Crushing Skulls Every year, more and more parents across the United States are pulling their kids out of their local football program. Many parents are simply not allowing their children to even start playing competitive football. They believe that the sport of football is too dangerous for their kids to play in. They think that football is simply not a safe enough sport to play due to the risk of injuries kids have by simply tackling another person. Football is arguably America’s most popular sport, and the general public typically hasn’t had an issue with its safety in the past (Lupton). So what is it that is making parents all across America now believe that football is too dangerous, and is there truth to these claims? Parents aren’t
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USA Football conducted a two year study in 2012 that found out that the younger kids were, the less chance of injury was present. They found that little kids simply do not hit each other hard enough to result in many injuries (Lupton). “One national expert in the area of sports medicine and injury rehabilitation is Dr. Stanley Herring from the University of Washington. Dr. Herring points out your children are far more likely to get injured in wheel-based recreation such as skate boards, bikes, rollerblades or on school playgrounds or using trampolines than in tackle football” (Lupton). Also, kids brains can take injuries much better at a younger age. “The plasticity - flexibility, in layman's terms - in the brain is greater in a child, and it has more room to swell. So things we see in adult football players are slightly less of a concern in children” (Robertson 1). When kids aren’t allowed to play in their schools football league, they are still going to play anyways. Boys all over the country play tackle football in their yards with each other all the time, it is just a thing kids do. They watch football on the T.V. and want to be just like their favorite player. When they play in their yards, they are not wearing pads and they don’t use proper tackling techniques. This leads to making direct head-to-head contact with each other, resulting in injuries
USA Football conducted a two year study in 2012 that found out that the younger kids were, the less chance of injury was present. They found that little kids simply do not hit each other hard enough to result in many injuries (Lupton). “One national expert in the area of sports medicine and injury rehabilitation is Dr. Stanley Herring from the University of Washington. Dr. Herring points out your children are far more likely to get injured in wheel-based recreation such as skate boards, bikes, rollerblades or on school playgrounds or using trampolines than in tackle football” (Lupton). Also, kids brains can take injuries much better at a younger age. “The plasticity - flexibility, in layman's terms - in the brain is greater in a child, and it has more room to swell. So things we see in adult football players are slightly less of a concern in children” (Robertson 1). When kids aren’t allowed to play in their schools football league, they are still going to play anyways. Boys all over the country play tackle football in their yards with each other all the time, it is just a thing kids do. They watch football on the T.V. and want to be just like their favorite player. When they play in their yards, they are not wearing pads and they don’t use proper tackling techniques. This leads to making direct head-to-head contact with each other, resulting in injuries