NYT article on CTE in kids who play football

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe that people can still watch professional football knowing what we know now, let alone letting their children play.

I agree. Other sports have concussion risks too: rugby, soccer, etc.

Millions of people grow up watching these things. It's like a cult: people are attracted to matches because they offer opportunities to socialize and party with their friends and relatives. The feeling you get when your team wins and you celebrate with your friends can't be replaced with anything else. It's like an addiction. The commercial sports industry exploits those emotions and pays such large salaries to players that every generation, thousands of little athletes dream of making it into the big leagues, and the money, women and fan adulation that comes with it. The small matter of later-life dementia and misery does not weigh in the balance.

- European who grew up around die-hard soccer fans. The crazy is real.

All supported by the travel sport industry, the NCAA, colleges and unis and of course, parents. All to benefit the people who make all the money from sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do parents still let their kids play tackle football these days? They're finding kids in their teens now with CTE:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/16/us/cte-youth-football.html

Im just trying to understand what calculus parents would ever be able to use to come to conclusion that yeah, it's ok for my kid to play a sport where they can risk permanent brain damage for the rest of their lives, even if they're only playing for a few years.

No, no parents anywhere in the entire world still allow their kids to play tackle football.

CTE has really only begun getting attention in the last half dozen years or so after the tragic deaths of some major players. It will be interesting to see if numbers of players drop over the next decade, and whether that is impacted at all by education level, socioeconomic status or region of the country or other factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do parents still let their kids play tackle football these days? They're finding kids in their teens now with CTE:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/16/us/cte-youth-football.html

Im just trying to understand what calculus parents would ever be able to use to come to conclusion that yeah, it's ok for my kid to play a sport where they can risk permanent brain damage for the rest of their lives, even if they're only playing for a few years.

No, no parents anywhere in the entire world still allow their kids to play tackle football.

CTE has really only begun getting attention in the last half dozen years or so after the tragic deaths of some major players. It will be interesting to see if numbers of players drop over the next decade, and whether that is impacted at all by education level, socioeconomic status or region of the country or other factors.

Of course it is. Football clearly exploits minorities for lower educational and socioeconomic backgrounds; throws tons of money at them so the rest of the country can watch them smash their heads for entertainment. Being a star football player is the ultimate golden ticket, forget education and doing well in school. Many parents push success in athletics over school.

[Anonymous]

My son is an 8th grader in FCPS. Next year he will be going to a large FCPS high school. He loves sports but isn't a super star. The only no-cut sport at the high school he will go to is football.

He keeps begging to play football because he wants to be on a school team and play a sport for his high school. I wish FCPS would get rid of the freshman football team that they have to beg for players for and add boys volleyball, or freshman soccer, or something else.

I keep saying no because I care about his brain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe that people can still watch professional football knowing what we know now, let alone letting their children play.

Same. It’s disgusting. My kid asked to play and I said no. Just like I said to other risky things he wants to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would love to read it but I don't have a NYT subscription.

It covers multiple families who had sons that played football but ended up committing suicide in their early 20s or younger. The one video clip of the boy is haunting. He makes a video for his parents and describes demons in his head before he shoots himself in the chest. In the video, he tells his parents to send his brain for science because he thinks he has cte. Yes, they study his brain and find CTE, and he was only a teenager who hadn’t played more advanced football beyond high school level. The other results from those that died showed up advanced CTE up to stage 2 (out of 4). If you remember Aaron Hernandez (ex-pats player who committed murder and died by suicide) the doc who studied his brain said it was the worst she’d ever seen at such a young age (27) and he was graded with stage 3 cte. These are kids in high school with CTE one notch below Hernandez.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is an 8th grader in FCPS. Next year he will be going to a large FCPS high school. He loves sports but isn't a super star. The only no-cut sport at the high school he will go to is football.

He keeps begging to play football because he wants to be on a school team and play a sport for his high school. I wish FCPS would get rid of the freshman football team that they have to beg for players for and add boys volleyball, or freshman soccer, or something else.

I keep saying no because I care about his brain.

Having a freshman football team is important for development. Boys typically (not always) go through puberty/growth at the end of middle school/early high school. It's not great to throw these smaller boys (freshmen) in with the "big boys" (juniors and seniors) in such a physical game. A previous poster alluded to the need for players to learn to tackle against other players their size and they were right.
As far as freshman teams in other sports, that came up on a different thread a few weeks ago. To have a team, you have to have other teams to play against. Take a look at the other teams your kid's future high school plays against-not all of them are in FCPS, right? So it's not just FCPS that would have to get a freshman team, but other local school districts as well...who in turn would have to get all the teams from other districts to get freshman teams....etc. Basically all of VHSL would have to be onboard with the freshman teams.

[Anonymous]

I have heard various justifications from parents who let their kids play. They don't move to tackle until middle school or high school. The rules and equipment protect them much better now. Their kid doesn't play a position where the constant head trauma is common.

