• The KillerFrogs

OT: Warning -- Youth Tackle Football is Like Smoking

steelfrog

Tier 1
Steel isn't suggesting abolishing it at all. Steel LOVES a great hit. The more vicious the better.

What Steel is suggesting is, it's dumb for 99% of the participants. Recognize it for what it is -- it's human cockfighting. It's awesome. But putting your kid in it? Hell no. What's the point? for the 99%? None at all.
 

Brog

Full Member
Studies show that kids who play tennis are 67.89% more likely to develop tennis elbow in later life than those who don't. Tennis elbow is a very painful condition for those of us in later life. Really feel it every morning when I shave.
 

steelfrog

Tier 1
And it isn't just the brain injuries. The lifestyle especially for linemen, encourages them to eat and get big and as we on this very forum have experienced, those guys later on go on to have heart problems, struggle with weight, knee and back issues etc. etc.
 

Zubaz

Member
I think the "significant risk of permanent damage" is a huge exaggeration. Virtually half the kids I grew up with played football and every year there are thousands and thousands and thousands of kids who play the game. The % that have suffered permanent damage that materially affects their way of life is extremely small. And it's not like a large percentage of kids are playing past the high school level anyway. Yeah, playing at the professional level carries some substantial risks, but at the money those guys are making most all think it is worth it.
You're responding to a thread started by highlighting a scientific study showing the opposite of what you said. If you want to take the "Grandpa smoked two packs a day and lived to 80" line, that's fine, but it's flying in the face of an increasing amount of evidence.
 

DeuceBoogieNights

Active Member
Steel isn't suggesting abolishing it at all. Steel LOVES a great hit. The more vicious the better.

What Steel is suggesting is, it's dumb for 99% of the participants. Recognize it for what it is -- it's human [ the old ricardo ]fighting. It's awesome. But putting your kid in it? Hell no. What's the point? for the 99%? None at all.

If only the top 1% or whatever you are suggesting played, then there wouldn't be enough players to field high school teams, then colleges wouldn't have the chance to recruit, and then the NFL wouldn't know who this so-called 1% is because they havent seen them play. I get what you are saying but it wouldn't work out.
 

Wexahu

Full Member
You're responding to a thread started by highlighting a scientific study showing the opposite of what you said. If you want to take the "Grandpa smoked two packs a day and lived to 80" line, that's fine, but it's flying in the face of an increasing amount of evidence.

I don't think studies like this are anywhere close to definitive. I'm going by what I witness in real life. I know a lot of people that played football through high school, and the number who suffered permanent damage from the sport I can number on about one finger (right now I can't think of one). Maybe they will all be virtually vegetables by the time they are 75 years old, i don't know. But I doubt it. The number of them who speak with any kind of regret about playing the game is literally almost zero.

Let's just agree to disagree on this subject.
 

steelfrog

Tier 1
Agree to disagree, ok. Discussion over.

Now, one thing we all CAN agree on, is that old white guys with goatees are mental. They have issues. They are the reason we all get to listen to "Low T" commercials on a daily, or hourly, basis.

That is all.
 

HFrog12

Full Member
This life lessons thing is so amorphous and dumb. It's what everyone who tries to justify playing a violent sport where you smash your head into someone else's head likes to talk about. Plus everyone dreams of their kid being the ONE who makes plays and gets the glory when most kids end up being practice cannon fodder and standing on the sidelines during games.

Oh, also, the scholarships. They like to talk about that.

Put it this way -- let's talk about playing highly competitive sports at all--If every kid/parent combo who spent countless thousands of hours doing a sport--ANY sport, much less one proven to cause brain damage -- spent the same amount of time on furthering their academics, they would surely win academic scholarship money much easier than sports scholarship money. Last time Steel looked, there was 400 times as much academic scholarship money as there was athletic scholarship money available.

