How about eliminating youth football and starting it at say 6th grade. The problem is, most youth football coaches are not qualified to coach young kids and very little supervisory.

Has anyone done a study on the amount of head trauma one can receive, due to reading the overload of head trauma articles written recently? I know my head hurts...

Would not be at all surprised if Youth Football would be banned in the near future. Subjecting kids as young as 6 year old, to 2 a-days, in full gear goes beyond insane. (Or nearly as insane as the NHL's drop the gloves and helmets and beat each other into submission but I digress).

Full-contact football should not occur anytime before junior high-school(7th/8th grade) and even then should be closely monitored to the amount of hitting going on.

Those wanna-be Vince Lombardi's lining the sidelines of the Youth football leagues and encouraging mere toddlers to pound the _hit out of their opponent should be brought up on criminal charges and their parents or in today's world "parent" should be charged with child endangerment then sterilized.

I started playing football when I was 10 years old and played division 1 ball in college. I'm 38 years old and I'm beat up way more than I should be at my age. Every morning is rough. I've injured just about every part of my body. Sometimes I wonder if I would do it all again given the choice to go back.

After I was finished playing, I coached at the high school and college levels for 16 years combined. The hardest part of my days as a coach was watching young kids get hurt. I tell everyone that will listen to me NOT to let their children play football until they reach the 9th grade, if they let them play at all.

Every article and story I see like this makes me wonder what I have in store down the road. Who knows how many concussions I actually had? When I played there were many instances where I and my teammates were knocked silly and couldn't remember a few plays, but you stayed in the game and "sucked it up."

If you want your son to play football, please don't let them play tackle football until they reach 9th or 10th grade. There are plenty of other activities that kids can engage in to develop skills such as coordination, speed and strength without putting pads on them and subjecting them to the collisions that occur in football.

My god, the wussification of the nation continues. People die. We all do. Kids get hurt. Toughen up America or we will be speaking Mandarin by 2020. We are a soff, womanized society brought about by litigants.

Gee, I have headaches, memory loss....I'm gonna file a law suit against my youth football and school team.
Oooops, they dont have any money. I guess that is why former NFL players are not going any further than the NFL...follow the money

Maybe if Roger Goodell was put in charge of ALL football, it would be safer? He could be in charge of fines, suspensions, and ignorance on all levels.

OR institute Bruce Arians playbook in all leagues...this would be vindication for a coach who was "retired" way before his prime...

I remember posting this very message on this blog a few months ago. Of course, I was just theorizing with no scientific basis, so it's nice to see a legitimate medical study assert the same thing.

But I'm betting that no matter how many further studies confirm these findings, not many parents will be dissuaded from pushing their future NFL'ers into peewee football. Lotta knuckleheaded parents out there with silly NFL dreams for their younguns.

They better outlaw smoking if they are going to outlaw football.

I support studying the effects of hits from sports on children. At the same time, football is a loved game and yes I believe it has saved more lives than it has taken. Look how many kids in the street tell you that they try to stay clean just to play or that it kept them from the bad influences. I feel the information should be freely given to parents both good and bad. It is up to the parents to make their own informed decision and not up to government to decide for us. That is where this seems to be leading anyways. And sure while,football leagues, i.e. peewee, midgets, etc. have a moral responsibility to take information and try to improve safety, they should not be forced to drastically alter their operations. I will never look at a parent and say they are a knucklehead for allowing their child to play ball. Besides, soccer, if I remember correctly has an even worse brain trauma record from heading which happens often at high g's. Kids have been killed playing baseball and basketball. Baseballs have caused concussions. I feel overall sports are more beneficial than harmful.

Headline might as well be "case against freedom mounting".



No one is removing the freedom from playing football. Take it easy, SteelerBob. -- BobSmizik

*t's very hard to believe that hits absored by second graders are as forceful as hits by college players. I think they need more than one study.

They better outlaw smoking if they are going to outlaw footbal

dont you remember the gov vs big tobacco? The tobacco co's pay the gov with an extra charge on a pack of smokes. Where does it end? Should every company that sells fat unhealthy food be sued?

written by SteelerBob, February 22, 2012 - 03:26 PM
Headline might as well be "case against freedom mounting".

yep. same as those silly laws that don't allow kids to drive until 16, vote until 18 and drink and smoke until 21.

