Will you let your son(s) play football?

[Anonymous]

I have an 8th grader who I have not let play football because all the youth leagues around here start practices in August and IMHO it is just to hot to be running around in pads and helmet in August in the DC area. So at this point it is too late - I think you are too far behind if you start football as a freshman (although HS coaches will probably say otherwise).

[Anonymous]

Nope.

Football can cause brain injuries and knee injuries that haunt kids into middle age and later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Driving is riskier for teens than football. Guess your kids will never drive either.

Yeah.... they'll just play football instead if driving? Great logic Einstein.

Anyway I won't let my son. Football is on it's way out in a few decades.

Your reading comprehension is poor, you missed the point. Driving injures and kills far more teens than football.

Speaking of comprehension...do you think there may be the slightest possibility that driving injures and kills far more teens because far more teens drive for far more hours than they play football? Do a side-by-side comparison of injuries resulting from 100 hours of active football playing vs. 100 hours of driving. Go ahead. We'll wait.

[Anonymous]

Might as well rule out baseball too. Kids break fingers, twist angles and are seriously injured or sometimes killed by the hard ball traveling at high speeds.

[Anonymous]

At the youth level the boys are all within a year or so of the same age and about 10 to 15 percent of weight. That seems to reduce the chance of injury to an acceptable level. In hs these limits go away. We let our son play youth football but are considering not letting him play next year as a freshman. He aldo plays lacrosse and would be suicidal if we took that away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Might as well rule out baseball too. Kids break fingers, twist angles and are seriously injured or sometimes killed by the hard ball traveling at high speeds.

Plus baseball is incredibly boring. I'd rather go to the dentist than sit though a baseball game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Fooseball is the devil"

In that case, I danced with the devil quite a bit in my college days. And I kicked his little red ass.

[Anonymous]

Actually horseback riding, cheerleading and gymnastics are more dangerous than football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the youth level the boys are all within a year or so of the same age and about 10 to 15 percent of weight. That seems to reduce the chance of injury to an acceptable level. In hs these limits go away. We let our son play youth football but are considering not letting him play next year as a freshman. He aldo plays lacrosse and would be suicidal if we took that away.

Are these differences that stark at the Freshman and JV level. I've never known Freshman and sophomores to play varsity unless they were exceptionally talented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Might as well rule out baseball too. Kids break fingers, twist angles and are seriously injured or sometimes killed by the hard ball traveling at high speeds.

Plus baseball is incredibly boring. I'd rather go to the dentist than sit though a baseball game.

“Baseball is the most perfect of games, solid, true, pure and precious as diamonds. If only life were so simple. Within the baselines anything can happen. Tides can reverse; oceans can open. That's why they say, "the game is never over until the last man is out." Colors can change, lives can alter, anything is possible in this gentle, flawless, loving game.”
? W.P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe

[Anonymous]

That's right. Baseball is a game.

[Anonymous]

14:50- please cite your sources.

From the AJSM article- concussion incidence/10,000 AE
Cheerleading- 1.4
Gymnastics- 0.7

So, no neither of these is remotely as dangerous (for concussion) as football (6.4).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Might as well rule out baseball too. Kids break fingers, twist angles and are seriously injured or sometimes killed by the hard ball traveling at high speeds.

My kids don't play baseball, either. It's really, really boring.

Seriously, though, baseball players can get injured, but they don't get brain injuries at nearly the rate that football players do.

My kids can play basketball, volleyball, or soccer. They can participate in karate or tae kwon do. These things don't cause brain injuries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually horseback riding, cheerleading and gymnastics are more dangerous than football.

And my kids won't do any of those things, either.

[Anonymous]

Nope. My son is enormous for his age and I come from a big college football school. I reeeally hope he doesn't want to play!

Fencing, maybe?