Wednesday was a huge day for high school football players to decide on their college football futures. But, for John Castello, a tight end at Mars High School in Pennsylvania, there was more than just his scholarship offers on his mind on National Signing Day.
Castello had received about a dozen scholarship offers from FCS schools. However, on Wednesday, instead of accepting a scholarship, he announced that he wasn’t going to play college football because of health concerns.
Video: WPIAL football star turns down scholarship offers, citing concussion concerns https://t.co/Y9ktUQHYh8 pic.twitter.com/2uKBLwjfSO
— WTAE-TV Pittsburgh (@WTAE) February 2, 2016
According to WTAE-TV, Castello made his decision to walk away from the game after seeing the film Concussion, starring Will Smith, that examined the impact of concussions on NFL players. Smith played Dr. Bennet Omalu, whose findings were the basis of the movie.
Castello told WTAE-TV, “With what he discovered and what I saw with his interviews, I was very taken aback by it. And I just decided I don’t want to go through life in pain and thinking maybe I won’t have the best memory later on.”
According to the story, Castello will now focus on playing college basketball. He reportedly has partial scholarship offers from Shippensburg University and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.
Mars senior John Castello went over 1,000 career rebounds tonight. Needs only 5 pts to become school all time leading scorer. Impressive
— Mike White (@mwhiteburgh) February 3, 2016
You can listen to Castello talk about his decision next Thursday on the High School Football America Radio show.
