One of the NFL's most disgusting blind-eye act is for referees to ignore the players who frequently lead with their helmet for hits against the opposing team's quarter-back. Those players ought to be suspended from the game. Secondly, another disgusting act is for the NFL owners to continue ignoring scientific evidence that hard-hits to the head frequently cause concussions with debilitating brain damage. It is truly pathetic for the NFL commissioner to receive a monstrous salary and owners to become extremely rich - when older players are poor and incapacitated due to brain injuries from their many years of playing football. Hopefully we will see the end of football within our generation.
2
As a parent of a 13 year old I've followed these stories closely over the years and made the decision to avoid football based on many of these articles. Why do I feel a sense of sadness over this particular one? Is it truly the beginning of the end?
1
There is no way that tackle football can be played safely, by anyone. It's time for sterner measures:
Youth football is child endangerment. Child protective services should take action against parents who sign consent forms. Universities are raking in money off the mangled bodies and minds of players. Sue the NCAA and the conferences and name the presidents, coaches, athletic committee members, and trustees in the suits for their individual acts of complicity. The NFL is a criminal conspiracy. Prosecute Goodell, the owners, the coaches, and the media who cover them under the criminal animal cruelty statutes.
Youth football is child endangerment. Child protective services should take action against parents who sign consent forms. Universities are raking in money off the mangled bodies and minds of players. Sue the NCAA and the conferences and name the presidents, coaches, athletic committee members, and trustees in the suits for their individual acts of complicity. The NFL is a criminal conspiracy. Prosecute Goodell, the owners, the coaches, and the media who cover them under the criminal animal cruelty statutes.
1
Our grandson is almost 14 and a self-confessed football junkie. He lives for game day and except for bruises, cuts and scrapes and a dislocated finger on the last play of the last game last season, has been very lucky. One of his teammates has had at least three concussions and that was as of three years ago. This same child is determined that he will go to a US college and play football, then the NFL will follow. I have to say that his parents are encouraging him, if my 11 year-old had had three concussions, I'd be steering him to a different sport. I cannot help but wonder what state this child's brain will be in by the time he is 40? Why is it so bad in football? It isn't in rugby or soccer.
1
There's really no doubt about it. The lawyers are raping their way through American life. Having milked the NFL every which way they can, something ultimately paid for by the fans, they are going after our kids' cookie sales to help out Pop Warner football.
5
I wonder how high schools can support an activity that requires not one but two ambulances at each event.
2
Good.
I played in high school. I loved the game. I still like to watch a good game. But the sport has turned barbaric, fans lust too much for violent contact.
Get rid of helmets, streamline the padding. Sure, the game would be changed but the athleticism would still be there; and the competition.
Get rid of helmets, streamline the padding. Sure, the game would be changed but the athleticism would still be there; and the competition.
6
I walked in a park today and saw middle school boys practice throwing the football-
Knowing they'd advance to tackles, hopefully with helmets, isn't reassuring.
Working with kids who have sustained head injuries, you see them and their families suffer.
It's not worth it-there are other sports, other ways kids and their families can have the fun, without the hurt.
Knowing they'd advance to tackles, hopefully with helmets, isn't reassuring.
Working with kids who have sustained head injuries, you see them and their families suffer.
It's not worth it-there are other sports, other ways kids and their families can have the fun, without the hurt.
4
Why did you let your kids play? Don't you have common sense.? Did you not see kids ramming into each other? This lawsuit is utter nonsense. I would not let my kids play Pop Warner football because it is obviously a high contact sport.
7
...but people are ignorant and/or have lower than normal intelligence...some need help making some decisions. This football nonsense is ingrained in the culture, so duller people just think it's okay because everyone does it. So the suit is trying to help all of us, not just the people with common sense.
