Agree. You can wrap your kids in cotton balls until they are 18, if you want. Athletic competition is dangerous....some ahletics more so than others. I am glad my son played high school football. It taught him how to work with a TEAM. It taught him to follow the coach’s order or don’t play. Not bad things to learn in our PC culture. Right now, I am suffering greatly because of skiing injury from 35 years ago.....herniated disc in my lumbar area. But even knowing this now, I still would have still enjoyed skiing all those years. I guess you just need to weigh the balance of the risk with the rewards. Skiing was such an exhilaration, I wish I could still do it! (but now, bad knees too, coupled with the herniated disc.....but downhill skiing was so much FUN!)
If they want to go there, they could focus on skiing.
How many have died skiing?
I can think of three prominent people offhand : Sonny Bono, one of the various Kennedy cousins, and actress Natasha Richardson. All died in skiing accidents.
People die every year at the Grand Canyon.
How do we mitigate every risk in life? What risks are acceptable? That to me is the heart of this sort of discussion.
Both of my sons played football and I'm glad they played as well. The things they took away from the game far out weigh the negative aspects of football. My family has played football going back 3 generations. We're big guys and are suited for a rough and tumble sport like football and we would definitely suck at soccer! :-)