I don't know . . . i am still friends with the folks i played HS and youth football 30 years ago and nobody i know has suffered anything. It these "phone bank studies" didn't exist - would anyone in the USA actually look around and at the friends they knew in HS (or college) that played football and see anything at all unusual? Maybe NFL players, but most people would think of their knees before their heads. But NFL players are a fraction of 1% of all that played football. The whole debate seems more culturally driven than scientific - at least as it relates to HS level and below. That said, the real benefit of the game is at the HS level for developing young men. I'd say flag through 7th grade then tackle through 12th grade with good coaching. Then less than 3% play in college (by choice) and a fraction of 1% play longer. Or we could just snow ski, swim, and ride bikes for more safer options (oh wait).
3
This study should be a heads-up to all parents.
(Sorry, sorry.)
3
Professional boxing remains legal throughout the United States. We used to laugh about "punch drunk" old boxers. How much of a difference is there between boxing where the essence of the "sport" is to destroy your opponent and football where an essential part of the "sport" is to debilitate your opponent to the point he can't stop you? I still watch but it's getting harder to ignore voices in my head telling me that I shouldn't. A decade from now, football at all levels will have lost much of its popularity. Boxing, I hope, will be even less popular and will have slipped into the land of freak shows.
4
Do these studies correlate football to brain damage, or are they really correlation getting hit in the head to brain damage? As others have shown, soccer has head injury problems. And if we go outside of sports, we can include driving and many other activities. I have said many times football is being singled out because it is uniquely American, and leftist media sources hate America.
1
Nice try, Joe - but as my staunchly GOP ex-Aggie football player with severe early onset dementia would tell you, when you drive a car, you're not hitting your head repeatedly like you do in football, unless you go to a really fxxxed up driving school (his bleep, not mine). But we do agree with you about the danger of heading in soccer - and so did the US women's Olympic soccer team with their brain damage protest.
15
I predict that 10-20 years from now there will still be professional football, but it will only be played by minorities and the poor who have few prospects, but are recruited with promises of fame and fortune.
8
Head trauma is like radiation -- cumulative over a lifetime, and able to trigger an irreversible cascade of destruction once the tipping point is reached. Why expose children to it unnecessarily, especially since we don't know what makes individuals more or less susceptible. My brilliant father died slowly and horribly from dementia, losing the ability to think, remember, speak eat, walk and finally, breathe. It's just not worth it.
29
The evolution of American tackle football and it’s place in society never fails to fascinate. If sometime in the future someone manages to write the “great American novel”, I’ve got to believe football will be front and center.
Thoughts…consider the irony:
• The American term that has become synonymous with elite colleges…“Ivy League”…is, in fact, only an athletic conference originating with a group of schools wishing to play each other in football.
• Football is the closest thing we have in this country to a national religion.
• In an era when churches and sit empty on Sundays and those who do choose to attend seem to self-select churches that are segregated along race and ethnic lines…college and pro football is integrated and diverse. Perhaps not in ownership but definitely in on the field and in the audience. There are probably more mixed race couples in the NFL than there is on the Harvard faculty.
• College and pro football seems to attract a huge number of female fans. I guess it’s the uniforms, emotional energy and physical drama.
Parents continue to allow their kids to play, even in this age of apparent overprotectiveness. Not a single “Ivy” college has closed its football program and believe me…you don’t play for Harvard with the expectation of going to the NFL. I guess it’s all about being part of this larger national sports institution and what it represents.
Frankly I find the game itself pretty boring.
4
Wonder if PeeWee Football will take heed of this article?
1
This is an early pre-existing medical condition for many.
2
Of course the NFL will deny this report - they make zillions of dollars off the backs of these athletes. Greed dictates all.
6
im a former rugby player from argentina, sorry for my lack of english. Since movie concussion i start paying attention to this facts but for is a bit difficult to understand why you describe as a tackle sometjing that is not a tackle. You cant teach kids to use the head as a bullet (using a helmet or not) to hit the other player, that is not a tackle, is acriminal action against his own health. I understand that rugby is not a common sport in USA but you can see games in the olimpics and you ll never see a player trying to hit with the head to the other player, that action is totally forbidden!!!. Im father of 3 kids and they play rugby since they are 6, i played rugby since i was 8 (my llast game was a few months ago between former players- im 46 now) and i only have one concussion in all my sport career. the problem with american football is that you need to change the rules, you cant teach kids to hit another kids head to stop a player running. As i explaained in a comment before the principal difference between rugby and american football is that we dont teach to hit the other players with the head, the tackle is driving legs using your shoulders and "wrapping" the legs of the other playes with yout arms to stop him. Any kind of action involving risk to the players health is totally forbidden.
