As concussions worry parents, NFL blitzes into Happy Meals

The bullying, the brain injuries, the bloodshed - the reasons parents may be redirecting their sports-crazy kids away from football. Evidence of the concern: the country’s largest youth football league, Pop Warner, has seen participation fall by 10 percent in the past two years.
 
This fall-off among future players and fans has led the National Football League and McDonald’s to team up for an end-run around parents, and to lob a Hail Mary in a Happy Meal directly at children, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
 
The burger-and-fries chain is offering toy football figures, based on the Nickelodeon show “NFL Rush Zone,” in football-themed Happy Meals. Happy Meals are most popular among the 6- to 13-year-old set, which is the age group the NFL openly admits wanting to court. After all, school-age kids who watch football are “locked in for life.”

Read more from Bloomberg Businessweek.