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We are a big sports family and live in the middle of SEC country. Even with all the "new" awareness of concussions and the NFL taking a harder stance on helmet-to-helmet hitting, the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal is the one thing that makes me think twice about football and my boys.
Because even though the approach that coach took has been pretty universally reviled by people, there will be college and high school teams that (secretly) embrace that kind of play, kind of like a Hardee's politically incorrect approach to advertising burgers.
The fact that there are opponents out there who would be willing to "take out" my kid scares me more than anything. As long as I leave my kid in the game, the opponent is one thing I cannot control.
But to the OP's question, yes I am still willing to allow my child to play. We will discuss it again at the end of this school year and see where they stand.
The sad part is that watching our kid play football would have been TWENTY TIMES more exciting/interesting than watching him play soccer or baseball. *sigh*
I will not introduce the sport to my boys (still really young) as an option to play, but if one of them come to me saying they want to play, we will have a discussion. I will strongly discourage it, but won't forbid it. In the backyard we play soccer and baseball, and we play basketball at the gym...hopefully that will keep their interest. They also practice Tae Kwon Do. Injurys occur in every sport, and I have had my fair share, but I would like to stay away from sports that have a higher likelyhood of long term problems.
I only played one year of organized football in high school (Freshman year), but I found the practices horrendously boring. I switched to soccer after that one year. I thought organized football would be more fun than it was.
I surprised to read they see so many concussions at that early age. But the article said practices are worse than the games, so it's good to make parents and coaches aware.
I surprised to read they see so many concussions at that early age. But the article said practices are worse than the games, so it's good to make parents and coaches aware.
Agreed. The worrying part for me is the unknown long-term consequences of the repeated sub-percussive hits.
I will not introduce the sport to my boys (still really young) as an option to play, but if one of them come to me saying they want to play, we will have a discussion. I will strongly discourage it, but won't forbid it. In the backyard we play soccer and baseball, and we play basketball at the gym...hopefully that will keep their interest. They also practice Tae Kwon Do. Injurys occur in every sport, and I have had my fair share, but I would like to stay away from sports that have a higher likelyhood of long term problems.
I only played one year of organized football in high school (Freshman year), but I found the practices horrendously boring. I switched to soccer after that one year. I thought organized football would be more fun than it was.
This is my take on it also. I'm certainly not going to encourage it, but if my son asked about it, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
I also competed in TKD in high school and college. While we all got blows to the head, it was rarely a blow anyone had to worry about. Then again, we were womens flyweights and had quite a bit of padding.
Right now we are in t-ball world. I will not tell my son that he cant play a sport he wants to play. I think I will encourage him to play something safer, but would never say no to whatever sport he wants to play. I think every year we get more information and with every bit of new information there is the potential for new safety precautions that ensure more safe play. He is going to a hockey intro camp next year to learn to skate and some fundamentals so he can play hockey. Which is also an excessively dangerous sport. Baseball is also dangerous, though not nearly. But I was injured playing as a child and my DH was also injured.
My son will be starting his second year of football (first in tackle) this summer, I am 100% on board with his playing. My town starts very young and safety is a very important so a lot of the training for the youngest kids is centered around safe tackling and one of our assistant coaches is an EMT.
At this age (finishing kindergarten) I encourage it and do push him to do his best at it, once he is older and the hits get much harder I will just take his lead I will not refuse him the privilage to play if its what he really wants but I won't be pushing him to play if he doesn't want to.
IMO all sports have dangers, some more than others yes, but they all have tremendous benefits as well, some more than others. In our particular situation the football program has more benefits than the other sports programs the #1 being that my son LOVES it. So yes I will allow him to play.
My son will be starting his second year of football (first in tackle) this summer, I am 100% on board with his playing. My town starts very young and safety is a very important so a lot of the training for the youngest kids is centered around safe tackling and one of our assistant coaches is an EMT.
At this age (finishing kindergarten) I encourage it and do push him to do his best at it, once he is older and the hits get much harder I will just take his lead I will not refuse him the privilage to play if its what he really wants but I won't be pushing him to play if he doesn't want to.
Your son is in K and they are tackling?
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