16
With USA favorites to host the 2026 world Cup and World Cup viewership scaling new highs it is time to write the obituary of the brutal sport. A local product can never survive against the onslaught of a global product. The abundance of concussions in football are merely hastening the demise.
2
I think the same studies need to be done on young, female soccer players who are taught to "head" the ball as a common drill during practice...also, the rate of concussion needs to be seriously looked at in young, female soccer players...
10
US Youth Soccer banned headers for kids under 12; this rule change went into effect last year. For boys and girls. They can start heading while playing U13, under lots of supervision and training on "the right way" to head.
4
Here in Europe, youngsters usually play soccer and to my surprise, even they on average suffer brain damage due to the many headers, one study even found these injuries to be comparable with those of amateur boxers.
4
If football were invented today, is there any chance whatsoever that school district lawyers would allow it as a school-sponsored activity? And any chance that parents would view it as a great sport for their kids?
13
This sport can't end soon enough. Before it dies, though, fortunes will be minted by attorneys, and deservedly so.
Are you listening, class-action lawyers? Sue public universities. Sue public high schools. Sue everybody in sight for knowingly exposing thousand of plaintiffs to lifelong psychological problems.
Enjoy your fat winnings secure in the knowledge that the only way to put a stop to this carnage is to hit people where it truly hurts: their wallets.
And maybe, just maybe, schools and colleges will get back to the business of building minds instead of destroying them.
26
It's not just brain injuries. I know several adults who used to play high school football and regret it to this day because of the musculoskeletal problems they suffered and continue to suffer from the violent nature of the game. I would like to see a study on these types of injuries in later life.
11
Played football most days in the fall from age 10 to 13, tackle with no equipment. There were no head injuries because the style of play was more like rugby. No adults to show us how to hurt ourselves, so we kept our heads out of harms way. Smart kids.
11
Bravo. Played vacant-field-impromptu-tackle-football up to age12. A few bruises, scrapes, and an occasional sprain, but no concussions.
Helmets have been and are being used as weapons.
More beef than brains.
7
The ApoE epsilon 4 allele has been associated with an increased risk of early- and late-onset alzheimer's disease. There is also some evidence that traumatic brain injury may impact this risk. Studies published by neuropathologists at Boston University who examined over a hundred football players' brains have found that almost all of them had neurodegeneration due to the repeated trauma of the game. A vital question that needs to be answered is how the Apo E epsilon 4 allele affects the onset or severity of traumatic brain injury associated degenerative disease. Results of such a study may have consequences for individuals who play the game.
2
My father was a high school football star who was offered a full college scholarship. (World War II got in the way). He is now 94 years of age and as mentally sharp as ever, even still handling his own finances. I suspect this is true of many former players from his generation. This is because it was a different game then. Players wore very little padding and leather helmets with no face guards. A tackle was the act of wrapping up the opposing players legs to bring him to the ground. Blocking did not involve head contact. Now what was "tackling" has become "hitting" and it is coached that way. The intent is not just to stop the opponent, but literally to do harm. It has become a far more violent game. As a soccer coach, I once coached the son of a former NFL star who even wore a Super Bowl ring. He would not allow his own son to play football. That says it all.
33
Today football players are far bigger and heavier physically than they were decades ago. My father wore a leather helmet in the late 30's. He quit playing after tackling another player resulted in a debilitating permanent handicap for the other young man.
8
This is, of course, a no-brainer finding. Children should not be involved in any contact sport until high school. Better yet, how about never.
Parents, don't give in, you only have one brain and it's all you've got for the rest of your life.
11
Wrestling, for example, is a contact sport with pretty low risk of concussion. And wrestling is a pretty-near universal activity of kids.
2
mgf is correct. It is football, boxing, and any other sport with purposeful head trauma that are the major issues.
4
As one often finds when he follows the NYT links, this smells of junk science:
"The increased risk was independent of the total number of years the participants played football, the number of concussions they reported, or whether they played through high school, college or professionally."
In OTHER WORDS, JUST PARTICIPATING in football appears to lead to these problems, forsooth.
1
It's established that repeated sub-concussion-level-blows to the head can do the harm, and that one year can do the harm.
2
The conclusion of the study related to the ages at which the kids started playing and found that those starting before age twelve had more problems. There is nothing to "smell" here, just the results of a well done story that apparently reached different conclusions than your preconceived notion on the subject.
4
I began playing football and hockey when I was eight and continued through high school. Then, it was rugby in college. I remember certain concussions, but don't recall others. I'm 62, and during my time, getting "one's bell rung" and seeing stars were signs of toughness.
For young people, I hope those days will end soon; when Little League football ends, taking with it the coaches who have never played the game.
