Will you let your son(s) play football?

[Anonymous]

Since today is the first Sunday of the new NFL season, I was curious if the news regarding concussions over the last few years in regards to football has affected your decision to let your sons play the game. Especially in a time where ex-players/parents of current players have been coming out and saying they would not let their sons play football if they knew of the risks like they do now.

Thoughts?

I personally would not and would steer them towards playing baseball (I know there are risks there as well, but not constant hammering of helmets).

[Anonymous]

Yes!!

[Anonymous]

Only if he turns out to be huge.

[Anonymous]

No. Did you read the Post articles about NFL veterans with horrific injuries? 'Nuff said.

[Anonymous]

No. Absolutely not.

[Anonymous]

My kid plays football. I definitely tried to steer him in other directions. We tried soccer, gymnastics, martial arts, swimming, dance . . . but football's what he loves, and it's what matches his body type and his natural skills. In the end, the choices he has for fall seem to be 1) force him to play a sport he doesn't enjoy, 2) have him come home at 2:20 every day, with 4 hours to get in trouble before I get off work or 3) Let him play football, with a careful eye out for concussions, and know that he'll be busy, and happy, and supervised, and getting exercise every day after school. Of those football seemed to present the least problems.

I wouldn't put a six year old on a football team, or pressure a kid to play who didn't want to play, but if, like my kid, he had tried other sports, and on his own decided he wanted to try football, then I'd let him do it again.

[Anonymous]

We just went through this discussion with ds who is in 7th grade. He is a excellent athlete who plays soccer in the fall and spring and basketball in the winter. He lobbied us the last 2 weeks to join the school football team. He said kids were recruiting him to be a kicker. We resisted our knee-jerk response of "no" and genuinely listened. We said we wanted to talk with the coach and find out more information. In the meantime, he talked with older relatives about joining the team. Without any prompting from us, my dad, who played all through high school and some college, shared his concerns about concussions and injury and the reports coming out now. I think that was a turning point for ds because the next day he decided he didn't want to pursue it.

It was a pretty awesome parenting moment--our tween saved us from having to say no.

[Anonymous]

Sadly I have to say yes. I have pushed my son towards soccer (since K) and basketball; however, he is obsessed with football. We finally let him play this fall. He is still in ES so my hope is that he will grow out of this phase. If I continued to say no (as I did last year), it may make football the "holy grail". He is playing against other ES boys his size, so he can't get too hurt. However, he may not like the feeling of being tackled and I hope that he doesn't pursue it on his own volition. fingers crossed.

[Anonymous]

No. I work in public health and have learned too much about TBI to let him play. And as much as I love hockey and laceosse I won't let him play those either.

[Anonymous]

No.

[Anonymous]

Rugby?

[Anonymous]

My brother did - he loved it - he didn't excel at school, but excelled at football, and was able to attend school via football. It provided a real community and structure and lifelong friendships. He appears to have escaped suffering from a TBI, and I certainly understand the concern, but I have to think his life would have been a lot different without football, which turned out to be a stabilizing force for him.

[Anonymous]

No, but only because he only has one kidney. If he had to our would consider it.

[Anonymous]

Soccer also has a high incidence of concussions. You should read the statistics on that before assuming it is significantly safer than other sports.

[Anonymous]

...two I would consider it.