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Your kids in Football?

jazzman12 said:
I grew up playing football into highschool. I love the game and have an 11 year old son. He's never played because he's never wanted to, but I'm now of the opinion that I wouldn't let him play if he were to change his mind. IMO, football has been evolving for the last 2 decades and we're starting to see the results. Richard Dent and Junior Seau are 2 very sad and compelling examples of that.

6'4", 260lb linebackers that run a 4.6 forty are not supposed to exist. 20 years ago, they didn't exist. Now, the league is chock full of them. I believe the hits are getting harder from highschool on up and we're starting to see the toll that it is taking (especially in regards to head injuries). When my dad played highschool football, you goofed off for nearly 10 months of the year and then played football once the season rolled around. As soon as it was over, you went back to goofing off. When I played highschool football, you had summer conditioning, 7-on-7 passing camps, the season itself, and then a football conditioning class for the rest of the year that counted as a PE credit. Obviously, building these athletes only gets more intense as you get into the college and pro levels.

As much as I love football, I firmly believe the athletes that are being produced from highschool on up are out-pacing the ability to protect players. In fact, there probably isn't a way to properly protect players from the type of athletes that are currently playing the sport at it's highest levels.
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This is a good post, and I agree. I wasn't allowed to play football until I was in high school, and at that point, there was no chance in Hell that I was going to embarrass myself by "trying out". I don't have any sons, nor will I ever (damn lack of testosterone!), but I wouldn't encourage football at all. I don't really think that I would be concerned about them getting hurt -- I would love it if my kids wanted to play hockey or get into MMA, for example -- but I just HATE watching football, and I'd be forced to go watch games. Blech.
 
Not a fan of over-protective parenting but I am old school on that front. I probably need to be more protective.

With proper coaching, many concussions can be avoided. Almost every concussion we've had happen has come from improper technique. But that is anectdotal and I know there are others we probably don't know about.

Having been involved with high school sports as long as I have I feel fine about saying there is no better sport than football for teaching kids. I just don't think it can be replaced in a kid's life in most cases.
 
CONAN said:
Not a fan of over-protective parenting but I am old school on that front. I probably need to be more protective.

With proper coaching, many concussions can be avoided. Almost every concussion we've had happen has come from improper technique. But that is anectdotal and I know there are others we probably don't know about.

Having been involved with high school sports as long as I have I feel fine about saying there is no better sport than football for teaching kids. I just don't think it can be replaced in a kid's life in most cases.
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I'm still confused as to what is defined as "kids". I think a lot of parents don't want there kids playing before HS, which I think is a smart thing. I think once HS starts though, the kid should have the choice.
 
What a bunch of ******* in here. Let your kids start playing football in middle school, it's a great sport. Sometimes people get hurt (I broke my arm and got a couple concussions) but I'm still doing alright. Over-protective parents are the worst kind. Let your kids live a little.
 
I played just about every sport I could as a kid, but baseball and football were my best sports. When I was 15, I played key roles on first place teams in both, including going undefeated in football for the T-ville bantams. 3 interceptions in our championship game(not 4 touchdowns). When I was 16, I played on both baseball and football sophomore teams. Unfortunately, that was when I started partying and smoking pot, and my grades dropped. I absolutely loved football, and my biggest regret from high school was screwing up my grades so that I couldn't play my junior and senior year.

Anyway, I can certainly understand people wanting to protect their kids from getting hurt, but if your kid is really good at something, and it's something they love, I have a hard time believing parents shouldn't always nurture that, considering all the other messed up things kids can get involved in. In other words, I don't think there's anything wrong with a parent trying to steer their kids towards other activities, but if a kid really wants it because they're good at it, I don't think they should be forbidden.

I also agree with the other posters who have mentioned that other activities are just as dangerous, if not more so, and that you can't shelter them from everything. Mountain bikes, skateboards, skiiing, etc., can all cause very serious injuries and death. I firmly believe that the best thing you can do is support your kids and just try to educate them as best you can, in whatever they get involved in.
 
OK, I'll weigh in. My parents never let me play football when I was a kid. I resented them for it at the time. Once I started 9th grade I decided I was going to play regardless of my parents and tried out for and made the North Cache Jr. High team. Never had any health issues except for a single concussion and turf toe. I'm pretty sure I broke my wrist too. I just taped the hell out of it and played through them all because I didn't want my parents yanking me off the team.

That said, I saw a lot of kids that had played football from a very young age needing knee surgery in high school.

I'd hold my kid out as long as possible but if he decided come high school that he wanted to play I'd support him. At a certain age you simply have to start letting go.
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
I'm still confused as to what is defined as "kids". I think a lot of parents don't want there kids playing before HS, which I think is a smart thing. I think once HS starts though, the kid should have the choice.
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I think that is actually more unsafe. I've probably seen more injuries to kids who don't know the game versus kids who played at an early age. Not to mention just the fact the kid will be behind.

In my experience, if a kid doesn't play tackle football before high school he rarely ends up playing every. We hardly ever get kids that just all the sudden decide to play in HS.

As far as when that safe age is for contact I'm not sure. As long as coaches are careful it would be fairly safe but nothing is for sure.
 
CONAN said:
I think that is actually more unsafe. I've probably seen more injuries to kids who don't know the game versus kids who played at an early age. Not to mention just the fact the kid will be behind.

In my experience, if a kid doesn't play tackle football before high school he rarely ends up playing every. We hardly ever get kids that just all the sudden decide to play in HS.

As far as when that safe age is for contact I'm not sure. As long as coaches are careful it would be fairly safe but nothing is for sure.
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My dad said he didn't start playing till HS and he got a 4 year full scholarship (to a small college).
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
My dad said he didn't start playing till HS and he got a 4 year full scholarship (to a small college).
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Cool story, Bro. Since we're rattling off anectdotals here's one: For every kid that gets a scholly after only playing in HS I know 1,000,000 that didn't.
 
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