16
Toughness and masculinity is a toxic brew, a very American way of raising male children. I used to run cross country in Converse unsupported sneakers until I got terrible shin splints and was unable to participate. The coach screamed and screamed to run, run, regardless of the pain - be a real man. My not running was solid proof I was not masculine, couldn't "take it".
Had this shadow of a coach bothered to warm us up with stretching; understand and use protective sports equipment; and lightened up on the toxic testosterone culture, well, he might have been a actual coach.
5
This will never be a debate about the health of children because such a debate would be a no-brainer, no pun intended. No, this is about what adults do to children in order for adults to get along with eachother. Shameful.
6
Not sure how many games you've attended but the few I have been to parents don't always get along. There is much strongly worded "discussions" on the sidelines about why junior doesn't get enough play time. No, parents who attend these games aren't always lovey dovey. I have seen fights break out among grown men and I use that term loosely. All football should be banned it's barbaric.
3
There is a common saying shouted out to our schools soccer players (by their classmates) every time they do a header "there's another point off your SAT!"
6
So, we wait the first "child endangerment" arrest of parents who allow their below age of consent child to engage in football.
It's not "play" folks.
It's not "sporting" folks.
It's not a "game" folks.
11
In my opinion these researchers have said nothing new. CTE was long discovered by Bennet Omalu to be prominent in NFL players. It's unfortunate that the writer of this article was not educated enough to do proper research and acknowledge him. At best, the Boston researchers are building on his research. A spade should be called a spade.
3
They are conducting the wrong study. There was a time when helmets were made from layers of stiff leather that would give and absorb impacts. The injuries we see today have occurred with plastic helmets that far more ridged. -- We need a study on the people who played football with the leather helmets. If they do not have the same degree of injury, we have found a major clue on the cause of the the problem. E.g., cause and effect.
2
I have been saying this for years. The helmets are the problem, but it's still not a game for children to participate in.
2
Read previous comment. When leather helmets were worn, head contact was not part of a tackle. Tackle should be a grab not a head butt.
3
It is clear science will not convince. I can get brain damage in a car accident with no helmet: it is the brain slamming back and forth inside the skull causing it, not a need to slam the head itself.
Yee Haw! Plllllay Baaallllllll!
Just as insults to the developing fetus are far more devastating in the first trimester than in each succeeding trimester, so too is trauma more significant to the developing juvenile brain than to an adult brain. Soccer is probably little better, with kids heading the ball hundreds to thousands time in practice in order to learn and perfect technique.
6
US Soccer no longer allows heading the ball for U11 and younger and limits that amount of heading in the U12-13 age group. It's not perfect, but it's a start
http://usclubsoccer.org/2016/03/14/implementation-guidelines-for-u-s-soc...
The NFL is like the Tobacco companies. It's all about the bucks, and who cares what happens to the players, they are just "product." Fortunately, this evidence is out in the open and parents are going to ensure that their kids play safer sports.
9
Except it's the most popular sport in the country with endless violent and sexual tribal ritualism built around it. To claim this is corporate malfeasance when it is Americans', is a lie.
2
When I was in elementary school (long time ago) we had a blast square dancing.
Think of it: very very aerobic. Teaches social equality. Teaches sequencing. Teaches auditory responsiveness and memory. Doesn't depend on expensive equipment. Allows kids of varying athleticism to participate enthusiastically.
And what could be more American than square dancing? And most cultures have some sort of ethnic dances so multi-ethnic schools can mix it up and allow kids to share cultural heritage combined with fun and exercise.
Forget the football. Let's quit glorifying aggression.
14
My brother had a brief professional career, and now my son, nearly 7, knows that football is not safe and his respected uncle agrees.
4
Everyone who has proposed an alternative to football seems to be overlooking the one activity that:
Takes place outside on brilliant autumn afternoons;
Requires intense concentration;
Necessitates extreme awareness of one's fellow participants;
Is physically challenging;
Inspires young people to strive to qualify to join;
Has an extremely low rate of injury;
Incorporates mentally stimulating tasks;
Teaches lifelong skills such as leadership, teamwork, and sensitivity;
Demands a commitment of time and energy; and
Is artistically rewarding.
The activity? Marching band.
20
"In phone interviews and online surveys, the researchers found that players in all three groups who participated in youth football before the age of 12 had a twofold “risk of problems with behavioral regulation, apathy and executive function” and a threefold risk of “clinically elevated depression scores.”"
Any family stimulating kids to play football have something wrong with them. Most likely all in such a household have behavioral problems as defined above.
The lure of professional football contracts will continue to draw young players to the sport. Since it's unlikely the sport will be discontinued at the college or professional level, then stricter rules and improved equipment promoting player health are needed.