1
Why on earth don't kids, parents, and sports fans switch allegiances from football--with its horrific violence and injuries--to RUGBY, an altogether better game? My eyes were opened to (rugby) "sevens" during the Rio Olympics when I saw how it combines the excitement of what's best in both football and soccer. There's pure athletic physicality, not I'm-going-to-kill-you tackles. There's continuous action, not the stop-start whistle blowing that makes the NFL so boring. And there's no ridiculous he-men costumes with outsized shoulder pads and helmets. Rugby's already here, a ready-made solution to the dilemma parents face when their precious sons ask, "Mom, Dad, can I go out for Pop Warner?"
7
Good points. But there are also plenty of concussions in rugby. Ever take or ever see a rugby player take a knee to the head?
1
Maybe someone should consider suing Network television. They're responsible for glorifying some of the most damaging hits and have so for years.
8
Do not forget NFL films which has done it for years.
As strange as it may sound (and this is not a joke) it would be much better if football helmets were made of cushioned material (pillow like). the temptation to lead with the head would be significantly lessened and the head much better protected. it doesn't sound macho which is why it would be dismissed out of hand by the legions of "football guys" but I know it would be a great step towards keeping players (of all ages) safer.
3
As the football season is upon us will this lawsuit make a difference? Is the NFL too big to fail?
1
The American untouchables; the NFL, big banks, and the NRA.
6
What responsibility do the parents, the GUARDIANS of their CHILDREN, bear in the consequences of allowing a child to play football? Our society will arrest parents who let their child walk home from a park unattended because it MAY be unsafe, but turns a blind eye if those same parents allow them to engage in a sport that is brutally physical,and is KNOWN to lead to physical injury and severe long term consequences. Where is Child Protective when they are needed
12
Excuse me but my son played when it was still safe for a child to walk home from the park alone. He played in a time when the bigger and the badder that you were the more play time that you got. He would vomit during practices and keep right on going. And do you know what his coaches would say, "Atta boy!" They didnt care that he was suffering with heat stroke, they didnt care if he had a head ache after every practice, the ONLY thing that they cared about is if they had one of the best players on their team! They had "The Beast" and that is all they cared about!! Dont get it confused, Pop Warner is a FOR PROFIT organization, it makes money off of these kids. And now my son, who used to be a honor student, is 4yrs into a 5yr degree because he has concussion induced ADD, and concussion induced depression. It could have ALL been avoided if only there were trained people on the sidelines watching over these kids.
9
...it could also have been avoided if you had not allowed your son to play...or be 'abused' by the coaches.
1
There are far better ways to build character and foster teamwork than football. Too many parents have been brainwashed about the value of football. Youth football is a way of sacrificing the well being of too many kids for the eventual payoff of very few. It's about greed, billions of dollars and a big lie. It's about ego and the deceit practiced for years by the NFL as they lied about brain injuries to protect their bottom line. Mother's don't let your babies grow up to play football.
11
Sports do not build character. Sports are places where character (built in the HOME) is exhibited.
7
Tackle football is an inherently dangerous sport. You don't need to be a neurologist to figure out that repetitive head trauma is not good for a developing brain. What parent can say they had no idea their son could get seriously hurt playing football? Short of not playing, there is no way to make football safe. Pop Warner did not ignore standard safety precautions. All players have to wear standard head and body padding. Though my heart breaks for these parents it is disingenuous of them to abrogate their own responsibility for their child's safety.
6
To abandon activities that entail intentional violence seems to be a bright idea. Apart from saving brains it raises the level of ethics in human relations. US is most welcome to join the world in the largest and greatest game of real football (and at the same time remove the awful word "soccer"). Injuries from heading the ball are extremely rare, but why not try a US variant for children where heading is banned? (And at the same time improve the dubious off-side rule.)
5
Boring, kick the ball up and down the field, ending with 0-0 and penalty kick results to determine a winner. That's soccer. And it's not America. Head injuries in football are over hyped. New helmet technology is virtually eliminating concussions. But there will always be some people who want to make a windfall of money at the expense of an entire sport.
Except that the concussion rate for soccer is similar to football. For women's soccer, its actually higher. The reality is that participation in "non-contact" sports can result in head trauma rates similar to contact sports. Outside of banning all sports (a non starter) the solution is to minimize or eliminate the high risk behavior that can result in head trauma. US Soccer recently banned heading for players under 10. USA Football should take similar action by banning tackle football for players under 12.
