Boston Globe Magazine: Why You Should Stop Watching Football

eom said:

would it be enough to just stop reading about it in the globe?

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Why? I get it for free. And I enjoy reading OTHER viewpoints. People who just want to read people with whom they agree all the time are dullards.

thomas144 said:

Excellent article. I'm not at the point where I'm going to stop watching the NFL but I am very aware that the sport as we know it is on its last legs. It's not a question of how many more generations - more like how many more years. I marvel at the sight of young children in some summer tackle football camp in Winchester - kids who are probably 8-years-old - how can their parents possibly let them play this game? For years I have said that the only educational value in playing football in high school is that you learn that you don't want your own children to play the game, and I wonder how many parents of these 8-year-olds ever played the game themselves. Maybe they did, but they forgot!

I think it's inevitable that within 20 years or so either the game will be played without helmets or, more likely with very big helmets that will make the players look like bobble-head dolls. Chances are I'm wrong and the change will come in 50 years.

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I think you are making the mistake of taking your views and experiences in Winchester MA and assuming the rest of the country will be similar. It isn't. As long as their is money from the NFL and College programs flowing down there will be kids that will play.

BSR said:

I think you are making the mistake of taking your views and experiences in Winchester MA and assuming the rest of the country will be similar. It isn't. As long as their is money from the NFL and College programs flowing down there will be kids that will play.

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I'm not extrapolating anything about "the rest of the country" - there is some kind of summer camp near where I live where I see little kids playing tackle football (or really just doing drills - I've never stopped to see a game) - I don't know what percentage of them come from the town. I'm just saying that I marvel that parents would let children 8-year-olds (my guess as to their age, I have no idea, but they are little) play tackle football and I attribute a lot of it to their ignorance of the danger and inevitable harm the sport does to the kids but also the NFL's campaign to convince us that there are safe ways for kids to play football. Obviously there are still parents who haven't gotten the memo yet, but I think it's inevitable that they will. Certainly there will still be some who never get the memo. If they had summer camps for kids to learn how to smoke cigarettes, I imagine some parents would be okay with that, but most wouldn't.

I'm a huge fan of the sport and will of course continue to watch it, but I am very aware that its days, as we know it, are numbered. This is really the golden age for the NFL, but I can't see it going on like this for too many more decades. I'm 62-years-old and don't expect to see significant change in my lifetime. As a fan, I find the whole issue really fascinating.

My 9 year old wanted to play tackle football. He took one look at the size of the kids who're playing (he's only 23rd percentile for height - solid, but really short) and decided against it. Good smarts for a 9 year old. Some of these kids outweigh him by 20-30 pounds. At 9 years old, that is a TON of weight...

I played CLCF tackle football when I was 10, 11 and 12...the first day of practice, I, a big kid, was submarined on a block by a kid half my size and weight. I had to LEARN how to play the game and THAT comeuppance served me well. I played in CLCF for three years before moving up to junior high ball and never saw any player get their bell rung until I hit high school. Even then,it wasn't a common occurrence primarily, I surmise, because we worked on fundamentals in the interscholastic league in RI that spanned all divisions.

The introduction of steroids and weight training seems to be concentric with the rise of concussions in youth football.

This article should have instead been in the Dallas Morning News targeting the Cowboys...wait! They don't play football!

Joker said:

I played CLCF tackle football

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You grew up in Cranston, RI?

JOKER:{deep sonorous voice} "Rich, I am your father!"

thomas144 said:

I'm not extrapolating anything about "the rest of the country" - there is some kind of summer camp near where I live where I see little kids playing tackle football (or really just doing drills - I've never stopped to see a game) - I don't know what percentage of them come from the town. I'm just saying that I marvel that parents would let children 8-year-olds (my guess as to their age, I have no idea, but they are little) play tackle football and I attribute a lot of it to their ignorance of the danger and inevitable harm the sport does to the kids but also the NFL's campaign to convince us that there are safe ways for kids to play football. Obviously there are still parents who haven't gotten the memo yet, but I think it's inevitable that they will. Certainly there will still be some who never get the memo. If they had summer camps for kids to learn how to smoke cigarettes, I imagine some parents would be okay with that, but most wouldn't.

I'm a huge fan of the sport and will of course continue to watch it, but I am very aware that its days, as we know it, are numbered. This is really the golden age for the NFL, but I can't see it going on like this for too many more decades. I'm 62-years-old and don't expect to see significant change in my lifetime. As a fan, I find the whole issue really fascinating.

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Regarding the issue of parents allowing their young children to play football, I think football is so ingrained in the culture of certain parts of the country that I find it hard to that will happen any time soon. That may not be true in Massachusetts or New England in general but I think to a certain degree all sports face this challenge. There are really high concussion rates in many sports including hockey, lacrosse and basketball. While football is certainly has the highest rate the others are high enough that the same issues can be raised. Will parents in the future advocate against all contact sports?

At the youngest ages, there are of course alternatives. My 9 year old son for instance doesn't play tackle football but does play flag football and loves it. He still learns some of the basics regarding, passing, catching and route running. Obviously they don't pick up blocking and tackling skills at that age but overall I think it is a much more enjoyable experience for them.

rlcarr said:

You grew up in Cranston, RI?

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yes I did...and you know me too...I'm J.O. and NOT O'Hara...from Christy's Tap and Rolfe Street back in the day.

Liability insurers for town/city governments and colleges/universities have given thought to excluding liability for concussions from coverage. This would be the death knell for a lot of school sponsored sports.