Dramatic and violent hits have always been encouraged by coaches, players and fans. It'll be difficult to reduce admiration for the near-gladiatorial violence involved in the game but it could be tempered with stricter rules. For example, any intentional helmet spearing contact, especially to the other players head, should be an immediate ejection followed by a multi-game suspension. When players are prevented from playing the game (dangerously) then coaches and players themselves may alter behavior.
Many who parent these children and the children themselves are willing to take the risk as long as there are paydays to these violent activities. There is no rolling back the financial incentive which drives some self-destruction.
1
As we have seen the on-field professional product deteriorate into a freak show of narcissism and overt rage, fueled by chemistry, ignorance and oodles of filthy money tied to gambling, so shall we see the long overdo awakening, both among parents and longtime fans, that we can do without it. Thanks to the NFL and it's partner in crime, ESPN, the demographic that has supported this mayhem for decades is abandoning it and the demographic sought would just as soon watch MMA, where the mayhem is not hampered by hypocrisy. Out here among the erstwhile viewers, a smirk rises when considering how unemployable 95% of the league will be once this gladitorial spectacle goes the way of boxing. Prominent, in name anyway, universities will have much more seats once the Neanderthals are no longer needed or welcomed. Yes indeed every cloud has it's silver lining.
They say a national sport is a reflection of that country's character. Using your head as an opponent bludgeoning instrument, as a battering ram, seems a quintessentially American thing to do doesn't it? I suppose many countries would laugh at my statement and say "Now THERE'S a SURPRISE!" Heh!
And in life, as in the sport that represents us, we oft-times seem to think less and lead with our head. Don't think with it, hit with it. From having done this extensively the last few decades is it so surprising our national politics are in a state comparable to that of aging professional (American) footballers?
But I digress. This write-up is about how doing, and teaching, such impacts our young. In this regard I think it is wise to guard them (sometimes from themselves) as best we can by limiting, hobbling (if you will), such sports until they reach an adults maturity whereat they can decide for themselves whether using the head in such fashion is truly for them or not.
John~
American Net'Zen
3
Soccer is also very dangerous. AYSO does not allow young children to head the ball, but it still occurs. We need to be careful in all our sports in investigate how hard we push young children to play organized sports.
3
I agree here. My son is tall and has always been expected to head the ball on corner kicks even though he is actually a better corner kicker than the designated corner kicker. He doesn't like to head the ball (he is cognizant of the potential dangers) and gets criticized for preferring to use his feet in soccer rather than his head.
I realize that it is an advantage to have the tall player do this but we aren't talking professional soccer or even ODP level! Kind of glad that he's aging out of these kinds of sports.
1
(And no, football is not necessary at all. There are marching band competitions all over the country.)
1
My "work spouse" has a 13-year old son who weighs in at over 300 pounds and has just hit 6'1". He plays varsity football in his 8th grade. Imagine being hit by that Quasimodo!
1
Just wondering what the latest research has to say about rugby?
Where was the control group of subjects who dd not play football?
From reading this and the linked article, this was a subject group made up entirely of former football players. There appears to be a dearth, still, of studies comparing former football players to people who did not play football to help establish the prevalence of brain damage/impairment in football players compared to the general population. That's the single most important question, it would seem. And yet, no one seems to want to get that question answered from a scientific standpoint. And so we still don't know the degree of risk entailed in playing football.
3
Even if you discount the injuries, there is another problem with football and indeed all of our school sports: only the most talented are encouraged to play. The rest are expected to just sit and watch.
Perhaps sports should be structured like school music programs, where anyone can participate regardless of ability. The best athletes could find outlets for their gifts in after-school programs, just as the best musicians now do. As for the rest? At the very least, they would be exposed to a healthy, active lifestyle that will benefit one all through adulthood.
4
Boys starting football before age 12 might have different cognitive baselines, and it would be good to acknowledge this as a possibility to explain the differences between groups. E.g., boys who are unusually large or unusually aggressive (or both) for their age might be more likely to start football earlier than their scrawny peers. I'm not saying this explanation is any more likely than that made by authors (who finger football injuries as mechanism), but it's a possibility that should be mentioned.
Sports money should go into badminton, especially at a young age. A lifetime sport, aerobic, easy to learn, and fun. Set up outdoors anywhere, it is also a natural for schools played inside, out of the weather and wind.
1
It would be helpful if people were more rational in looking at the dangers of football. Football has been widely compared to boxing. Watch 12 rounds and watch 4 quarters and tell me if you think the head trauma is similar in the two sports.
How many ex-football players do we know had CTE -- 110. No more, no less. How many possible concussions do NFL sideline medics report each year? 245, or about 1 for every 6.5 players. If that's accurate, and it's all we know, the average player undergoes concussion treatment once in his career.