2
NYT has reported extensively about the widespread instances of brain injuries and suicides among players in American football, not to mention half a dozen deaths a year in high school football, teenagers that is. There is no similarity whatsoever with international football.
2
Wish someone could find a way to sue the educational establishment in Texas that allows this crippling sport to override every academic endeavor. Why should taxpayers feed this killing machine?
18
AMEN.
3
Hooray for these mothers for taking on the powerful football establishment! I hope that they are wildly successful. Then I hope that they will build on that success and experience to then take on the NRA.
9
This article could be shortened to a a simple title: "Tackle Football Played by Minor Children is Extremely Dangerous and Sometimes Fatal, Organizers Will Be Sued. Wake Up Parents."
13
How long till a public school district gets sued because of CTE due to football? Will it become too expensive to insure and lead to districts dropping football? It seems like this could be the beginning of the end. However, I don't think football will go down without a fight. It will be interesting to see how football will try to convince the mothers of America to continue putting their seven year olds in helmets and risk head trauma.
18
The shameless adult men behind Pop Warner (and the ignorant, uninformed parents) that condemn these innocent little boys to a diminished future of brain damage will not stop what they are doing out of conscience: there's money and absurd male bravado involved.
Sue them and the helmet manufacturers out of existence until not a penny is left in their coffers and no insurance company will come within 1,000 yards of them.
And in the future, let's see the names and photographs of the Pop Warner officials behind this callous obscenity.
Sue them and the helmet manufacturers out of existence until not a penny is left in their coffers and no insurance company will come within 1,000 yards of them.
And in the future, let's see the names and photographs of the Pop Warner officials behind this callous obscenity.
18
I grew up in a football household, NONE of my family ever had the issues that my son now has. But my son played both sides of the ball, and he played the line. Which means he was hitting or being hit every single time he stood up. The difference between him and my brothers? My brothers were quarterbacks, and receivers. They did not endure the beatings that my son endured. Dont get me wrong, my son LOVED/LOVES football, but because of concussions, he can never play a contact sport again, or it could kill him. Not all parents are as smart as you think/would like for them to be. FYI: My son played nearly 20yrs ago from 7yrs old to college 18yrs old. He is now 5yrs into a 4yr degree, he WAS an honors student, he was recruited for football, but after a major concussion during college conditioning, he can no longer concentrate, he has concussion induced ADD, and concussion induced depression. I, his uninformed mother, brought him home from college because I knew he was not being taken care of, I his uninformed mother am going to be taking part in a class action law suit against Pop Warner, because THEY did NOT EVER explain the possible health problems! They throw a bunch of paperwork at you, explain what the paperwork says, whether it says that or not you dont really know because ALL they care about is getting the registration money!
2
That litigation takes the place of reasoning and critical thinking will destroy America, not football, the NRA, politicians, or any other perceived ill of society.
1
As a mother, I refused to give up a month of summer vacation to subject my son to tortuous heat prostration, body bruises and humiliation by bigger and dumber participants. It was strictly selfish on my part. Not for a moment did I think I was saving his life. My heart breaks for any parent who believes somehow, unknowingly, they contributed to their child's demise.
There, but for the grace of God, go I.
There, but for the grace of God, go I.
14
The brain moves around inside the skull. Football helmets have a very limited ability to prevent a concussion from another human being running into you at full speed. The operative comment on TV is still a "good hit"! Rarely do you hear "it was a good tackle". Thanks, ESPN. If parents stopped succumbing to all the hype, they would prevent their children from playing football and direct them to other sports.
12
Yes, the parents are correct,
BUT - they signed consent for their kids to play.
BUT - they signed consent for their kids to play.
8
That didn't protect the tobacco industry. Consent obtained by grossly misleading the signatory is still fraud.
7
But was that consent truly informed consent ? We as parents have to sign release from liability forms for every field trip. In the US the releases tend to be written to lead us all to believe that any mishap would be unavoidable and that there are no predictable bad outcomes. Any physician and any youth leader who does not know IN ADVANCE that hundreds of hours of using a head as a battering ram would do damage is in denial or is conning you.
