Galeb
Experienced Starter w/First Big Contract
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2013
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If contact is too much for your kid to handle, don't have them participate in tackle football. Proper alignment of divisions should absolutely be enforced, but the coddling of the young today is going to bite us in the ass tomorrow.You can frame it as a bunch of kids being ****ies, or as a private school recruiting from an N mile radius these 6'5" 300 pound monsters, versus these little schools with 14 year old 175 pound freshman who are going to have no chance and going to end up injured, and who would be the first to admit they really don't give much of a **** about the game, they just do it for fun and aren't all that competitive.
If you put a pee-wee team against a college team, the results are going to be ugly. The parents are looking out for their kids, which is more than Goodell ever did for the NFL players. I'm fine with it. That little pipsqeak 14 year old math genius is never gonna be good at football, he is programming in Python already making robots on weekends in his spare time. He will be hiring and firing that brain-damaged 300 pound lineman in 10 years. They've got their priorities straight.
But yes, it is a different time that's for sure. Both in the recruiting and concentration of talent aspect, and the parents not pressing their kids to go in there and fight no matter how many concussions they have.
That brain is more important than that pride. I see this reshuffling of priorities as good.
If it were badminton (or some other non-contact sport, or math club, or chess team), and one team were just way way better, then of course it would be really stupid.
Obviously you want your kids to be fighters, to be competitive, etc.. If I thought this was simply indicative of the wussification of kids, helicopter parenting, etc.. That would suck. And maybe this is playing a role. But we are talking basically about brain injury, so F it, if there was a good time to step in and err on the side of caution, that would be it. But if it is Amesbury High School versus Exeter Academy chess club, go ahead Amesbury give 'em hell and try to win even if you get plastered every year.
I was a late bloomer, and my growth spurt didn't happen till late high school, but no matter the size difference, no one I ever faced thought that facing me was a cakewalk no matter what the size difference. TBH, lots of those bigger folks underestimated me, and never sufficiently adjusted after the initial shock. I know for a fact I'm not the only one to whom that applies. Don't live life in fear.
Is tackle football too violent for HS kids? Maybe, that is the parents role to decide. The reality that their kids may be facing much larger opponents should be considered before they ever sign them up.
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