The Times reported wrongdoing by the NFL and it found ex=players with dementia, which may or may not be tied to CTE. That galvanized a lot of people, many of whom don't like football or the NFL anyway.
Several years after the Times expose, a lot of folks comment that football is all about money and we ought to spend that money on something else. The connection between such comments and the core issue is none.
People seem to think that the proof regarding CTE is a lot stronger than it really is. And they have no idea that the evidence of concussions is so slim. Most folks will just tell you it's common sense. Whatever common sense may suggest, the science here has a long way to go. Until there are many more studies -- and ones that are better than this one -- hard scientific evidence remains thin and the common sense correlations that people make are mostly what we rely on.
1
During the Obama administration healthy diet and exercise were a centerpiece of the First Lady's agenda. The president's struggles with his cigarette addiction added positively to the conversation.
Donald Trump does not smoke or drink; Melania and all his children seem trim and fit. There is a basis for presidential level continuation of advocacy for healthy exercise and diet and avoidance of athletic activity, starting with football, deleterious to the long term health of our children.
I really wish academic achievement was nearly as important as physical one. Parents never complain about a coach that requires too much exercise but constantly express dissatisfaction about too much homework.
4
Having observed games of full contact football involving 8 year olds who can hardly support the helmets they wear, it became obvious the villains are the parents and coaches actively cheering and inviting their kids to "damage" the opposing players.
That and 60 milliom dollar high school stadiums !
1
As long as big-money is involved, football programs will mortgage our children's future. My son is tall, fast and athletic. He was approached by the schools football coach and asked if he wanted to join. To his credit, he said no (I would not have allowed it anyway). Instead, he told the coach that he was offered a full ride scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago this past summer for a Ballet Intensive. The coach was not impressed, but my wife and I could not be more proud.
4
No child should play tackle football before the age of consent, which is usually the age of 18. At that point, a child can make a decision for him or herself. There are plenty of other athletic pursuits that a child can engage in to enjoy team sports and competitiveness. When the adolescent gets to college, he can play football for them. The collegiate player can make the college money but not himself, get a degree in sandwich making and get brain damage, all while on scholarship. He will then get a job sweeping floors somewhere.
1
Does this mean it's not a good idea to allow my child to repeatedly crash his head into other children's bodies or into the ground while running at full speed? Thank goodness for research.
3
Isn't it purely logical that repeated impacts to the head cannot be good for you? Especially for a young kid, and even the age is a red herring, a children's brain does not stop growing or slow down at age 12!! Contrary to the artificial age stipulation in this article.
One's socio economic strata determines who plays football - versus who are the suits behind the games again?
1
Helmets are as dangerous as seat belts. Simple economics.
"Everybody associated with the game is worried about the participation numbers."
As far as the NFL goes, the worry is about the money, period, they could care less about the players, the fans, the cities, anything but the money. Even winning isn't all that important, the losingest (?) teams still make a fortune.
Interesting how there is no mention of Bennet Omalu or his research here. Who do is blame for this oversight? The kind benevolent researchers or the sensitive publishers. This is kinda awkward.
1
Who knew that stopping hitting yourself in the head could feel so good? A no-brainier, maybe? And cigarettes, like, are not harmful to your lungs? And maybe having an absolute dufus for president is not, like, in our best interest and, like, in the best interest of what, like, used to be in, like, the best interest of our, like, country. Is it, like, safe to conclude that our current so-called president, Trumpty Dumpty, must have played football between the ages of, like ten and twelve. Hello!
Every blow to the head is a blow to the head. This sport is group boxing. Is this the lesson we are using to teach our children self-worth, in this male-dominated ritual of embracing the value of bravery in stepping into the ring?
Young children should only play flag football and older children should play by Australian football rules. Heading the ball should not be allowed in youth soccer.
So this is what the death kneel of a sport sounds like...
This research was conducted by folks with sizable financial interests in finding that football is dangerous. Some work for drug companies that are developing medications to reverse the harm of concussions. Some work with the players unions who are suing the NFL and the NCAA.. The researchers' loyalties are so tainted that they clearly should be replaced. But Boston University supports it, probably because CTE research is so lucrative.
According to the research report, if the study had been about 11 or 13 year olds, there would not be "robust" findings. There were about 100 subjects who had played youth football, not nearly enough to conclude that it is unsafe. Moreover, the findings for 12 year olds were about 3% worse than those who didn't play youth football, barely significant statistically, and yet significantly more 'sexy" than those for ages 11 and 13.
Read between the lines and you understand that the researchers picked their control group after the results were in. That's when they chose 12 year olds rather those 11 or 13. Their chosen control group gave the most damning results possible, which weren't very damning after all.