If there is a legitimate case against football, than it could easily to other contact sports - hockey, lacrosse, boxing, mma, and to a lessor extent, wrestling. It would be a huge cultural change in attitudes about sports.

(This is not meant as an opinion for or against the case against football)


btw - many times when I try to post, I get a "username blocked" response. I refresh the page, reenter my message, and resubmit, and viola, it works. Weird phenomena...

Without much direction football may go the way of boxing in this country. It will become a "sport" for the "disadvantaged/underclass".

*t is disturbing when parents push small children to play a violent game. Same when coaches yell at children as if they were adult players. Kids aren't sufficiently developed physically for football and, more importantly, they're not mentally prepared for violent contact.

You have to question the wisdom and the motives of any parent forcing their kid into a situation where the child is likely to be concussed before his brain is even fully developed.

Every article and story I see like this makes me wonder what I have in store down the road. Who knows how many concussions I actually had? When I played there were many instances where I and my teammates were knocked silly and couldn't remember a few plays, but you stayed in the game and "sucked it up."

If you want your son to play football, please don't let them play tackle football until they reach 9th or 10th grade. There are plenty of other activities that kids can engage in to develop skills such as coordination, speed and strength without putting pads on them and subjecting them to the collisions that occur in football.

I have previously stated on another blog that I will not let my boys play football and that they keep busy with other sports (baseball, basketball, golf, cross-country).

For the critics of Pee-Wee Football, I personally feel Pee-Wee is safer that Junior High or 9-th grade football. This is because the weight restrictions disappear and youths develop and mature at vastly different rates.

I made a decision for my boys that they will not be playing football. My concern stems from the disparity in size between kids of the same age. I also see the game played at higher levels by stronger, faster players, meaning the hits come harder, thus increasing the risk of serious injury. I don't want my boys to be adversely affected the rest of their lives because of a 'game'. It has nothing to do with 'wussification', as some have suggested above. It's good stewardship of my kids, with whom I have been entrusted as their parent. I care about them and their future health, and for a voluntary recreational activity to have so much potential to ruin them physically before they're out of elementary or high school is not worth it.

As a former football coach, I'm probaly bias when it comes to the safety of players. If you really are concerned with the safety of your family, you should NOT OWN A CAR. Or, more precisely, not drive the car (since a parked car presents considerably less risk than one being driven, although someone crashed into my car parked in a cul-de-sac at 1 am a few years ago...). But, presuming that a parent can really eliminate all risks to others around him is folly. Every activity has an injury risk associated with it. Football is still lower than many daily activities that you take for granted. Life lived afraid of the various 'boogymen' out there is childish. Live life to the fullest and trust God for the results.

written by dudley01, February 23, 2012 - 08:01 AM
As a former football coach, I'm probaly bias when it comes to the safety of players. If you really are concerned with the safety of your family, you should NOT OWN A CAR. Or, more precisely, not drive the car (since a parked car presents considerably less risk than one being driven, although someone crashed into my car parked in a cul-de-sac at 1 am a few years ago...). But, presuming that a parent can really eliminate all risks to others around him is folly. Every activity has an injury risk associated with it. Football is still lower than many daily activities that you take for granted. Life lived afraid of the various 'boogymen' out there is childish. Live life to the fullest and trust God for the results.

Aside from the unwarranted dangers associated with youth football, another reason I don't let my kids play football is so that they would not be subjected to a man of your limited mentality, Coach.

Some parents may push their kids into football, but there are also parents who do the opposite. Lots of parents won't let kids play. Even some parents who played football themselves won't let their kids play.

Some parents may push their kids into football, but there are also parents who do the opposite. Lots of parents won't let kids play. Even some parents who played football themselves won't let their kids play.

Since this is a family show;

(insert)

...what Reg Dunlop said to the female owner of the Chiefs, in regards to his prediction for her son's future endeavors, just before storming out on her...lol

(here)