The 2017 USA Football National Conference wrapped up last month in Orlando, Fla., and the three-day event saw leaders from across the sport come together to help grow football and move the game forward.

Part of that dialogue centered on addressing problems that the sport faces, and how stakeholders from all levels of football can come together to overcome them.

According to USA Football CEO Scott Hallenbeck, one of the big challenges football is encountering is early sports specialization.

In an interview shortly after the conference, Hallenbeck said that young athletes focusing strictly on one sport—at the expense of trying other sports—is damaging to all sports, not just football.

“Every sport today is a travel team, elite, tournament-style program except football,” Hallenbeck said. “(Other coaches) are telling (athletes) 'Hey, if you want to make that U-11 team or that U-13 team...you can't play spring ball, you can't do your conditioning work in football’...it's a really interesting dynamic.”

Hallenbeck described the “travel team” culture pervasive in other youth sports, wherein athletes are pressured into playing one sport year-round, while other athletes on the opposite end of the spectrum opt out of sports altogether.

That year-round, singular sport dynamic may lead to burnout and overuse injuries.

“It’s the biggest challenge across sports, especially at the high school level,” said Hallenbeck, citing a statistic that 70-percent of youth drop out of sports by age 13.

Hallenbeck acknowledged that the effort to encourage athletes to play multiple sports does not come at the expense of the pursuit of making the sport better and safer

“We still have to address concussions, and we’re doing that through contact rules and practices guidelines,” he said.