Participation by youths in early sports specialization can possibly lead to overuse type injuries and burnout. High school students are encouraged by an overzealous coach or parent to engage in some contact sports like football. This group effort can cause lifelong injury to the young athlete, which can lead to an early exit from their sport. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to determine if high school football players who specialized in football as a youth suffer more knee pain and burnout then those high school football players who did not participate. A comparison between the perceptions of students who did or did not participate was performed. Twelve high school subjects participated in this study. The study was conducted through interviews of the participants. The findings from high school football players who specialized in sports at an early age revealed that playing sports at an early could result in knee pain. In addition, playing sports early can lead to burnout. It is recommended that future researchers expand the scope of research pertaining to the perceptions of high school football players on their views of specialization in sports at an early age versus not specializing in sports at an early age. Future research should explore more areas of concern that the high school football players expressed such as elementary school on their responses such as, participating in sports early can cause a lot of pain with injuries to the knees, and experiencing pain is not good for a young player. This area should be measured by both qualitative and quantitative methods to receive different perspectives in this area.