Would you let your son play football?

**mikesteelnation1** · 05-07-2012, 02:14 AM

I read Kurt warners quote on the matter over the weekend, and this article . Made me want to do lots of research. I love this game, and I know when I do have children, ill love them even more, than this game.

http://m.espn.go.com/nfl/story?storyId=7890147

The article included other references by a hof qb, troy aikman. It also included heavy allusions to the current state of mental health of many great ex players. Especially seau. It pointed to his untimely suicide and how he could be the "face" of change, to further lessen head trauma in the NFL.

Seau, duerson, and Webster are all big name guys who prematurely took their lives. 2 of three absolutely did so because of mental degeneration. The league has taken a harder stance as of late to lessen the number of concussions. The change in the kickoff rule was huge. There's a heightened awareness to the helmet to helmet hits, and the blasts once delivered to defenseless receivers. Doing so gets you at minimum a fine, perhaps a suspension. Changes the league needed to make.

The saints got destroyed for their involvement in "bounty gate". The league has taken an aggressive stance, but is it aggressive enough?

2 years ago VT did a study of all the helmets available, and their ability to lessen concussions. The lowest rated helmet was the one most worn by NFL players. Most said they did, because it was the most comfortable. Seemingly the study and the embrace of top tier stars like big Ben, eli, and rodgers using other helmets has shifted others from the use of the junk riddell mainstay helmet. Hopefully it did, I couldn't find any data, post VT study.

The league doesn't dictate what helmet players must wear, just that the helmet must meet all standards imposed by the commision that governs athletic equipment. BTW EVERY SINGLE helmet schutt, riddell, xenith, and every other helmet supplier makes meets the standard. A ridiculously low standard. I'll speak to it more later, and post links the the articles I read.

Here's the link to much of the above I've spoke about, and brings up a poignant point. Does the NFL not dictate what helmets to wear out of legal compliance and the ramifications of doing so? Seems silly to me.. the article is lengthy (like this post) but its got tons of great stuff in it..

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...y&sportCat=nfl

If my son wants to play football, ill be his biggest fan, his personal coach, and the guy who buys his helmet. A new one every year, at least, regardless of what his school supplies. And finally HELL YES he can play football!! I'll have a good idea if he's dinged up, and as all of you know Im not afraid to be vocal. A zealous coach won't shove my concussed kid back into a game..

**Pruitt** · 05-07-2012, 08:23 AM

My son doesn't even WATCH football...

However, all things considered, if he wanted to play it, I wouldn't stand in his way in the early years. However, once the players got bigger and the drills more dangerous, I'd give it some serious thought.

**packa7x** · 05-07-2012, 12:04 PM

100% I'd let him (or her!) play. It was one of the best decisions of my life. I didn't exactly have the greatest home life...the sport gave me the opportunity to branch out, meet new people, bag a couple cheerleaders

, and it made me a better person. I'm big into letting people pursue what they feel they want. Everybody is happier that way. Obviously, there are dangers inherent to the sport, but awareness is the key to prevention. I was aware of concussions and other injuries. As I've said here a million times, I've had 3 concussions from football. I knew the signs because of the great coaching staff I played with and I was held out an appropriate amount of time. No long-term consequences. I played my last snap of football thanksgiving 2006...almost 6 years ago. It's about being smart about it.

**Dave Lapham** · 05-07-2012, 01:57 PM

I did allow my son to play football and I think he is a better man for all the different experiences he had competing on the football field with a bunch of guys trying to achieve a common goal. He did take some serious blows to the head as a lead blocking fullback fitting up with downhill linebackers in the hole. I wince a little bit now thinking of the number of times I'm sure he got rung. Heck I do when thinking about the number of times I got rung. The big question for me now will be if my son comes to me for advice as to whether his son/my grandson should play football. I do know one thing........no way my grandson is NOT going to play full contact football as 5th grader with some psycho coach that has no idea how to teach proper technique to at least minimize some of the obvious danger in the game.

**wxwax** · 05-07-2012, 02:08 PM

We're talking my biological son, right? In that case, he'd have trouble making the two ends of a seat belt meet. Sure, son, go ahead and try out, I'll be waiting in the car,. Shouldn't take long.

The answer is no, I'd discourage it. Plenty of other sports to choose from, nothing unique about football when it comes to character-building. I grew up playing rugby, not football, and there is something about overcoming your fear of physical contact. Can't say it's ever been a factor in my life, though, other than when I played rugby poorly. Again, if the goal is to conquer your fears, lots of ways to do it without causing brain damage.