Much of the educated public wants to be rid of football for numerous and various reasons. But they should know that there is a possibility of bogus research. Manipulating control groups is an absolute no-no, especially when done by tainted researchers. The results here don't convince me. What you think is up to you.
2
My first five minutes of football practice in 5th grade told me to get the hell off the field - more head injury was a certitude. What scares me now is seeing the backlash to efforts to end the insanity of encouraging behaviors that virtually guarantee a bruised young brain. to wit"- Today's yahoo "news" opinion piece- https://sports.yahoo.com/im-brain-scientist-let-son-play-football-135727... Sure hope this "Dr." Peter Cummings' colleagues at Boston University School of Medicine can intervene in time to prevent permanent damage to young Fionn Parker-Cummings' ever more vulnerable brain.
This is what football contributes to young men better than any other sport:
1. The racial mixing in football is unique in American sports. And you don't just stand around together. If a white blocker opens a hole for a black running back, the two immediately understand that they are working together for the same goal. They call that male bonding.
2. Football gives opportunities to the poorest of the poor and those fairly well off. It is one of the most masculine activities for boys and the boys who value that come in all shapes and sizes. It should also be noted that putting on the pads and playing football will not harm your reputation among 12 year old girls
4. The football locker room is a magic place. Guys talk about things in there that they don't talk about anywhere else. And when they have reason to celebrate, they celebrate as a team. white, black, Latino all jumping around and doing stupid things.
5. Bottom line, football opens up a new world to young men who are learning how to become the man that they want to be. That's a big deal. Football is a big deal. If we lose it, those of us who played will know just how much our sons have lost.
6
The military does all of these things better, and you get paid for it. Bring back the draft: if we limit US forces to national defense, as opposed to foreign intervention, it can rebuild the nation both physically and spiritually.
4
You forgot nos. 6 - 10:
6 It affords young men the opportunity to experience traumatic head injury with life changing consequences.
7 It builds strong families. Wives, children, and relatives can watch their loved one’s cognitive abilities deteriorate over time and their behavior change until they hardly recognize them. It is a bonding
opportunity.
8 It bolsters America’s healthcare system. It gives young men the opportunity to eventually test America’s already overburdened healthcare system and maybe have taxpayers pick up some of the cost.
9 It helps the economy. If young men are good enough they can play college or even professional football. They can be fodder for drooling, fanatical fans lusting for a blood sport that, on the college level, diverts educational funds from the classroom and into elaborate stadiums and coach salaries.On the professional level they can become gladiators, willing to sacrifice limb and brain to make billionaire owners even richer.
10 Young men can cement a proud legacy. If lucky they can, at the end of their life, donate their deteriorated brains to science so that it can further establish the link between football and traumatic brain injury.
9
I would much, much, MUCH rather see mandatory exercise meant to promote overall health, cardiovascular fitness, and strengththan see more money wasted on this barbaric "game."
How many kids graduate from high school unable to run 2 miles? To do 20 push ups? We are promoting the wrong outlets for youthful energy, with predictably lousy outcomes.
73
If anything in the schools should be privatized, it's the physical education department. Too much time is wasted during P.E. classes playing team "games," where not everyone gets to participate at the same energy level. You don't need a certificated education person to "teach" P.E.
What you need are some high energy leaders in group exercise (think Jazzercise) who have additional training in understanding how the body functions and in the area of nutrition. Then 45 minutes of strenuous safe exercise daily will yield wonderful results.
As I attended my first parent/student football game in a top school in Massachusetts... a group of football jocks walked towards us on the sidewalk ... the day before the game. We all stopped..and stepped aside on the grass.. as they continued past us. This was the behavior of all they approached on the sidewalk. Everyone stepped out of their way. I got it! I understood their arrogance and power on campus. In watching the game in the beautiful stadium the next day...I truly understood their arrogance and power. Follow the money!!
21
This adds even more evidence that repeated sub-concussive jolts to the head cause permanent brain damage. Sub-concussive jolts to the heat occur not only in football, but in soccer too, when "heading" the ball.
11
David,
Follow the link to the Times article on the BU study earlier this year, and then come back and talk.
A subconcussive jolt in football was "like driving your car into a brick wall at 30 mph." And one lineman randomly selected to wear a sensor sustained that jolt 62 times in one game. Not a lineman with an inordinate number of hits. Just the lineman who happened to be picked to get the special helmet.
