Would (Do) you let your kids play football

[TheRealLynch51]

I'd be fine if my kid played in high school, but I would be worried if he somehow got to the next level at college or pros. I know its sort of a strange opinion, but I feel that the hits in high school don't produce head injuries. It seems to happen when the athletes get bigger and better at the next level. However, if my kid did have the skills to play next level football, how could I deprive him of the opportunity to do so? Complex stuff.

 

[woolybug25]

I'd be fine if my kid played in high school, but I would be worried if he somehow got to the next level at college or pros. I know its sort of a strange opinion, but I feel that the hits in high school don't produce head injuries. It seems to happen when the athletes get bigger and better at the next level. However, if my kid did have the skills to play next level football, how could I deprive him of the opportunity to do so? Complex stuff.

Might be a bad assumption there...

High School Football Players Face Bigger Concussion Risk | FRONTLINE

 

[Junkhead]

I wonder, if 96% of the donated NFL brains tested had CTE, what the percentage would be for non-sports people? Just as a control, is there any other thing that can randomly cause CTE? Is it ONLY head trauma related? That said, I would lean against my son playing. He is 15 now and has no interest, so moot point.

 

[Junkhead]

Might be a bad assumption there...

High School Football Players Face Bigger Concussion Risk | FRONTLINE

I would guess that more HS equipment is sub-standard than college. Might have some correlation.

 

[IrishLion]

I would guess that more HS equipment is sub-standard than college. Might have some correlation.

I bet it also has something to do with technique and expertise, as well.

250 lb athletes playing DI football fly around with a lot more speed and momentum than high school athletes, presenting a greater risk on the surface.

But, the 155 lb high school athlete needs to go to greater measures to make a big hit. I would guess that a 155 lb kids is more likely to lower his head and fly around with reckless abandon to create the "boom" than a well-coached college athlete is.

 

[TheRealLynch51]

Might be a bad assumption there...

High School Football Players Face Bigger Concussion Risk | FRONTLINE

Fair enough. I just feel that like if a kid has no real future in football, they will quit and stop playing before it can become a long term issue. I played high school ball for almost all 4 years and had about 4 concussions. I finally decided to "hang it up" after the 4th one because I only played football for fun, and "fun" isn't enough to risk brain damage for the rest of my life.

 

[goldandblue]

So some of you won't let your kids play football due to possible injury but you'll drive em down the road in a car..... I'd be willing to bet that there is greater risk of injury due to a car wreck than playing football. Anyone have the data?

 

[IrishinSyria]

So some of you won't let your kids play football due to possible injury but you'll drive em down the road in a car..... I'd be willing to bet that there is greater risk of injury due to a car wreck than playing football. Anyone have the data?

I guarantee you that this is not the case.

 

[greyhammer90]

So some of you won't let your kids play football due to possible injury but you'll drive em down the road in a car..... I'd be willing to bet that there is greater risk of injury due to a car wreck than playing football. Anyone have the data?

Even if that was the case, which I'd be willing to bet it wasn't, that's a pretty absurd statement. The point isn't risk, it's risk versus utility. Driving in a car is a physical necessity for most in America to do pretty much anything. It's an almost essential function in our society. There is very little football offers that another sport can't. Teamwork, physicality, personal drive, nutrition, etc. can be picked up in basketball/baseball/track/wrestling without the high potential for head trauma.

 

[GoldenToTheGrave]

As of right now, no.

I have two boys aged 2.5 and 6 months. I initially had no problem with the idea of them playing football but as this issue becomes more and more prevalent I back further and further away from it.

I also noticed the US Soccer Federation banning "headers" in soccer leagues for youths under 11.

I'm sure all this stuff was always around but having the stats so readily available and discussed causes more concern.

Anything can happen in any sport but as of right now I don't want them taking the chances.

I thought you had a 2.5 month old and a 6 month old, was trying to think how that could happen lol.

 

[IrishinSyria]

Driving them to non CTE producing sports? Let me rephrase the question then, will you let your 16 year old get a license and drive? What my point is, that injuries can happen in everyday life. 100's of thousands of kids play football every year.... How many actually sustain a life threatening injury or develop brain issues? With the data below, perhaps we should not allow our kids to drive until they are 20?


Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens.1 Fortunately, teen motor vehicle crashes are preventable, and proven strategies can improve the safety of young drivers on the road.

How big is the problem?
In 2013, 2,163 teens in the United States ages 16–19 were killed and 243,243 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes.1 That means that six teens ages 16–19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries.

