All sports have some level of risk. I’ve got permanent knee issues due to playing softball as a kid. IIRC cheerleading has the highest rate of ER visits for kids sports - the throws and the like are dangerous, and ime parents are slightly more likely to take moderately serious injuries seriously in girls rather than the “walk it off” mentality that my parents and a lot of others have. A shotputter friend has some horrifically wild stories about near misses at their high school.
Sports have a lot of benefit for a lot of kids though, you have to draw the line somewhere. And I think tackle football is over it, I wouldn’t ban anything else that I know of, but I’d definitely support banning youth tackle football. My parents refused to let my brother or I play tackle football as kids because of the danger, I think some awareness of CTE was out there even back in the 90s.
The difference is the helmet and the pads. If football players were forced to suit up like rugby players, the injury threshold would probably be something similar. The gear makes football players think they can get hit harder while rugby players know they have to tackle in special ways or else they will hurt themselves.
I wouldn’t go as far as banning all youth football. I’d say anything before high school would be a good idea. Then scrap things like full contract practices, hitting drills, etc.
I don’t have the study but I remember reading hitting in practice caused the most long term damage. It’s not the big hits but the constant little hits that build up year after year after year
I broadly agree, but I wanted to point out the domino effect. Kids get good by playing up through the younger leagues. If they only play pickup games before High School–and I’d argue it should be even later than that–they won’t have the same level of skills for organized play going in. The quality of the talent pool will drop for college, and then the professional leagues. There is no catching up.
The quality of play will drop. Records will remain untouched. We might see bullshit like the wrong ball trick done in college or even the NFL, because players haven’t been trained to watch for it. People will become uninterested and look for other sports to watch.
I am fine with this outcome.
I think we’re already seeing it with the new players coming in. CTE issues started getting highlighted about a decade ago, and many parents decided their kids ought to play somewhere else. Those kids are now old enough to be looking at playing in college or even the NFL.
All sports have some level of risk. I’ve got permanent knee issues due to playing softball as a kid. IIRC cheerleading has the highest rate of ER visits for kids sports - the throws and the like are dangerous, and ime parents are slightly more likely to take moderately serious injuries seriously in girls rather than the “walk it off” mentality that my parents and a lot of others have. A shotputter friend has some horrifically wild stories about near misses at their high school.
Sports have a lot of benefit for a lot of kids though, you have to draw the line somewhere. And I think tackle football is over it, I wouldn’t ban anything else that I know of, but I’d definitely support banning youth tackle football. My parents refused to let my brother or I play tackle football as kids because of the danger, I think some awareness of CTE was out there even back in the 90s.
Tackle football is also suuuuper boring as a sport. I honestly don’t understand why it’s so popular.
You can literally say that about anything anyone enjoys…
Correct. I said it about American football this time because I don’t understand how it became so popular and we were talking about it.
Have you watched rugby? I don’t like tackle football either, but rugby takes tackling to a whole new transcendent level.
The difference is the helmet and the pads. If football players were forced to suit up like rugby players, the injury threshold would probably be something similar. The gear makes football players think they can get hit harder while rugby players know they have to tackle in special ways or else they will hurt themselves.
It’s almost custom built for American TV. All the stops and starts make for perfect places to put ad breaks.
I wouldn’t go as far as banning all youth football. I’d say anything before high school would be a good idea. Then scrap things like full contract practices, hitting drills, etc.
I don’t have the study but I remember reading hitting in practice caused the most long term damage. It’s not the big hits but the constant little hits that build up year after year after year
I broadly agree, but I wanted to point out the domino effect. Kids get good by playing up through the younger leagues. If they only play pickup games before High School–and I’d argue it should be even later than that–they won’t have the same level of skills for organized play going in. The quality of the talent pool will drop for college, and then the professional leagues. There is no catching up.
The quality of play will drop. Records will remain untouched. We might see bullshit like the wrong ball trick done in college or even the NFL, because players haven’t been trained to watch for it. People will become uninterested and look for other sports to watch.
I am fine with this outcome.
I think we’re already seeing it with the new players coming in. CTE issues started getting highlighted about a decade ago, and many parents decided their kids ought to play somewhere else. Those kids are now old enough to be looking at playing in college or even the NFL.