Is Playing HS Football worth the Risks?

[Anonymous]

My GRANDMOTHER was an ER nurse and she said she'd see boys come in every Friday night with brain injuries. Hell to the no.

(Also said there was also always at least one woman admitted to her rural hospital at any given time having complications from a "miscarriage", i.e., illegal abortion. She had strong opinions from her experiences, my grandmother.)

[Anonymous]

My daughter plays soccer, and has gotten a concussion because of it. Her neuro says girls soccer is a hotbed of brain injury. At the same time, he supports children involved with athletics, and works to get kids back into their sports as safely as possible. (And he had a serious conversation with both of us about the risks of her continuing to play soccer, and that if she gets another concussion he'll probably say she needs to quit.)

There's risk in it. There's risk in everything. I'm aware that allowing my child to play soccer puts her at increased risk for life long injury. She's aware as well. Soccer is really important to her, and when she's had to take a break it's been incredibly difficult for her.

My knee jerk reaction is that if I had a son who wanted to play football, I wouldn't let him. I'd have him try rugby, or lacrosse, or something else. But then I look at my daughter with soccer, knowing that girls soccer is also dangerous, and I'm not sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter plays soccer, and has gotten a concussion because of it. Her neuro says girls soccer is a hotbed of brain injury. At the same time, he supports children involved with athletics, and works to get kids back into their sports as safely as possible. (And he had a serious conversation with both of us about the risks of her continuing to play soccer, and that if she gets another concussion he'll probably say she needs to quit.)

There's risk in it. There's risk in everything. I'm aware that allowing my child to play soccer puts her at increased risk for life long injury. She's aware as well. Soccer is really important to her, and when she's had to take a break it's been incredibly difficult for her.

My knee jerk reaction is that if I had a son who wanted to play football, I wouldn't let him. I'd have him try rugby, or lacrosse, or something else. But then I look at my daughter with soccer, knowing that girls soccer is also dangerous, and I'm not sure.

They will eventually outlaw heading in soccer. The use of the head will be like a handball. Just a matter of time.

[Anonymous]

Did you really not hear of anyone getting a head injury or do you just not remember?

But beyond the funny lines, I would say that there IS something different between HS football now and in the 80s.

Back then, our HS team at just about every position was a bunch of 180 pound guys who grew up on farms working all the time. Every team in our region looked pretty much like every other team.

Today, there seem to be teams who find the largest kids and teams who find the best athletes and the teams and different positions don't look the same at all. Then the fastest kids run into the largest kids, it isn't pretty.

"I played football in high school in the 1980s and I never heard of anyone having any kind of brain/head injury. Is there something different about HS football now?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I played football in high school in the 1980s and I never heard of anyone having any kind of brain/head injury. Is there something different about HS football now?

In the 80s, it was called, "getting your bell rung". You would shake it off, take some aspirin, and go back in the game. Now we recognize it as a concussion. It's not fewer brain injuries, it's better knowledge. Just look at all of the former football players from the 70s and 80s being diagnosed with CTE now.

[Anonymous]

I'm not letting my DS play tackle football. However, don't pretend that sports like lacrosse and rugby (!) don't end up in head injuries. My nephew suffered a concussion from lacrosse, exacerbated his injury with another concussion after a skiing accident, and finally, his brain was so vulnerable, he suffered a third concussion from a typical dive into the pool. It affected his entire educational career and put him behind in life. There was no football involved.

[Anonymous]

IMO, you hear more about concussions and long-term brain injuries from football, but my kid plays on a competitive travel soccer team and those kids are freakin' brutal, man. I don't want it to sound like a 'my sport is better than yours' thing, but I've seen two kids running full speed crash into each other so hard that it's audible on the sidelines. Zero pads, really, and definitely no head protection.

I've always been very scared about ice hockey in the way that other parents are scared of football. My best friend's brother when we were in HS was so good at hockey that he was recruited by private HS to come play for them on scholarship. His Jr. year he took a header into the boards and was instantly paralyzed from mid-chest down. The whole thing was caught on tape (actual VHS back then) and watching it was just chilling. I was at my college's men's hockey game one year and a player got rammed with his body twisted to the side. When the other player moved from squishing him against the boards, he just crumpled to the ice. We all thought for sure he was going to be paralyzed, but it ended up being a pinched nerve, I think. He never played again and still had tingling fingers the last I heard, about 2 years after the accident.

[Anonymous]

Hell NO. An average of 12 players DIE every year. Hundreds more are injured. I like pro football, but no way I'd let my sons play. My husband was a D1 player, and he won't let them play.

https://nccsir.unc.edu/files/2013/10/Annual-Football-2014-Fatalities-Final.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO, you hear more about concussions and long-term brain injuries from football, but my kid plays on a competitive travel soccer team and those kids are freakin' brutal, man. I don't want it to sound like a 'my sport is better than yours' thing, but I've seen two kids running full speed crash into each other so hard that it's audible on the sidelines. Zero pads, really, and definitely no head protection.