A 1-lb soccer ball hitting your 10-lb. head, an average of a couple times a game ... even the occasional sidelong head-to-head impacts as two people jump next to each other for a ball in the air ... these things aren't really even relevant alongside the repetitive car wrecks of football.
in rugby you dont use your head to tackle, you use your shoulders. Since you are a kid coach teachs to iuse your shoulders in tackles -the sequence is first leg drive, use of shoulders, then close arms- and to avoid any kind of use of your head to hit the other player. The opinions given by people that didnt played rugby is wrong.. sorry for my lack of english.
6
The problems with brain damage within football are extremely well known and for those who can remember - back in the early 80s, there was the Bob Nelson football skit with reference to "Dain Bramage". Even back then it was well known that head smacks cause terrible damage.
Here's a link to the skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI4c21w77JU&list=RDtI4c21w77JU&t...
4
Perhaps Americans could learn from Australian Rules Football. This game is played at a furious pace and matches last about two hours of actual play. Violent tackling is allowed, sometimes by more than one player. It's no game for the squeamish. Virtually no safety gear is used.
BUT the head is sacrosanct. Even light contact above the shoulder is penalized with a free kick. Heavy contact, as from a punch, draws a report and a suspension for several games. It is also a reportable offense to tackle a player in such a way that his head strikes the ground. (The 'spear tackle'.)
Since accidents will happen, a protocol decrees that a player who suffers a heavy blow to the head must leave the field for a medical examination. Anybody who suffers concussion is required to be monitored and must not play again until it is deemed safe. Players who have suffered repeated concussions retire early.
Perhaps it is time to get rid of helmets and stop using heads as battering rams.
6
At least one study by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, placed high school girls soccer as having the most concussions of any sport; including high school football. Youth and middle school soccer has a high rate of concussions also. One of the worst concussions I ever heard of was a 7th grade girl soccer goalie, who had to be in a dark room for 2 weeks. Football is not our only concern.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/recruiting-insider/wp/2017/03/27/gir...
Sports are great for kids, but all come with some level of danger. Let's keep studying, and continue to make sports safer for all.
10
Soccer has also causes extreme boredom for viewers.
1
Anyone with so much as a finger in amateur football that has assets will soon be withdrawing. Sponsors will be loathe to provide equipment, other than socks.
Which school system will be first to pull out. It will likely be wealthy, with a large number of attorneys in the PTA.
Which system will have to sell off assets first to satisfy a judgement?
What area will produce the first school board member who promises to ban football?
8
I wish someone would explain why playing violent competitive sports are supposed to be "good" for young people. Will it make them more fitness minded later in life? Will it improve their cognitive or intellectual skills or well being? Will it somehow help them get along with others? So what's the point?
19
Certain aboriginal adolescents would pass through many ordeals which would finally lead them to become a full man These ordeals included circumcision ceremonies and having one of their front teeth
knocked out.
One aboriginal group, in order to be initiated to become a man, participated in the fire ceremony in which the boy's resistance to pain was tested from falling hot embers of torches or lying on burning logs. This prepared the boy to live by a warrior code through having developed survival skills and learned their roles and identity.
And so on and so forth ...
We are not aborigines. But their rites of passage tell us something immutable about ourselves. Boys are often tested with pain or violence as a passage rite to manhood. Even our pampered sons go through this sort of passage. And one way or another, they will test themselves physically against others. Football isn't the only way to do that, but it's the most popular. Transient injuries are part o the game. Irreversible injuries are not. That's why the scientists are doing their studies.
If you take away football young boys will still test themselves in violent and dangerous ways. Who can jump from the highest ledge into the quarries? Who can outwrestle whom? And who can ride their skateboard down this railing?
With all the attention these days to what it means to be a girl, we seem to have forgotten what it means to be a boy.
The fact that all that protective gear is required to practically every part of the body should tell anyone all they need to know about the nature and the end result of tackle football. Or maybe it isn't so obvious to some who are dumb to begin with so they don't even notice the detrimental effect the trauma has had on their brains later on.
8
Football is dead. It just doesnt know it yet.
53
I wouldn't bet on it... We tolerate MMA and professional boxing but not football? Or hockey?... Get rid of the blood sports, eliminate cable TV, and tax alcohol higher. Then you'll see a revolution.
5
Games like rugby, wrestling, Gaelic football (does anyone really understand this game), or thoroughbred horseracing where jockeys are throttled the entire trip aboard the horse and brought near death if they fall are often overlooked when CTE is discussed. Baseball presents unique contact/assault issues when pitchers throw directly at the head, neck, or shoulder, or collide on base paths. When I think of the number of concussions and bone injuries soccer players incur, I shudder.
Repeated and unregulated contact creates the most concern. No youth athlete should engage in any game that involves serious body on body, or head on head contact of any kind, or repeated daily. The larger problem is the type of contact permitted or encouraged--spearing, neck wrestling in all the contact sports, aiming for and using the head as a way to block, tackle, or deny advance.
