My wife and I have a little rascal who will turn 2 in a few months. I'm not sure I'd let him play pop warner, to be honest. I played pop warner and then hs football myself, and appreciate all the positives that partaking in sport provides. That said, the same team building qualities can be found in lacrosse, soccer,and hockey (baseball aND basketball as well, though those tend to lean more on the 1v1 aspects compared to the aforementioned).
Luckily we have a few years for to wait and see what continued research finds. However, anyone with half a brain can see which way the winds are blowing. I believe I remember seeing something about hs soccer players and the repeated miniscule trauma inflicted from practicing headers potentially resulting in life long ailments.
It's horrifying, to be honest. This isn't a joint, or bone, or organ that is being affected. All of those can be repaired or rebuilt in today's world of medicine. The one body part we are discussing is the one body part we currently can't heal after being damaged. The one body "part" that makes us individuals, storing memories, responcible for our personalities. Said part is so fragile that most vertebrates keep theirs encased in bone and a fluid chamber.
And here we are with 31 billionaires telling us that football is not responcible for any long term effects of continuous, albeit minor, brain trauma? The sport is built around impacts and collisions, the sheer force of a man running full speed into another man doing the same can result in brain trauma as a result of the assumed sudden deceleration and possible acceleration in the other direction that could be experienced by one party. Helmet to helmet has nothing to do with it. While helmet to helmet contact is "the big one," often the culprit of some of the more devastating injuries witnessed, the constant impacts, and decelerations involved with said impacts, (from what I have gathered) seem to be what leads to cte.
If that is the case, I think this sport may be in trouble.