Young people ages 15-24 represent only 14% of the U.S. population. However, they account for 30% ($19 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among males and 28% ($7 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among females.2

Top of Page

Who is most at risk?
The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among 16-19-year-olds than among any other age group. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are nearly three times more likely than drivers aged 20 and older to be in a fatal crash.3

Among teen drivers, those at especially high risk for motor vehicle crashes are:

Males: In 2013, the motor vehicle death rate for male drivers and passengers ages 16 to 19 was almost two times that of their female counterparts.1
Teens driving with teen passengers: The presence of teen passengers increases the crash risk of unsupervised teen drivers. This risk increases with the number of teen passengers.4,5
Newly licensed teens: Crash risk is particularly high during the first months of licensure.6,7

All that data shows is that it's more dangerous for teens to drive than it is for older people to drive. When you look at accidents per mile (or hour) driven, it's still incredibly safe....and like others have pointed out, there's a ton of utility to driving and you've got to learn sooner or later to function in society. There's no evidence that it's safer to learn how to drive later in life.

so if there's about 20 deaths per billion miles driven in the general population, there's 60 deaths per billion miles driven amongst teens. I'm willing to bet about 60% of those are alcohol related, so the risk of driving is incredibly low.

On the other side of scale, there's good evidence coming out that the risk of incurring TBI or CTE through football might be much much higher than we think: maybe even a near certainty if you play the game long enough.

In September 2015, researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University announced that they had identified CTE in 96 percent of NFL players that they had examined and in 79 percent of all football players.

e. That being said, I also think it matters what position is being played. Repetitive head injuries are much less of a concern for WRs or QBs. It's playing line that I would be 100% against... not only do those guys bash heads every single play, they're also encouraged to put on way more weight than is healthy. One of the main benefits of getting kids to play sports is that it's generally healthy.

 

[no.1IrishFan]

I say no. There are enough local middle/high school football players that come thru my unit with head/neck injuries to scare me away from letting my son play when he's older.

 

[phork]

Head and neck injuries are a symptom of improper technique taught at probably various levels. When we start to make sure these coaches are given the proper training and make them accountable then things will start to change going up the ladder.

I would temper my "yes I would let them play" vote to say that I would need to be confident in the coaches abilities. What are his credentials, what camps and training conferences has he attended. All of these tell me how invested he is in the game, as opposed to winning at all costs.

I think what you might see going forward is the implementation of no contact under the age of 13 (or pick your age) and instead football will start as flag leagues. There is nothing wrong with this because it helps develop the skills needed to move up, it is detrimental to the O/D Lines however.

 

[kmoose]

There is very little football offers that another sport can't. Teamwork, physicality, personal drive, nutrition, etc. can be picked up in basketball/baseball/track/wrestling without the high potential for head trauma.

But here's the problem with that:

I don't know if playing youth football can cause real problems with a child's brain or not. But neither does anyone else. All of the studies that the CTE data comes from, have studied the brains of people who spent probably 15+ years playing an increasingly violent form of football. That's not definitive proof that playing for 3 or 4 years as a child does anything significant. I mean, this is akin to studying the livers of alcoholics and determining that alcohol damages your liver. Well, in excess, of course it does. But having the occasional glass of wine does NOT significantly impair your liver. We just don't know if that is true about football and head injuries yet. I can respect if people want to show an abundance of caution and hold their kids out of football totally. But I also see where some people would equate it to some of the more mundane things we do that can be dangerous.

 

[dublinirish]

I'd definitely let my kids play provided i had confidence in the coach's supervising them that they were teaching the proper techniques to enable them to play safely. If i saw a coach acting like an asshole i wouldn't hesitate to pull my kids though

 

[IrishinSyria]

Does anyone else agree that it might depend on what positions the kid was going to be asked to play?

 

[ginman]

I hear many people saying it is safer with younger kids because the impacts are less violent. While this may be true, the brain is also much more vulnerable and still developing. Good technique can't prevent the head to ground collisions.
While I don't want to have a bubble child, I also want to assist them in making long-term good decisions that will protect their future. That said, I would have been pissed as a kid if my parents didn't let me play football and hockey.

 

[RDU Irish]

Might be a bad assumption there...

High School Football Players Face Bigger Concussion Risk | FRONTLINE

Based on the scale of that graph, I would think you would be averse to pretty much any sport if this is enough to drive you away from football. I still think soccer is ridiculous with the headers - probably more repeated collisions for those players than most football players - especially when you consider the folks playing year round in multiple leagues so their kid is playing twice a day every single day of the year. No other sport is actively TRYING to bop your head.

My son talks about wanting to play but he is small. Makes no sense to throw your kid out there if he is going to literally weigh half as much as some of the other kids out there. If I thought he had legendary athleticism I would probably promote it but for a kid of average athleticism and below average size... we will stick to baseball.

He has been playing soccer and I hate the sport, but he is out there having fun with his buddies. We encourage him not to do headers but accept he will at times.