I don't know. I have a son and I'm relieved he has no interest. I have empathy for these parents. It's a tough age and I believe football teams provide some kids who might otherwise struggle a place to belong and a positive experience in the moment. So to forgo that known positive for a potential negative is a tough decision to make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would love to read it but I don't have a NYT subscription.

It covers multiple families who had sons that played football but ended up committing suicide in their early 20s or younger. The one video clip of the boy is haunting. He makes a video for his parents and describes demons in his head before he shoots himself in the chest. In the video, he tells his parents to send his brain for science because he thinks he has cte. Yes, they study his brain and find CTE, and he was only a teenager who hadn’t played more advanced football beyond high school level. The other results from those that died showed up advanced CTE up to stage 2 (out of 4). If you remember Aaron Hernandez (ex-pats player who committed murder and died by suicide) the doc who studied his brain said it was the worst she’d ever seen at such a young age (27) and he was graded with stage 3 cte. These are kids in high school with CTE one notch below Hernandez.

But football isn't the only sport where that's a factor.
A little over a year ago, there was a Virginia HS LAX player that tried to take his own life, and his parents have questioned if the concussions were a factor.
https://www.fauquier.com/news/article_d6e18b20-71a4-11ed-870a-b706aa3f03b5.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would love to read it but I don't have a NYT subscription.

It covers multiple families who had sons that played football but ended up committing suicide in their early 20s or younger. The one video clip of the boy is haunting. He makes a video for his parents and describes demons in his head before he shoots himself in the chest. In the video, he tells his parents to send his brain for science because he thinks he has cte. Yes, they study his brain and find CTE, and he was only a teenager who hadn’t played more advanced football beyond high school level. The other results from those that died showed up advanced CTE up to stage 2 (out of 4). If you remember Aaron Hernandez (ex-pats player who committed murder and died by suicide) the doc who studied his brain said it was the worst she’d ever seen at such a young age (27) and he was graded with stage 3 cte. These are kids in high school with CTE one notch below Hernandez.

But football isn't the only sport where that's a factor.
A little over a year ago, there was a Virginia HS LAX player that tried to take his own life, and his parents have questioned if the concussions were a factor.
https://www.fauquier.com/news/article_d6e18b20-71a4-11ed-870a-b706aa3f03b5.html

No crap, it’s contact sports and sports that jar the brain in general. Yes, you can get cte playing soccer, rugby, ice hockey, etc. But football defenders are using crappy whataboutisms arguments. The levels of and prevalence of cte they’re finding in football players is many fold worse than for sports like soccer. The whole point of football is to induce collisions. This happens many thousands of times over the course of years as kids play the sport, because they’re getting hit all practice long and during games. They’re literally developing dementia pugilistica, yet parents have no problems signing up their 6 year olds for it.

[Anonymous]

Tell me on what sane planet a sport like this is good for kids:

You can argue about team sport involvement and physical activity all you want, but the above is what you don’t see that occurs constantly during practices all the time even to this day. The clip at 1:15 n the video is horrifying.

Plenty of other sports like swimming, track, golf, baseball, basketball, tennis, etc. exist.

[Anonymous]

My 10 year old son loves football but so far he’s only played flag football. His father and older cousins played HS football so my son really has the bug. I read the article and shared it with my husband as I don’t want our son to play tackle football…..period. In a year or two I’m sure this will be a big conflict in our marriage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me on what sane planet a sport like this is good for kids:

You can argue about team sport involvement and physical activity all you want, but the above is what you don’t see that occurs constantly during practices all the time even to this day. The clip at 1:15 n the video is horrifying.

Plenty of other sports like swimming, track, golf, baseball, basketball, tennis, etc. exist.

I wont let my son play tackle football but he literally is only interested in high contact sports. He wants to wrestle and play rugby, soccer, and football. We have him enrolled in swimming, we have done basketball and tennis but no real interest from it. And the thing is - he is good at the sports he likes, thats why he likes them. He wants to score. We didnt encourage that and we arent a hoo-rah family- he wants to be on a team and he wants to score. He does not like individual events so far. The exception is wrestling but he is basically a domesticated honey badger so that fits. While wrestling, soccer, and rugby are higher concussive events they dont have the collision aspect that football does so we have let him know that he will not be allowed to play tackle football.

The decision for football for me is cut and dry because of the repetitive and cumulative sub concussive events illuminated in the article but I am conflicted about other contact sports as well. I think this can be an easier decision for parents with kids who arent into sports, or are into individual sports, or have less interest in contact sports. With that said, most parents assume that it wont happen to their kid.

[Anonymous]

It is crazy to me how young these kids are getting brain damage. Like well, well before they go pro they are so damaged. These sports are killing our kids and some parents are still clamoring to enroll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would love to read it but I don't have a NYT subscription.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/16/us/cte-youth-football.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Bk0.fm1K.tdqYmuf-zP7p&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare