Would you allow your son to play football?

[1ke]

Sven is saying what I was trying to say. All this shit is bad, and for those 14 kids its fucked up and awful.

But its 14 out of an entire organization of pop warner which has to be at about half a million at the very least. I may be wrong here and want to be clear that I do think its serious and fucked. But still, a number of 20 or so kids out of half a million minmal just sticks out to me.

 

[RosettaStoned]

Sven is saying what I was trying to say. All this shit is bad, and for those 14 kids its fucked up and awful.

But its 14 out of an entire organization of pop warner which has to be at about half a million at the very least. I may be wrong here and want to be clear that I do think its serious and fucked. But still, a number of 20 or so kids out of half a million minmal just sticks out to me.

Sven is retarded.

You guys are missing the forest for the trees. It's not even about how many kids are dying.

Head trauma is bad for your brain.

Football = head trauma.

Just because my kid doesn't drop dead at 12 doesn't mean the shit is safe for his brain. I would prefer him not have any problems later in life due to head trauma received under my care.

 

[leaffan]

I haven't been in this thread in a few days.

Sven is a terrible poster and thats all I can pretty much get out of it.

 

[FedEx227]

Sven is retarded.

You guys are missing the forest for the trees. It's not even about how many kids are dying.

Head trauma is bad for your brain.

Football = head trauma.

Just because my kid doesn't drop dead at 12 doesn't mean the shit is safe for his brain. I would prefer him not have any problems later in life due to head trauma received under my care.

Bingo. Dropping dead at age 14 is not the issue here. Creating a damaged brain that will lead to issues down the line at age 14 is the problem.

 

[FirstTimer]

Nobody is arguing that getting hit in the head is good for you or that head trauma can't lead to CTE and severe depression.

My gripe is that people are overly quick to say "Football -> concussions -> suicide/death."

This is a quick google search and the source is wikipedia so obviously it could be horribly wrong and I have no idea how the overall number of people who play baseball compared to football even looks like, but I googled "baseball players who have committed suicide" and found 52 people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Baseball_players_who_committed_suicide.

Google "football players who have commited suicide" and you'll find 19 players named: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Players_of_American_football_who_committed_suicide

Not saying it means anything, I'm just saying. Take it for whatever it's worth.

Shocking. Substance abuse and addiction leads to suicide?

http://www.thedeadballera.com/suicides.html


No way.

 

[FedEx227]

Short answer, yes I would. But I would be very much involved with how he was coached, and I would go the extra mile to make sure he has the proper equipment to protect himself, even putting out extra dough for equipment that isn't provided.

However its not something I would push for him to do. I'm not going to even bring it up to him.

The equipment fallacy has accelerated a lot of the problems in recent years. A better helmet is going to change the basics of the game that cause some of the damage. As long as you're using your head as a primary or subprimary weapon the game will create problems.

 

[FedEx227]

Shocking. Substance abuse and addiction leads to suicide?

http://www.thedeadballera.com/suicides.html


No way.

Also tons of suicides in the lead up and the actual Great Depression.

 

[ralaw]

I'm not sure if it relates, but will those people who won't let their kids play football still watch the sport with the same passion you always have? I know my son likes football because I watch it (likes basketball more, because I watch it more). I'm wondering if your views on its risk will change your viewing habits. I certainly would find it counterproductive to tell my son he can never play football, but every Friday, Saturday and Sunday I'm taking him to a game or watching on television other's people's kids risking their lives.

 

[FedEx227]

I won't lie, the more I've read and studied concussions I've watched it less. I use to be a huge college football guy and that's pretty much done and I haven't watched a full NFL game (that wasn't the Bears at a bar) in a few years. I just kinda outgrew the sport as a whole. It wasn't only concussions though, I've never been as passionate about football as I was with basketball, baseball and pro wrestling.

 

[FedEx227]

:yao: with the groan about my opinion on if I watch football as much as I use to. Sorry brah?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I'm not sure if it relates, but will those people who won't let their kids play football still watch the sport with the same passion you always have? I know my son likes football because I watch it (likes basketball more, because I watch it more). I'm wondering if your views on its risk will change your viewing habits. I certainly would find it counterproductive to tell my son he can never play football, but every Friday, Saturday and Sunday I'm taking him to a game or watching on television other's people's kids risking their lives.

No.

I fall into the "I won't encourage it, but I won't stop him if he wants to" camp, but in my house on Sundays, Italian food will be cooking and the NFL will be on TV. It's their bodies, it's their brain that they are potentially scrambling.

Pro wrestling went through this stuff a few years before the NFL, thanks to the Chris Benoit murder/suicide. The prevention of concussions by eliminating moves that see the participants land on their head, or hard chairshots to the head, have been a debate point. In both cases (football & wrestling), who am I to say what somebody else should do to their own body? If you want to take a chairshot to the head, be my guest. It's not my head.

