Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is he desperate to play? Is there a specific reason he wants to do football over other spofts? I would ask him a lot of questions and have him do a lot of research on long term risk of concussion before you say yes or no.

Friends doing it. Perceived coolness. He plays flag football and he is really good.

Being good at flag doesn't at all mean he'll be good at tackle. It's going to be quite the wake up call when he takes his first hit, especially when playing with boys who've been playing tackle football for years.

He'll just have to get over it.

My son also wanted to play football because his friends were doing it. I talked to other parents who felt the program at least at our school was as safe as it could be (given its football) and that it was a good culture overall. All said they were happy with the program.

Having said that, I still didn't allow him to play though he did do some post-season weights and two field practices. He doesn't want to play anymore but he was definitely annoyed that we said no freshman year.

You said your son plays another sport year-round. You can remind him that in all likelihood, he'll need to start working out with the HS team pre-season if he's at a competitive school in order to maximize his chances of making the school team. There won't be time for football. My son realized his desire for football was because he wanted to play a school sport and once he actually made the baseball team at our very large competitive school, that football itch went away.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never should’ve agreed to flag football. It’s a gateway to tackle which is why the nfl is promoting it.

OMG I never put this together. we never let our son play either. And we blew off requests to play flag because I viewed it as a gateway to tackle. But I never put together that the tackle football numbers are decreasing and this is why the NFL is promoting flag. Wow.

Beyond just a gateway to tackle, the entirety of football culture is really rapey.

I just let my kid play tackle starting in 7th grade. We went over all the risks together. They love it. So far, no football injuries. I'm glad they got 2 years of tackle experience before high school and didn't go straight from flag because much of what they learned involved risk mitigation.

Anonymous wrote:Most schools don't have JV football anymore. Not enough players. So those 135 pound freshmen are now playing against 240 pound seniors who are looking to be recruited by D1 colleges. Football is not a lot of fun for the smaller, younger boys. It's a very painful game. There are players with significant injuries every, single weekend. And the cumulative effect of all the micro-concussions that occur every game at nearly every position often don't manifest themselves until years later. There's a terrible risk-reward calculus in football. Unless you're some 6'6 behemoth, I don't see how it's worth it for 95 percent of boys.

This isnt accurate in fairfax county at all. Freshman team is no cut. JV and Varsity are large rosters.

Nearly every FCPS school fielded varsity, JV, and freshman teams last season. Only 2-3 national district schools didn’t do so.
Football is still extremely popular.

Anonymous wrote:Most schools don't have JV football anymore. Not enough players. So those 135 pound freshmen are now playing against 240 pound seniors who are looking to be recruited by D1 colleges. Football is not a lot of fun for the smaller, younger boys. It's a very painful game. There are players with significant injuries every, single weekend. And the cumulative effect of all the micro-concussions that occur every game at nearly every position often don't manifest themselves until years later. There's a terrible risk-reward calculus in football. Unless you're some 6'6 behemoth, I don't see how it's worth it for 95 percent of boys.

Well clearly 135 lb freshmen shouldn't sign up.

Many high schools have a huge freshmen team though and it's more social and exercise related than actual football. They work out and run drills and are part of the team. At our high school I wouldn't worry too much about an average size athletic kid participating.

Most schools don't have JV football anymore. Not enough players. So those 135 pound freshmen are now playing against 240 pound seniors who are looking to be recruited by D1 colleges. Football is not a lot of fun for the smaller, younger boys. It's a very painful game. There are players with significant injuries every, single weekend. And the cumulative effect of all the micro-concussions that occur every game at nearly every position often don't manifest themselves until years later. There's a terrible risk-reward calculus in football. Unless you're some 6'6 behemoth, I don't see how it's worth it for 95 percent of boys.

My son plays football for “fun” with his friends at school recess, despite my objections as well as school admins. Boys would stop when they got caught playing on school grounds but would restart a few days later.

My son broke his nose several weeks ago during a school game and had to miss a major team tournament playing his primary team sport. And will eventually need surgery.

Football is a great sport. Has positions for all body types and truly is a team game. The injuries can be difficult, but they are not as prevalent as most make them out to be. The coaching, training, and competition in football are typically superior to anything you will receive in other sports. Living in fear is no way to live. This is a good thing for high school age boys to learn.

How many levels are at his school? Are there three levels - Varsity, JV, AND frosh/soph?

We let our son play freshman year. He had never played tackle football before and only had done one season of flag. His school had three levels so he was on the freshman team. He is athletic but the boys who had played tackle before had an advantage so got way more playing time.

A parent with an older boy told me that usually happens and so many boys play freshman year then quit. And that is what happened to my son. He played a year, met a bunch of kids in the summer during practice before school started. They played in the fall and a sizeable percentage of the kids who had never done tackle football never played again. My son isn't a big kid so I knew he wouldn't play linebacker.

He returned to the sport he had played before that season so it worked out. I would NOT have let him play if there were only one level or two. The freshman boys were much smaller than the VJ and Varsity boys.

Don't forget the NFL owners bribed the Olympic Committee to add Flag Football to the Olympics and the NFL Owners recently voted to allow current professional NFL players to compete for slots to be on the US Olympic Flag football team.

100% Flag football popularity, while in itself if a much better alternative for most kids than regular football, is being driven by the NFL owners to increase participation in tackle football and increase TV viewership in the NFL. The coming commercial media onslaught and positive PR spin, particularly among young girls/ women will be impressive, if not altogether mystifying as to why there is suddenly so much air time -will make our heads spin. This will turn into a much larger issues in just 2 more years time.

We already have community flag football programs popping up into the travel programs like crazy. Apparently grants or 'donations to youth sports' are easy to obtain as well to set up flag football leagues.

Anonymous wrote:We forbid it from a young age, and explained why. I am certain that he will spend time with a psychologist at some point, and will blame us, his parents, that he is not an NFL quarterback making millions of dollars. I don't care, his brain is in tact

Op. We did too. Now that it's close, he is no longer as accepting.

We forbid it from a young age, and explained why. I am certain that he will spend time with a psychologist at some point, and will blame us, his parents, that he is not an NFL quarterback making millions of dollars. I don't care, his brain is in tact

Anonymous wrote:Never should’ve agreed to flag football. It’s a gateway to tackle which is why the nfl is promoting it.

OMG I never put this together. we never let our son play either. And we blew off requests to play flag because I viewed it as a gateway to tackle. But I never put together that the tackle football numbers are decreasing and this is why the NFL is promoting flag. Wow.