I'd as soon encourage my son to be a boxer as I would a football player.

**packa7x** · 05-07-2012, 02:27 PM

Plenty of other sports to choose from, nothing unique about football when it comes to character-building.

Disagree, I played football and track and dabbled in basketball and baseball in younger years, though never went through with it. Football is unlike all sports except for wrestling. It's unique in the fact that you have a lot riding on you. It's the ultimate team sport. Even wrestling can't match the team factor of football. Wrestling matches the intensity of football, maybe even surpasses it, but it's an individual sport that factors into a larger team score.

Football, you need all 11 guys doing their job to be successful. When I played center my senior year, I had to make sure I made contact with the 0-tech and AT LEAST stand my ground. If he got a good jump off of the ball, I'm in the QB's face and the play is as good as dead. Playing guard, if I get a bad pull and miss my assignment, the RB is on his ass 4 yards in the backfield. My failures didn't just impact me. They physically impacted my teammates as well. There's a lot to be learned there. I can't tell you how many near-fights I was in where myself and another lineman got confused and we both whiffed on an assignment and the RB got clobbered. He'd get in our faces and then we'd get in each other's faces. It teaches you how to deal with others and move past it quickly.

Another aspect unique to football is film study. If you messed up on friday (talking HS football here) you'd hear about it from your teammates on Friday, you'd dwell on it Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday, coach would rip you a new one in front of the whole team. It teaches you humility, responsibility, and it forces you to critique your own work, a hard lesson to learn for most people.

There's plenty of uniqueness with football. It's not just guys senselessly beating each other. It's an organized, complex sport consisting of individual responsibility, team unity, and accountability as well as extreme awareness, preparation, and while in school excellent time management. No other HS sport has the level of complexity that football has. You don't need to prepare that much differently for School A and School B in basketball. They're basically going to play the same way. In football, we had teams with 3 RBs, teams that ran the spread, teams that ran the option. We'd run everything from a 5-3 tackle stack defense to a 2-4-5. Line calls, dummy calls, audibles, motions, formations, assignments, pad level, adjustments, rules, time management...so much to remember out there. Trust me, it's much more unique than you'd imagine.

**ScottDCP** · 05-07-2012, 03:00 PM

I made that decision years ago, and it makes me a hypocrite, but no, not going to let him. I had two concussions playing and have had a couple since - it gets easier the more you do it, it turns out. I also have questionable knees, and I have these blessings from playing sparingly in high school (some bodies are better suited to it than others, I suspect.) There are so many other things to try. Soccer presents better travel options, Judo is more useful if you ever fall down, and I am sure there are others. I will admit that playing football in school didn't teach me much that I can think of. I went to an all-boys prep school, and rich kid teenagers are generally not a source of enlightenment.

My three favorite spectator sports, and really the only ones I like watching are football, bullriding, and volleyball, and the only one I'd not try to argue against is volleyball.

Interestingly, my wife, who LOATHES team sports, is opposed to soccer for our daughter because of the proliferation of knee injuries in high school girl soccer players (Her best friend having enjoyed one of them.)

**wxwax** · 05-07-2012, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by ScottDCP

(some bodies are better suited to it than others, I suspect.)

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

I once used a massage therapist who also worked on Atlanta Falcons, basketball players, soccer players, she did the works on athletes. I asked her which athletes had the most problems with their bodies, expecting her to say football players. She said soccer players, which amazed me.

I broke a nose and have a lifelong problem with my right shoulder thanks to rugby. No concussions though. You'd have a hard time convincing me that football involves any more personal responsibility than some other sports.

**ScottDCP** · 05-07-2012, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by wxwax

I broke a nose and have a lifelong problem with my right shoulder thanks to rugby. No concussions though.

Rugby is, scientifically speaking, Hardest on the liver.

**Andy Freeland** · 05-07-2012, 05:55 PM

How many of us played some form of organized football growing up? Ok, maybe the results here wouldn't be typical, but still I'm guessing that a fairly high percentage American men did at some point. Although I have no doubts that there are dangers and, more importantly, there are things that can be done to mitigate those dangers, if just playing football at any level was an automatic ticket to concussions then most of the men in this country would have some form of brain damage ... I fear I may have just given women the greatest straight line ever.