Anyway, I do watch less NFL these days. Where as in the past, I would watch wall-to-wall football all Sunday from 12-10pm, now on a typical Sunday I will watch the Rams, and then maybe channel surf the late games or have Red Zone on while I do other things around the house. I almost never watch Thursday, Sunday night, or Monday night games anymore. The NFL product itself is far less interesting than it used to be, and part of that is a bi-product of the changes made to protect players. Too much offense, too easy to score, two minute drills that never fail watering down great comebacks, too many penalties, etc. So actually, I guess you can say I do watch less because of these issues, in a round about way.

 

[ralaw]

No.

I fall into the "I won't encourage it, but I won't stop him if he wants to" camp, but in my house on Sundays, Italian food will be cooking and the NFL will be on TV. It's their bodies, it's their brain that they are potentially scrambling.

Pro wrestling went through this stuff a few years before the NFL, thanks to the Chris Benoit murder/suicide. The prevention of concussions by eliminating moves that see the participants land on their head, or hard chairshots to the head, have been a debate point. In both cases (football & wrestling), who am I to say what somebody else should do to their own body? If you want to take a chairshot to the head, be my guest. It's not my head.

Wouldn't you say the Sunday tradition of Italian food and football is essentually you encouraging it (or at least the possiblity)?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Wouldn't you say the Sunday tradition of Italian food and football would essentually be you encouraging it?

I'm sure it would, yeah.

Do video games that glorify war encourage kids to join the military? This is a slippery slope.

If my kid happens to get into NASCAR or something (please don't.), I wouldn't stop him from watching that either, and if it leads to him wanting to race cars, that's his choice. I don't have to like it, but it's not my life.

I guess my stance is that you can't shield your kids from things forever, and just because you don't like their life choices doesn't mean you should try to control them.

 

[ralaw]

I'm sure it would, yeah.

Do video games that glorify war encourage kids to join the military? This is a slippery slope.

If my kid happens to get into NASCAR or something (please don't.), I wouldn't stop him from watching that either, and if it leads to him wanting to race cars, that's his choice. I don't have to like it, but it's not my life.

I guess my stance is that you can't shield your kids from things forever, and just because you don't like their life choices doesn't mean you should try to control them.

I agree, which is my stance. I'm just sort of surpised at some of the comments in this thread of pretty hardcore football fans saying they'll deny their kids the chance to play. That is their business, but there also is an accountability issue as a parent that they have to think about. You can't ban your kids from football and scream CTE issue and than turn around and watch it every Saturday and Sunday.

 

[FedEx227]

I think you absolutely can. You can just be frank with the kid and say "These are guys that are hurting themselves, I like watching it but I don't want you to do it"

Just because I watch wrestling doesn't mean I want to do it. If I watch MMA and my kid sees it, it doesn't necessarily mean I want him to start fighting. I really don't think it's that hard to make that distinction.

 

[Villain]

If I have a son, he'll be allowed to play whatever sports he wants to play. The only "forcing" that I'll do is make him try different games when he's little so that he's able to try everything out. I'd hope that he loves baseball and soccer (my favorites as a kid) or even water polo (I played it in high school) so that I wouldn't be a total retard in any coaching role I might be put into. If he wants to play football, so be it. We'll take all the necessary safety precautions and be smart about keeping him from being hurt.

To be honest, I don't care what sports my kids are into, as long as they are into something active and don't get fat and lazy. I'm one to favor team sports over solo sports because I'm pretty big on teamwork and all that jazz. Of course, the soonest this could happen is in like 10 years (if I got married in 4-5 years and had a kid right then) so I'm sure more info/safety gear will be out there. That's when the real decisions will be made.

 

[FedEx227]

Are people really that against telling their kid no?

It doesn't have to be all that different than telling him no you can't get a new bike, or no you can't eat ice cream at 9:00 p.m. I don't get why you can't tell your kid "No, you aren't allowed to do that."

 

[Villain]

I know kids, parents who've said no (or been said no to).

 

[FedEx227]

I wanted to play football, my mom and dad said no, so I played baseball and basketball. My dad watched football all day Sunday and I watched with him and read magazines, etc. Didn't really matter though, it was just something I wasn't allowed to do like cross the street without them or play too many video games or whatever. It doesn't have to be any bigger than that, does it?

 

[ralaw]

I wanted to play football, my mom and dad said no, so I played baseball and basketball. My dad watched football all day Sunday and I watched with him and read magazines, etc. Didn't really matter though, it was just something I wasn't allowed to do like cross the street without them or play too many video games or whatever. It doesn't have to be any bigger than that, does it?

I see what you are saying, but my son is 3 and is into football because I watch hit. Me trying to explain to him about CTE won't really accomplish much right now. I guess another issue to this is that people don't really seem to care about CTE unless it's possibility affects their own. The rationalization behind not not allowing your kids to play football is the possiblity of your children becoming a vegetable or killing themselves when they're 40, so I would think that most people would be mindful/sensitive of that fact when they're chearing their favorite athlete on, but I guess not.