2
Mom's sign the consent to please their husbands living out their vicarious pleasures. Moms can be more forceful in the face of this pressure. The sport which I encourage kids and parents to attempt is H2O polo, water polo. I tell these aspiring boys about the physical appearance of a lean muscular physique and that the injuries are minimal compared to the collisions in football. The only reluctance on the part of these boys and young men is the idea of wearing a Speedo.
Who has standing to sue parents on behalf of their injured and deceased children for negligence in allowing a minor to participate in these dangerous activities? We know the NFL, USA Football, Pop Warner, et al., is callously indifferent to and lies about the serious risk of concussions. What parent doesn't know this?
5
It's a shame families have been destroyed and continue to be destroyed for a game that turned into an industry of people that care about the dollar more than kids. We learned the hard way. Hopefully this lawsuit will bring about the changes for child safety that should have been done long ago.
8
I believe there is no way to make tackle football safe for any age and it will begin to disappear. But there is something unsettling about parents who sue Pop Warner and USA Football for terrible injuries and the deaths of their children from playing football, which they themselves signed them up for. It's like smoking except no one forced you or enticed you or addicted you to have your kids play football. Once the parents became aware that football at any level is a dangerous game (and everyone knows that for years) they are the ultimate responsible party for their kid's injuries. Believing that helmets protect kids from injuries no matter what fake info that is based on belies common sense. A lawsuit brought by an injured child against his parents for signing him up for football makes about as much sense as those brought by the parents. No sport is injury-proof, but some are worse than others. Find the safer ones and promote them.
12
You can't have it both ways. If you're going to rely on what the parents signed, then the information the parents were relying upon has to be accurate. You can't fraudulently induce the parents to sign a contract and then use the signed contract to shield you from liability.
1
Fraudulently induce?? I think the burden of proof will be still on the plaintiff to prove fraud. Or CTE. Or any of it.
There may be a legal argument, but I don't think just claiming fraud will get it done.
There may be a legal argument, but I don't think just claiming fraud will get it done.
And this is how professional football comes to an end. The insurance premiums for youth and HS football skyrocket and the pipeline to college and the NFL dries up.
20
I do not see how school-age football -- including college -- can survive our knowledge about football and concussions. How many parents in the future are simply going to rule out football for their kids? What kind of consent form can a school draw up that includes "potential for future severe brain damage"?
I just don't see how the sport survives except as a purely voluntary one, outside the financial umbrella of schools, and not endorsed and centerpieced within school programs. The liability issues are insurmountable.
I wonder what the NFL is thinking? It has to be panicking. More than any other sport, football benefits from the free training and hyping of football that we let our schools do for it.
I just don't see how the sport survives except as a purely voluntary one, outside the financial umbrella of schools, and not endorsed and centerpieced within school programs. The liability issues are insurmountable.
I wonder what the NFL is thinking? It has to be panicking. More than any other sport, football benefits from the free training and hyping of football that we let our schools do for it.
21
I keep thinking (hoping) Ivy League schools will be the first to abolish their football programs in favor of sports that don't include opposing teams banging into each other full force.
Since you have to have a good brain to get into those schools to begin with, why on earth would you put that brain at risk in the name of sport?
I know, I know -- the alumni love their alma maters' football teams -- I knew 80 year old Ivy League grads who wrote big checks and went back every year to cheer their school on, even after all this concussion information hit the news.
Who would know better now than those older, wiser Ivy Leaguers that this has got to stop.
For the health and well-being of the young men following in your footsteps, why not withhold all future contributions until these bastions of higher learning admit that in good conscience they cannot continue putting these young men in harm's way for your entertainment.
If you truly love your school, you are in a position to make a difference that could save the lives or careers of young men who think they are invincible now, but could pay a very high price later.
Since you have to have a good brain to get into those schools to begin with, why on earth would you put that brain at risk in the name of sport?