And if you are talking about a sport other than football, good luck getting a "full boat" scholarship. Chances are you'll get the same or even less than the average academic scholarship at a given school -- that is, you'll be playing MORE than the average smart kid there. It's a marketing thing for many schools -- hey let's have a boys' soccer team, then we can bring in 30 kids who will be paying a premium to be here and do their sport.

Higher education is a money-making endeavor. It's a racket. The people who work for these corporations are there to make money, to increase assets and line their own pockets. Sports is but an extension of that. The schools wouldn't continue doing sports if they weren't something that ultimately pads the bottom line.

Whoa...simple opinion to something I experienced. I am not sitting here trying to justify which one thing is better than the other. I have admittedly said that I played tackle very early on and all the way through high school and do not regret it one second. I was young enough that my parents needed to help me get into it, but it didn't take long for me to enjoy it. Using my two boys as an example, I am not going to start them out playing tackle young because I am not going to make them. At some point they will probably choose to play, it will probably bring them joy, and in turn will bring me joy.

I refuse to believe I am a bad parent because I allow my boys to play tackle football. You may think the life lessons is amorphous but I however do not. It is not a sole validation or justification of playing the sport but it is something that is there, whether you want to believe it or not. There are no soft skills to learn by doing as you say and spending all sports time in a class room focusing on academics. Sure if I want to give my kid the best ROI, money wise, in his life then I should withhold him from all sports and make sure he only focuses on his studies. I can agree that makes the most for a prosperous life, if you look at it monetarily. But I think I would rather give my kid a full life where he was allowed to do things that he enjoyed. And in life there can be a healthy balance of that.

So again, I am not trying to justify playing tackle football by the life lessons because it's not quantifiable. I was simply outlining some of the positives that come with it.
 

HFrog1999

Member
I played football from 2nd - 12th grade. Don't regret it. I have a 5 year old son, and I battle with allowing him to play in the future if he wants. When is the right time to start tackle? Is there ever a right time? Hopefully he just gets into something else. We'll see I guess. Tough decision to make because I love the sport but it definitely has plenty of downside.

My sons didn’t play tackle until 7th grade. They are both doing good on their respective teams.

Until 7th grade, they played mainly soccer, baseball and some flag and basketball.
 

Surfrog

Active Member
Football at the high school level = 10.3 concussions per 100,000 exposures.
Soccer at the high school level = 8.7 concussions per 100,000 exposures.

Both carry risks. All sports carry a certain amount of risk.

With that said, there is absolutely no scheissing reason a 2nd grader needs to be playing tackle football. They can barely coordinate themselves let alone take a hit. Any "form" they learn at that age is garbage and will be retaught over and over again.

Middle school is about the earliest where developmentally, kids are ready for the hits of tackle football.

Focus on being an athlete first and playing all the sports from flag football, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, soccer etc.
 

HFrog1999

Member
Steel isn't suggesting abolishing it at all. Steel LOVES a great hit. The more vicious the better.

What Steel is suggesting is, it's dumb for 99% of the participants. Recognize it for what it is -- it's human [ the old ricardo ]fighting. It's awesome. But putting your kid in it? Hell no. What's the point? for the 99%? None at all.

I loved playing high school football. My kids play because they want to. It’s fun. If they didn’t enjoy it, they wouldn’t do it.

My Dad was a drag racer. That’s not exactly safe. His Dad was a football player and a boxer.

I guess you can enjoy life playing it safe, I don’t know many who do.
 

AroundWorldFrog

Full Member
Growing up in a place like Odessa makes it tough to not play football. Hell, we probably got concussions playing tackle football out in the yard. At least once I ran full speed into a cement block fence trying to catch a pass and knocked myself out.

And at least three times in HS, I can remember hits that 100% caused a concussion with hundreds of hits on top of that which may have caused a concussion. You just gutted it up and stayed on the field. And there are times now that I believe that I'm paying for that.

Did I love the game? You bet. And the harder the hit, the better.
 
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