electrical stimulation, red light therapy, and manual therapy — alongside nutrition and lifestyle changes.
His patients include people managing concussion and post-concussion syndrome, traumatic brain injury, stroke, dysautonomia, dizziness and vertigo, headaches, mood disorders, memory loss, neurodegeneration, and post-infectious complications. He considers it a privilege to help patients find their way back to healthy, active lives.
Off the clock, Dr. Nick — known to his players as Coach Schmeed — is an assistant football coach for the varsity team in Muskego, Wisconsin, where he played tackle football from age seven through his senior year. He started coaching at his alma mater as a college freshman and hasn't stopped since, helping student-athletes build the same skills he learned on the field: work ethic, toughness, and leadership.
In Defense of Football is his first book — written to give parents, coaches, and clinicians a single, evidence-based resource for understanding the sport's real risks, its lasting benefits, and how to prevent and manage the injuries that worry families most.