I've always been very scared about ice hockey in the way that other parents are scared of football. My best friend's brother when we were in HS was so good at hockey that he was recruited by private HS to come play for them on scholarship. His Jr. year he took a header into the boards and was instantly paralyzed from mid-chest down. The whole thing was caught on tape (actual VHS back then) and watching it was just chilling. I was at my college's men's hockey game one year and a player got rammed with his body twisted to the side. When the other player moved from squishing him against the boards, he just crumpled to the ice. We all thought for sure he was going to be paralyzed, but it ended up being a pinched nerve, I think. He never played again and still had tingling fingers the last I heard, about 2 years after the accident.

Ugh, that's awful. I'll add ice hockey to the list too. I was at a high school track meet where a young man died doing pole vault, so that's also definitely something my kids won't be doing. There just aren't good coaches to teach proper technique at that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO, you hear more about concussions and long-term brain injuries from football, but my kid plays on a competitive travel soccer team and those kids are freakin' brutal, man. I don't want it to sound like a 'my sport is better than yours' thing, but I've seen two kids running full speed crash into each other so hard that it's audible on the sidelines. Zero pads, really, and definitely no head protection.

I've always been very scared about ice hockey in the way that other parents are scared of football. My best friend's brother when we were in HS was so good at hockey that he was recruited by private HS to come play for them on scholarship. His Jr. year he took a header into the boards and was instantly paralyzed from mid-chest down. The whole thing was caught on tape (actual VHS back then) and watching it was just chilling. I was at my college's men's hockey game one year and a player got rammed with his body twisted to the side. When the other player moved from squishing him against the boards, he just crumpled to the ice. We all thought for sure he was going to be paralyzed, but it ended up being a pinched nerve, I think. He never played again and still had tingling fingers the last I heard, about 2 years after the accident.

Fortunately, that's a rarity in hockey. USA Hockey has long campaigned for "heads up hockey", and they start teaching it at 5--running into the boards is the most common way to cause catastrophic injury. There are many, many rules around checking, and serious (catastrophic) injuries related to that are relatively rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO, you hear more about concussions and long-term brain injuries from football, but my kid plays on a competitive travel soccer team and those kids are freakin' brutal, man. I don't want it to sound like a 'my sport is better than yours' thing, but I've seen two kids running full speed crash into each other so hard that it's audible on the sidelines. Zero pads, really, and definitely no head protection.

I've always been very scared about ice hockey in the way that other parents are scared of football. My best friend's brother when we were in HS was so good at hockey that he was recruited by private HS to come play for them on scholarship. His Jr. year he took a header into the boards and was instantly paralyzed from mid-chest down. The whole thing was caught on tape (actual VHS back then) and watching it was just chilling. I was at my college's men's hockey game one year and a player got rammed with his body twisted to the side. When the other player moved from squishing him against the boards, he just crumpled to the ice. We all thought for sure he was going to be paralyzed, but it ended up being a pinched nerve, I think. He never played again and still had tingling fingers the last I heard, about 2 years after the accident.

'
Ugh, that's awful. Ill add ice hockey to the list too. I was at a high school track meet where a young man died doing pole vault, so that's also definitely something my kids won't be doing. There just aren't good coaches to teach proper technique at that age.

Don't. "While all youth sports carry a risk of injury, statistics show that youth hockey remains one of the safest sports."

http://www.usahockeymagazine.com/article/2013-12/protecting-kids-things-go-bump-ice-safety-hockey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter plays soccer, and has gotten a concussion because of it. Her neuro says girls soccer is a hotbed of brain injury. At the same time, he supports children involved with athletics, and works to get kids back into their sports as safely as possible. (And he had a serious conversation with both of us about the risks of her continuing to play soccer, and that if she gets another concussion he'll probably say she needs to quit.)

There's risk in it. There's risk in everything. I'm aware that allowing my child to play soccer puts her at increased risk for life long injury. She's aware as well. Soccer is really important to her, and when she's had to take a break it's been incredibly difficult for her.

My knee jerk reaction is that if I had a son who wanted to play football, I wouldn't let him. I'd have him try rugby, or lacrosse, or something else. But then I look at my daughter with soccer, knowing that girls soccer is also dangerous, and I'm not sure.

How did you come to add rugby to that list? You know that rugby is football without the padding, don't you? There's still tackling, just without all that protective gear in the way.

[Anonymous]

I was at a high school track meet where a young man died doing pole vault, so that's also definitely something my kids won't be doing.

One kid died doing it, so you won't let your kids participate? I hope you don't let them cross the street, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I was at a high school track meet where a young man died doing pole vault, so that's also definitely something my kids won't be doing.

One kid died doing it, so you won't let your kids participate? I hope you don't let them cross the street, either.

Ok, so you do you. I watched a boy die while pole vaulting and think it shouldn't be done at the high school level. I stand by my original statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I was at a high school track meet where a young man died doing pole vault, so that's also definitely something my kids won't be doing.

One kid died doing it, so you won't let your kids participate? I hope you don't let them cross the street, either.

Really? You can't understand why witnessing that might have been rather traumatizing? Crossing the street can't be avoided, and I bet if PP had witnessed that, she'd be hyper-vigilant about that as well. Pole vaulting is hardly a necessity.

You're an ass.