By The last game of my short football career came when I was in middle school. I can still remember the play that turned my suspicions that I may not be cut out for an illustrious gridiron career into a stark reality. The opposing team’s running back, a 13 year old ostensibly occupying a 30 year old’s body, took a handoff up the middle. I was playing the deep safety position and came up to make the tackle at the second level of the defense. I made the tackle; however, it was not an even match. In reality, I was less of a tackler and more of a bolder that merely absorbed the impact of the running back’s shoulder.
I recall hearing a loud crack and then blacking out for a brief moment while lying flat on my back. This wasn’t an injury producing play and I was able to get onto my feet and make it to the sideline for a much needed break. I can say with near certainty, however, that I did suffer an undiagnosed concussion. I had a headache that lasted three days and felt “foggy” and “out of it” for something like a week.
At the time I was still a child, and didn’t think much of what I had experienced. Nonetheless, when I look back on that time, I am a bit horrified at the potential damage that could have been done on that play and subsequent plays had I chosen to continue playing football into high school.
These types of concerns surrounding the dangers of youth football have been made more salient since the groundbreaking CTE study was released in the wake of the deaths of Junior Seau and Aaron Hernandez and blockbuster movies such as Concussion hit theaters. The NFL has even seen a drop-off in popularity among the American population, with the possibility for brain damage being a likely cause. “Big hits” are made much harder to stomach when one thinks of the life behind the helmet and pads.
So, this week, I’d like to take a closer look at the data surrounding youth football, some ideas to curb the danger of the sport for young players, and an alternative to full, padded contact play that I believe could preserve the popularity of football while helping to make the game safer for those playing at all levels.
Without further ado, But you’re wrong about…youth football.
What does the data say about youth football and brain health?
Sweeping studies have been conducted to explore the link between repeated hits to the head and degenerative brain trauma. Vox published a piece in 2020 canvassing some of the most important implications of this research. Below I have the six takeaways listed:
- Concussions are incredibly commonplace in professional football.
- CTE is a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive hits to the head.
- There’s a range of CTE symptoms ranging from mild to severe.
- It’s unclear how many players have CTE (as it is normally only confirmed in an autopsy).
- Even high school and college play poses risk.
- Attempts to make the game safer have helped some, but the risk is still incredibly high.
Plenty has been written about the dangers of football at the pro and collegiate level, so I will not delve into this with too much detail. Instead, I’d like to focus on point number 5 above and start from the assumption that if this type of trauma exists at these levels, it must also exist in youth football. In fact, it may exist at a higher rate because of poorer coaching at lower levels and less refined technique exhibited by young players. Both of these facts are evidenced by the video above that was released earlier this week.
Furthermore, youth football is played at an incredibly formative time for young brains. Any trauma at these developmental stages can have lasting and profound impacts on a child’s development as a whole. This is all the more reason for large-scale reform of the sport that could end up saving football for generations to come.
What has been done to curb the danger?
As of 2019, only six states have introduced legislation to curb the dangers of youth football. Most of these pieces of legislation set limits on the amount of padded “contact” time allowed per week and age-based restrictions on who is allowed to participate in contact football. Many time-allowances set limits at 30 minutes to an hour per week, and the age limits are set at an average of 13 years old. These are definitely drops in the bucket, but it is still good to see states taking action to protect children.
Parents also have a role in keeping their children safe from the dangers of football. I will not engage in moral grandstanding here, as I do not have children of my own. But it is telling that former players like Brett Favre have stated clearly that if they had a son, they would not allow them to play football directly because of the dangers associated with hits to the head.
Is there an Alternative to traditional Youth Football?
The short answer here is, yes. Many communities have developed flag football leagues that do not feature the type of aggression that comes with full contact football. These leagues have been understandably less popular than “normal” leagues; yet, this is the direction I feel football needs to go to protect the children and the game into the future. In fact, I feel that the aforementioned pieces of legislation do not go far enough when it comes to setting age-based restrictions on contact sports.
Think about all of the restrictions we set on children because they are not at an age where they can make the safest decisions for themselves. Children are not allowed to drive until they are 16, not allowed to have an alcoholic beverage until they are 21, and not allowed to serve in the military until they are 18. Yet subjecting children to severe head trauma is somehow allowed for kids as young as 8 years old. This is, as an old co-worker of mine would say, “bass-ackwards”.
So what is my vision for a safer, but still exciting game? It involves state legislators working in tandem with youth athletic directors to bolster the popularity of flag football while mandating a nationwide age restriction for youth players. Essentially, I believe all contact football should be outlawed for kids aged 15 and younger. This is still not enough to curb early head trauma completely, but if flag football were on offer (and popular) for young players to hone their skills of agility (such as foot skills, hand skills, and elusiveness), the game would be made naturally safer for kids that begin their “contact” career at the age of 16. There is already data to support this conjecture. A study published by the CDC showed, among other things, that hits to the head were reduced from an average of over 300 per player per year in contact football, to only 8 hits to the head per player in flag football.
The push for flag football needs to be forceful and sweeping for this to work. What I’m talking about here is strong campaigns from the NFL and NCAA advocating for flag football at a young age, as well as the building of a spectacle around flag football that exists for traditional youth football currently.
Some may argue that this will take the most exciting part of football out of the game. That is, the aggression. But since the data about CTE has come to light, I no longer enjoy the game because of the aggression displayed every Sunday. Instead, I enjoy the chess-like nature of defense versus offense, and the spectacle of amazing players making amazing plays. In fact, it is when big hits occur that I now shudder and question my own fandom for the sport.
If children were taught the skills of agility early on and not conditioned for extreme aggression, it stands to reason that the game at the NFL level would feature more star-powered, agility-laden plays and less gut-wrenching moments of pure aggression. There is not much that the population comes together on more than the safety of children. Therefore, it is high time that states, the NFL, the NCAA, and youth football programs take real steps toward protecting America’s young athletes. In my view, this involves a re-imagining of what flag football could be at a youth level and a strong push for protective legislation that outlaws padded contact for very young players.
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