I know, I know -- the alumni love their alma maters' football teams -- I knew 80 year old Ivy League grads who wrote big checks and went back every year to cheer their school on, even after all this concussion information hit the news.
Who would know better now than those older, wiser Ivy Leaguers that this has got to stop.
For the health and well-being of the young men following in your footsteps, why not withhold all future contributions until these bastions of higher learning admit that in good conscience they cannot continue putting these young men in harm's way for your entertainment.
If you truly love your school, you are in a position to make a difference that could save the lives or careers of young men who think they are invincible now, but could pay a very high price later.
3
The NFL is actively promoting their brand by connecting it to glory and manhood, beer and cheerleaders. It's a fantasy about violent warriors and alpha males and plays into the weekend couch warrior's delusions of victory while downing wings and beer.
2
There's strong rumors that heading the ball in youth soccer is next . . . .
6
Wish I could "recommend" this comment 100 times! I'm a Pediatric ER physician Both my kids played youth and travel soccer. I was shocked initially at the emphasis their team coaches were placing on having the kids do headers in practice and in games. Fortunately I was able to persuade their coaches to voluntarily discontinue this practice. Many of the other parents disagreed but I think they just didn't understand the risks involved. We'll be hearing a lot more about this soon I think.
5
As a soccer fan, I absolutely agree that heading (while an exciting part of the sport at its highest levels) should not be allowed in youth soccer. It can be learned later.
3
Or taking a wild pitch off a batting helmet...
Frankly I'm skeptical of these law suits, especially the class action status (if it's ultimately granted). Did the decedents play football after Pop-Warner, like in middle school, high school, or beyond? At what point can you pin the tail on the organization and say, no this is the one that caused the CTE? The one with the deepest pockets?
I tend to agree youth football should probably not exist, and that no football should really be played before high school. But this seems like a retroactive, money grab, frankly.
Frankly I'm skeptical of these law suits, especially the class action status (if it's ultimately granted). Did the decedents play football after Pop-Warner, like in middle school, high school, or beyond? At what point can you pin the tail on the organization and say, no this is the one that caused the CTE? The one with the deepest pockets?
I tend to agree youth football should probably not exist, and that no football should really be played before high school. But this seems like a retroactive, money grab, frankly.
1
I had long been a football fan, having grown up six blocks from the old Yankee Stadium and taking in many Giants' games with my dad in the 1960s when he had season tickets. He became good friends with several of the Giants through legal representation and later on was friendly with Ron Johnson. They played tennis together after Johnson retired, but Johnson later suffered from severe neurological issues ultimately diagnosed, I believe, with early onset Alzheimer's Disease. Nobody knew at that time the degree to which football destroyed the body bit by bit, especially the most vital organ, the brain. But we unequivocally know that the contact involved in youth football is particularly damaging to the brain. The still developing brain is susceptible to significant damage from just a few hits to the head at the age children play Pop Warner. There is no way to prevent it other than to not participate. The damage only increases through high school, college, etc. The medical and scientific evidence is undisputed, despite those opposing who have huge economic interests to keep the gravy train running, similar to those climate change deniers who will continue to whistle in the dark. Football destroys bodies and eventually minds.
22
How can USA Football misrepresent at best ("lie" is more likely) in a official hearing on Capital Hill and yet HeadsUP Magic tackling is still being endorsed by major groups such as the NATA and others who are supposed to be on the side of safety? No grieving family wants to endure a lawsuit, but after all other means to create change are exhausted, lawsuits are the ONLY way to make any change in youth sports. #FlagUntil14
9
If these lawsuits filed against youth football organizations gain any traction at all, I believe it would be safe to say that within the next 20-30 years college football and ultimately the NFL could cease to exist. It is quite clear because of some young victims and parents, fearful of permanent injury, no longer wishing to involve their children in the game, the feeder source in reasonable numbers for HS, college and the NFL will just no longer be sustainable.
4
NFL's doing fine. I suspect the outsize stadiums are a thing of the past, though. I would not have bought my NFL season tickets if the Red Zone had existed.