I really don’t need medical proof that getting your head banged around for years causes damage. Football actually reminds me of the Romans sitting around their coliseum watching people fight to the death. I can’t help but notice that no other country really plays football. Hubby and I had no issue early on saying no football for our son.
I wish we could focus on this and domestic abuse within the ranks instead of all this other stuff.
“I can’t help but notice that no other country really plays football.”
The rest of the world plays football -the real football. We just call it soccer. 
The relationship between hitting your head, over and over again and a high chance of a negative outcome should be clear to any reasonable person. Having a discussion as to whether or not it’s okay to let (no - ENCOURAGE) your kid abuse their bodies in this manner while sitting on the sidelines cheering is truly barbaric.
This
DS was of the build which made the HS football coaches very interested. I would no sooner have let him play football than I would have let him play ball kickball in traffic.
From Tom Brady’s wife:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/17/sport/gisele-bundchen-tom-brady-concussion/index.html
She accidentally spoke the truth. A search on the response to her comments by the NFL and those who depend on the sport for their livelihood is very telling.
Sorry, this one is a no-brainer. 8-|
pun intended?
It’s always been obvious that football is risky–probably less risky than boxing, and more risky than most other major sports (well, I don’t know about hockey). This new info about brain injuries is just giving us more information about just how risky it might be. The issue is how much risk we’re willing to let high school students absorb.
There’s something off in watching people intentionally hurt each other - whether it’s boxing or football. I always cringed at either and never watched football or boxing. I never liked the Rocky movies because of this (except for the song).
I grew up playing football, hockey and one season of lacrosse. Took many hits over the years and broke a few bones in the process. The only concussion I ever had was actually from a baseball game. Made a diving catch and hit my head on the ground. I remember diving for the ball, don’t really remember the rest of the game but according to the score book and my teammates I had a decent game.
I will say, kids are faster and stronger and bigger these days. Most of the kids around us that I know that have dealt with concussions are actually soccer players. Our one neighbors daughter suffered 3 in 4 years of playing in HS. She had a scholarship to play college but decided it was time to hang it up after the last one.
While all the focus seems to be on football, I actually am curious about soccer players with all the use of their heads in the game and how that measures up to football players.
We know a boy who had his 1st of many concussions at a soccer tournament, age 12. He got a sports scholarship to play soccer at an ivy but had to stop playing and be team manager after he got post-concussion syndrome from all his concussions. He had difficulty finishing college due to the post concussion syndrome and I’m not sure whether he’s been able to hold and keep a job.
His dad told our kids they’d never make the soccer traveling team because they refused to do headers. That was fine with the kids and us as parents.
It will take a lot of hard evidence for football fanatics to abandon their devotion to the sport. I wonder what will happen if insurance companies stop covering high schools for their programs if an incontrovertible link between playing football and sustaining long-term brain damage is found.
I already don’t think the risk/reward ratio of youth football is worth it. There are so many other sports out there that cultivate excellence in athleticism, physical fitness, teamwork and camaraderie without the downsides of football.
I wonder if football will gradually become something like MMA: a spectacle that some people like to watch, but don’t actually imagine themselves or their own kids doing.
I have mixed feelings about football. It is one event we attend with my folks because at 92, dad still enjoys watching our local U play. I always dread seeing folks inevitably injured during the course of the game. If dad stops wanting to attend, we will stop going in a heartbeat.
I did play flag football through middle school and was a fair passer but our team had a very poor understanding of the game and we were very consistent, at losing.
my daughter’s boyfriend was a soccer/lacrosse player who was heavily recruited. He received his last concussion as a senior and was told he could not play on that level again. He attended a very good science magnet in Philly and is taking a gap year to regroup. It was a lot of work and focus to graduate his senior year. My daughter received a concussion a year ago. She was doing a turning sequence en pointe and one of the girls on the wall was fooling around with her cell phone and it flew our of her hand and hit my daughter in the head. Must have been the perfect spot to have caused a concussion.
My brother played football through college, but he was the kicker, so no issues;) If we had sons they would not play football. Neither of his boys do, either.
If people start losing their stomach for watching men and boys get their brains hurt, football will die off. Apparently, the NFL’s viewership and fannies in the seats in the stadiums is down.
Throughout our existence, humans in large numbers have liked to watch violence. Not sure that will change. We may well replace football with something else. And on some levels in certain parts of the country, I expect football will become less popular. But from the numbers I see, there are about 1 million kids playing in high school alone. I read an article over the weekend about an 8th grade girl playing on a local middle school team. Her plans right now are to play in high school.
Here is a politifact response to a claim that NFL ratings are “way down.”
Did you know that football, soccer, and rugby all originated from the same sport?
In the 12 years that my son played soccer I can’t think of a single player receiving a concussion. I’m sure there were a few. In his 4 years of playing rugby there were many teammates with concussions, and in one game four of them sat out with concussions. It’s a rough sport.
The ratings have been dropping. Last year too. Per CNN.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/20/media/nfl-tv-ratings-week-2/index.html
Can’t link to all the head trauma caused by …cheerleading.
At least football has a big push to improve safety in helmets etc. (and it’s pretty amazing actually).
But the girls? On the sidelines with pom-poms? Not so much.
I don’t see helmets in pink.
According to a 2013 Washington Post article, cheerleading was the cause of more than half of the “catastrophic injuries to female athletes. This includes skull fractures, cervical spine injuries, brain injury or concussions, paralysis, and death.Oct 23, 2015
Cheerleading: A Major Cause of Brain Injuries | HuffPost
www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-lyman/cheerleading-a-major-caus_b_8362102.html
Almost every year I get to watch teams get ready for cheer leading competition. No way would I have ever allowed such dangerous activity by my kid. And it extends to VERY young girls.
Just found out a HS senior I know suffered a concussion playing football. He is now able to attend school only four hours a day. Of course, I heard about this from the parent, not the school. Schools only highlight the wins, but that episode (among others) has caused many parents to reconsider their child’s participation in risky sports.
From the CNN article you linked:
TV ratings are down quite a bit in general, are they not?
Other countries play rugby, which may be just as dangerous as football. Rugby seems to have a higher incidence of spinal injuries.