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Fully agree about the social growth of being on a well coached team. But you can most likely get that in flag football too. Or whatever other sport where kids who are still learning to move well don't have to run into each other at full speed.
The thing is that it's not necessarily only the head first tackles that cause long term brain injury. From the link in the tweet at the start of this thread, talking about injuries to those playing on the line from the less dramatic, but more repetitive head banging:
I couldn't agree more with Madden. I don't think a kid should put on a helmet until the 7th grade at the earliest, and I'd be fine with a year or two later. I never wore a helmet until my freshman year in HS.
Here is MY problem with the CTE report and your comments. I would accept that in this era when players are so extraordinarily big and fast that the kinds of collisions you'd expect to see, could very well cause CTE, especially for players who play over several years and have lots of these extreme collisions. I think an important question to ask about these brains would be, how many years did they play NFL ball?
Here is my problem with your comments. You used these facts out of context to influence your actions with your son, and I believe robbed him of a very valuable experience. I wonder if they took the brains of men who just played HS AND college football, what the percentage of CTE you'd find. You'd expect that % to be much lower. What about 80 guys who JUST played in HS, You'd think the % would be much lower than that.
No question, the kind of collisions you are exposed to in the NFL ARE a risk. But a risk you are getting very well paid for. Much more in fact than other occupations that carry a similar health risk. But I cry out for the risk rewards ratio of the HS game. Given the relative size and speed differences, HS football doesn't pose nearly the risk that would be worth NOT getting the valuable experience and life lessons the game of football can offer. If you played HS ball, you should know how valuable they were,
I coached high level HS ball for close to 20 years as an assistant and HC. I was also a great teacher as well. But I never could teach the kind of life lessons that live with you forever in the class room that I could on the field. It's the lesson of the value of teamwork. It's the lesson of overcoming adversity. It's the lesson that the sum is always greater than the individual parts. It's the lesson of how to overcome fear, pain, and other people's expectations. It's the lesson of perseverance. It's the lesson of growing and getting better, both physically and emotionally. Its the lesson of getting knocked down and and getting up again Not only that, I got to be with most of those kids 3 or 4 years, not just the one you get as a classroom teacher.
On my best days as a classroom teacher I could impart some information (History) I could get a few to recognize what has happened in the past has a direct impact on the present and future. I could help improve and encourage reading and memorization skills. I could help teach them HOW to learn, and hopefully inspire them to want to know more.....about anything. And do it all without the internet and Google.But that is hard to do in just 40 minutes a day (at best) and less than 10 months to do it.
As a coach I would get them for close to 3 hours a day, for almost 4 months and created a connection that lasted the rest of the year regardless of what other sports or activities they participated in. You had a direct influence on these kids all year round. That's why if a football player screwed up somehow, even if was April, YOU were the one the administration or other teachers would come looking for to straighten it out.
Well, Dr Pain, I've gone one of my long winded rants. Sorry about that., The bottom line is I would suggest that you put that Frontline report in context. I would suggest that you revisit your fears of letting your son play, and put them into the context of the HS arena vs the NFL arena where the risk of CTE are MUCH much higher. Keep this in mind. Very soon you are going to give your son the keys to the car, where he is in MUCH greater risk of head injury than he ever is going to be on the football field. If you were to be completely consistent, you'd never let him drive, or even get into a care with another teen driver, if you are going to discourage him from playing even indirectly. n JMHO
....and I'm done.
That's the problem WE DO NOT KNOW - Over the years millions of kids have played HS football. It it were as dangerous an experience as you imply, wouldn't CTE have become a major national health hazard by now. The fact is we DO know that the major cause of head trauma among teens,. isn't football, ii's car crashes. So I have to ask, where is the outrage against teens in cars? How many parents are rallying to keep their kids out of cars and out of cars with teen driving? There is none because all that outrage been focused on football,even though there is no actual information to justify it.
