Would you allow your child to play football ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't sure if I had to post this on the parenting forum or sports so I ended just going with the off topic forum .Would you let your child play football at any level, pee-wee, elementary, junior, high school , college and even pro ? I just finished a FRONTLINE documentary on PBS titled LEAGUE OF DENIAL . The documentary is about four years old so some of you might have seen it already
There's a risk in almost anything we do in life that is true . However watching that documentary I couldn't help but wonder if the NFL would have been what it is today ( $ 9B in revenues ) had parents who ultimately greenlight their kids athletic choices known what we know today . It was sad and tragic to see men who at one point in time were our society's equivalent of gladiators end up being vegetables unable to tie their shoe laces , fetching a bottle of water in the fridge in their 30s and 40s .

PS: it's quite the long documentary
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_OVWSAL0EAw

I have a 11 year old boy and with everything I know I would not let him play football under any circumstance. I have seen the documentary your talking about and more recently real sports did a segment on youth football. I suggest you Google the real sports episode and watch if it's available on you tube. It shows what is happening to young kids at football practice and it is scary. There are supposed to be restrictions and rules but they are not enforced or respected. Most of the practices are little kids doing full contact drills the whole time. People can say there are risks in everything and that is true to some extent. My son plays soccer year round and certainly risk in that. There is a big difference though between heading a soccer ball occasionally and doing football Oklahoma drills 2 hours a day every day starting at age 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would let my children play if he had an interest. One son tried flag but didn't want to play tackle in the fall. It was his choice.

I'm a teacher and have seen more of my students suffer from concussions and injuries requiring surgery in other sports. There are so many soccer injuries and I still let DS play because he loves it.

If your son doesn't want to play tackle because of the negative experience of flag football and could still have an interest in tackle I'd tell him to do it. Flag football for a younger kid who isn't the fastest or the quarterback is kind of boring and can give a false idea of how tackle is. It's completely different

Interesting. Thanks! Maybe that is it. My son is not a fast runner compared to others. He's athletic but you see this in every sport he tries.

[Anonymous]

No. My youngest, even at 5, is built like a linebacker. Not going to happen - my DH has even stopped watching football.

Should they ask, we will explain why we will not allow them to play. We have relatives who played in the NFL/college and had CTE or serious health issues related to football. I'm on the fence about soccer for the same reason.

[Anonymous]

To those trying to present anecdote as evidence, here is the actual evidence of football causing more concussions than the other sports mentioned here:
http://www.headcasecompany.com/concussion_info/stats_on_concussions_sports

This doesn't capture micro-concussions though, and for me that is the reason my son will not play football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. My youngest, even at 5, is built like a linebacker. Not going to happen - my DH has even stopped watching football.

Should they ask, we will explain why we will not allow them to play. We have relatives who played in the NFL/college and had CTE or serious health issues related to football. I'm on the fence about soccer for the same reason.

My brother was a professional soccer player and my sister and I played D1 college soccer.

Zero concussions.

My brother and I got out of it without ankle or knee issues though he does have some arthritis in his late 40s.

My sister tore her ACL on a grass field with grass too high.

No football for my boys, but soccer definitely. If the get a concussion will reassess after first one.

It's the repeated ones you need to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a nation of pansies I swear. I have no issue if they want to play. No issue if they decided to do martial arts. I'd prefer MMA to boxes as their is less head injuries but whatever. If my son really wanted to box, fine I'd support him.

I grew up playing four different codes of football. American football, soccer, rugby union and rugby league. All are violent and all are aggressive. Fine if you don't want to play it but it's really not any more dangerous than anything else really. Concussion rates for girls soccer is very high and an issue.

I hope my daughter gets into athletics. I'd suport her decisions to play rugby or do Olympic weightlifting. Both are sports I'm passionate about. Of course I'd supprt her if she was on the Math team as well.

My son is on math team AND a top soccer recruit. It's not either-or.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a nation of pansies I swear. I have no issue if they want to play. No issue if they decided to do martial arts. I'd prefer MMA to boxes as their is less head injuries but whatever. If my son really wanted to box, fine I'd support him.

I grew up playing four different codes of football. American football, soccer, rugby union and rugby league. All are violent and all are aggressive. Fine if you don't want to play it but it's really not any more dangerous than anything else really. Concussion rates for girls soccer is very high and an issue.

I hope my daughter gets into athletics. I'd suport her decisions to play rugby or do Olympic weightlifting. Both are sports I'm passionate about. Of course I'd supprt her if she was on the Math team as well.

My son is on math team AND a top soccer recruit. It's not either-or.

Let me guess U11 player is the young star