HOOVER, Ala. -- It wasn't too long ago -- three years to be exact -- when Alabama coach Nick Saban was criticizing the proposed "10-second rule" at SEC Media Days as a potential health hazard to players who needed to get off the field.

Wednesday morning during his 2017 appearance at the annual preseason event, player safety again became a hot topic. When asked if he thought that kids should play football due to the risk of injuries, Saban defended a sport he feels has a target on its back.

"We're all working very hard on for player safety so that we don't have issues," he said in one of the smaller interview sessions at The Wynfrey Hotel. "But I think it's a little unfair in some ways to football when there's other sports that you never talk about that people seem to be totally fine with that actually have just as many or more issues when it comes to concussions and injuries as football does. But we always talk about the issues that we have in football."

According to a study published in March by HealthDay that examined 41,000 high school sports injuries between 2005 and 2015 -- including 6,400 concussions -- women's soccer had a slightly higher concussion rate than football during the final final six years of the study. The sports studied included football, soccer, baseball, wrestling, softball, volleyball and basketball.

But football's concussion risk is well-chronicled. A 2015 study shows that ex-NFL players who started playing tackle football before age 12 ran a greater risk of altered brain development than those who started the sport later in life. 

Thirty former NFL players, including Randy Cross and Shawn Springs, announced at this year's Super Bowl that they will donate their brains for research.

Saban went on to say that player safety in football is something that he's always focused on.

"I've been on many committees, and probably the most enjoyable evening I've had was with a traveling group of 12 neurosurgeons this year at dinner," he said. "I had the opportunity to talk with them about things that we can do to enhance players safety. I think we're all working really hard at that."

One of the most recent advancements in player safety was the abolishment of two-a-day contact practices in college football, which was announced in April. The SEC and Big Ten instituted a program in 2015 that placed independent observers in press boxes at games who monitor players for head injuries in real time.

Saban closed his answer by praising the positives of what football does for young people.

"It's a great team game," he said. "There are a lot of lessons to be learned in any athletic competition, but football -- because of the number of participants and number of people who can contribute -- is phenomenal. It was really good for me growing up to develop some of the attributes that it takes to be successful, whether it was commitment, hard work, perseverance, ability to overcome adversity, pride in performance. Every person has to weigh the advantages and disadvantages."