 

[ND NYC]

in that chart...wonder why womens hoops has twice the amount of head injuries than mens?

 

[RDU Irish]

in that chart...wonder why womens hoops has twice the amount of head injuries than mens?

They have hands like feet. My sister was constantly breaking her fingers in high school b/c, to put it kindly, her hands were unreliable.

 

[Irish#1]

As posted earlier, we really don't know how much safer it is today with the equipment, coaching and protocols implemented in the last few years. It will take a few years to have a better idea.

One thing that bothers me, is the NFL's unwillingness to let someone help them fix the problem. Bill Simpson is a pioneer in racing safety and is responsible for many of the safety innovations used today, including better helmets. He has a football helmet he designed that testing shows reduces the chances of concussions. Some HS's are using it and he may have some colleges using it. The NFL won't give him the time of day. I don't know if this is because other helmet manufactures are pressuring the NFL to keep him out or if he just doesn't have the kind of money the NFL requires you to donate to be a sponsor. If his helmets were to be adopted by the NFL, I have to believe it would have a trickle down effect.

 

[phork]

I hear many people saying it is safer with younger kids because the impacts are less violent. While this may be true, the brain is also much more vulnerable and still developing. Good technique can't prevent the head to ground collisions.
While I don't want to have a bubble child, I also want to assist them in making long-term good decisions that will protect their future. That said, I would have been pissed as a kid if my parents didn't let me play football and hockey.

The bolded is true of any sport though. I would even go so far as to say that hockey might be more dangerous with the ice and boards to deal with.

 

[woolybug25]

in that chart...wonder why womens hoops has twice the amount of head injuries than mens?

You ever watch a game of women's basketball?

 

[RDU Irish]

As posted earlier, we really don't know how much safer it is today with the equipment, coaching and protocols implemented in the last few years. It will take a few years to have a better idea.

One thing that bothers me, is the NFL's unwillingness to let someone help them fix the problem. Bill Simpson is a pioneer in racing safety and is responsible for many of the safety innovations used today, including better helmets. He has a football helmet he designed that testing shows reduces the chances of concussions. Some HS's are using it and he may have some colleges using it. The NFL won't give him the time of day. I don't know if this is because other helmet manufactures are pressuring the NFL to keep him out or if he just doesn't have the kind of money the NFL requires you to donate to be a sponsor. If his helmets were to be adopted by the NFL, I have to believe it would have a trickle down effect.

Woody Harrelson, 'Saturday Night Live' mock new football rules, tackling - CBSSports.com

This report looks like they have looked into it.

 

[ryno 24]

I would absolutely let my child/children play football. If you let your child play any sport there is a chance of injury. Second, while there are head injuries the majority of them happen in the NFL and college levels. At the high school level there are not very many violent tackles. However I probably would not have them start until seventh or eight grade.

Football also teaches toughness and discipline unlike any other sport.
I would also try and teach my kids to wrestle and do martial arts.

These are good for discipline and skill.

 

[PANDFAN]

all three of my boys play youth football ages 7,8,9

they have so much better equipment than i had growing up...they are actually fitted for the right helmet and not a one size fits all one we had....the actually do like in the pro's with getting conditioned w/ no pads in summer for several practices, then just helmet and shoulder pads and then the full uniform.....they have very limited contact in practice as "live reps" compared to what i have had in the past

 

[Irish Insanity]

Does anyone else agree that it might depend on what positions the kid was going to be asked to play?

Yes

 

[pkt77242]

Does anyone else agree that it might depend on what positions the kid was going to be asked to play?

My wife agrees. She says if the kids are going to play K or P then should we be ok with it.

 

[phork]

My wife agrees. She says if the kids are going to play K or P then should we be ok with it.

Kickers and Punters deal with a whole other sort of brain injury. The shank or fumbled snap costing teams their game. Most become emotionally devasted and depressed by the time they are 21.

 

[IrishLax]

In my opinion, it's simply a question of acceptable risk. As alluded to in this thread, soccer has a concussion problem and a CTE problem (mainly for professionals with long careers) that rivals football and that no one really talks about. It comes from the repeated "minor" head trauma from headers. And occasionally, it comes from a "major" trauma from a collision.

If nothing changes in soccer AND equipment continues to improve in the football, there will come a time where -- from a strictly head injury standpoint -- football is safer than soccer. We might already be there if some of the recent prototyping and testing on helmet/mouthguard technology hits its mark.

So why does no one talk about if they will "let" their kids play soccer?

I see it as a personal decision. I will let my kids play whatever sport they want, provided that it involves pads, helmets, and 3' metal poles that you get to whack each other with. I guess I'm just open minded like that.