The real risk in football is not from being tackled but from using your body as a weapon. Most bad NFL injuries stem from a player running into someone at full speed, not from wrapping them up and taking them to the ground.
This is a sound law for the protection of children.
Must have been sponsored by Keep Our Own Kids Safe.
The more the left does to kill off football, once and for all, the better.
I remember playing what we called “murder ball” at recess in fifth grade.
sad. everything good for boys in America is being taken away from them.
Having spent a lot of time around youth football, my observation is that 8- and 9- year olds do not hit very hard and certainly not head to head with any force. At that age, it is mostly a hug. Meanwhile, at 12 and 13 the hits can be exponentially harder with some serious pops.
That said, this is horrendously stupid and wimpy. Let’s raise men not a bunch of pajama boys. How about the wuss Euro sport soccer where hitting the ball with the head is an integral part of the game? Or baseball with balls hitting the head? Even without checking at that age, hockey players hit their heads on the ice, boards, goal.... skiing and trees? And on and on.
Anyway, this is a decision that should be left up to parents.
Final point, these CTE studies are absurdly flawed in that they are not looking at a far greater number of healthy brains. The ones that get donated are the brains of people where an issue is suspected.
So many crosswinds to me on this.
As someone who is very involved with the Lacrosse world I’ve certainly noticed a lot of Mothers are starting to swy NO to their kids playing football and we are definitely getting new players because of it (and I live in Florida where football is king). Not that Lacrosse is concussion-free, because it isn’t.
Banning outright seems a little drastic but clearly two things have happened this generation that have made the sport more dangerous. The kids are far larger today and more athletic, and the information on weightlifting, protein-enhancements and similar things have made the force which these kids hit with far more impactful than in my youth. The second is that the equipment makes the kids more likely to be reckless with their hitting.
The poster who mentioned the helmet should be leather is partly right. Take away the use of the head and you reduce risk but the issue of no facemask on a leather helmet would certainly mean a lot more eye trauma and that can’t be accepted as an outcome.
Football has always been designed to be physically risky and 100+ years ago Teddy Roosevelt, as President, needed to intervene to keep the game from being banned, due to so many deaths and serious injuries in the sport.
I’m not one to talk about the way the sport helps build character, etc., I think that’s kind of overrated, as any sport or similar activity, taken seriously, does that. What is important to always ride hard on is the gratuitous violence that pops up.
When the NFL took a stand on targeting of a defenseless pass catcher that was an acknowledgement of gratuitous violence. We’ve done the same in Lacrosse, no lighting up the player from the blind side and no running over the faceoff guy if he is on the ground vying for the ground ball. These are hardly bad adjustments and maybe the rules can become more age-oriented to how blocking and tackling are viewed and refereed.
I did not let my son play football when he asked me to try out for the high school team when he was 15, not because he wasn’t physically able but because in Florida, trying to start playing at that age meant he had no idea how to protect himself on the field, and I wasn’t going to let him learn the hard way.
A coworker’s NJ high school cancelled their football program last year.
Reason? It was voted out in favor of tennis, soccer, and other more “global” sports.
The board is comprised primarily of Indians and liberals. (aka, small, thin, and limp-wristed folks)