One fundamental and largely unaddressed problem, I think, are parents, coaches, and fans who insist that "contact can't hurt (the youth athlete) because it is 'soft' contact" (whatever that is), incorrectly comparing pee-wee tackling to that of college and pro athletes, anomalous comparisons surely since bone and brain development, and body mass at various stages of growth are what matter. Parents and others should wise up about the age their children engage in any true contact sport. Outlawing the head as a weapon or as the object of that weapon should be standard at any age.
27
I played soccer for decades and almost never witnessed a concussion. Girls soccer has relatively high concussion rates, but boy's and men's soccer do not.
1
Ryanwc, concussions are not necessarily observable. Also, sub-concussive events are also are cause for concern.
I have tried to write about this before, that as I understand it, war is contrary to International Law unless explicitly agreed to by the United Nations (whether it is by a majority of the Security Council, or all?). In most sports, hitting the player is considered a foul. We should be able to resolve differences and achieve conflict resolution using our higher powers of diplomacy, of brains and heart not brawn. War is a failure of our humanity. And calling activities that would be considered criminal assault in any other setting a "game" is also a failure of judgement in exposing our children to what is in fact a blood sport in the name of promoting teamwork (in football or rugby) we are not protecting our youth from overt brain injuries. And boxing makes it all the more clear. We are preparing young people for battle, for war.
1
Great article! Missing is the highly attractive emotional rationale for stadium (coliseum) competitions for players, as well as "fans". Humans are by nature driven by ancient hierarchical instincts to engage in status (dominance) competitions and "civilized" peoples have been providing arenas for these throughout history. The winners get the rewards those societies offer: money, free education, housing, food, sex, the rush of "dominance feeling", social status, etc. Unfortunately for the participants, European football (soccer) is far, far healthier to play but less violent, less exciting for most Americans. A big part of our current "opiate epidemic" is the accumulated life-long chronic pain from injuries in youthful football games. Trust me, I'm a retired neuropsychiatrist and treated these folks. Depression is also increased with these folks. We get "high" on the stress hormones released in the "games" and in the stadium seats (vicariously). We have become a society addicted to the stress "high". We are awash in violent material, which is not tabooed like sex in our culture. Great story, but only scratching the surface. Thanks for the effort!
43
Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm interested in your link between youthful sports injuries, chronic pain, and abuse of opioids. I've also read that insurers basically promote the use of opioids to relieve pain instead of safer, less addictive alternatives because they are cheaper, which is horrifying. Are there studies that show links between opioid use and injuries from sports?
Football is a violent sport. Unlike teaching a child to hunt, football teaches a child how to assault others. So, incidentally does ice hockey. if parents are interested in seeing their children grow up with a fully functional brain they will not sign their children up for football or soccer (if heading the ball is encouraged). Riding a bike, jogging, swimming, playing a game of pick up baseball is better. There is nothing glorious in a game that uses assaulting players as a way to win.
35
Don't forget that bike helmet, eh?!? And swimming!?! SWIMMING!?! Have you not seen Jaws!?!
hunting teaches a child to assault defenseless and innocent non-human animals
3
I think the brain injury issue with football is quite serious. You I can't take seriously. Somehow, in three years of high school football, I missed the lesson on how to assault others. However, I did learn from football how to stand ujp for myself and not be bullied. Also, I saw a man dying along the side of the road the second time I rode in the RAGBRAI cycle ride across Iowa; someone dies in that ride just about every year. Two mountain cyclists died the year they opened my local ski hill to mountain biking. It takes18 people to play a baseball game; that's hardly a sport conducive to pickup; basketball, which you left off your list (scared of it?), takes as few as two. I once hit a root on my hardtail mountain bike going downhill on a single-track; broke a rib, broke my helmet, and luckily ended up with a mouthful of just dirt instead of rocks -- but I was out on the bike on that same hill today. Jim Fixx, the running guru, died jogging; Pistol Pete Maravich's famous last words as he stepped off a basketball court were, "I feel great." Then he died. I was a local swimming champion as a kid, but almost drowned in the surf at the Jersey Shore. Et cetera. Maybe you should focus on the growing consensus about the dangers of brain injuries instead of bringing your silly conclusions, based on obviously not having played football, into the discussion.
There is a problem when scientists have major conflicts of interest. Who does a study matters a lot. Check out the "scientists'" conflicts of interest here:
CB has received research funding from the NCAA and the Harvard Football Players Health Study, which is funded by the NFL Players’ Association. CJN is an unpaid member of the Mackey-White Committee of the NFL Players Association and a member of the advisory board of Oxeia Biopharmaceuticals with stock options. ACM has received funding from the NFL and WWE, and is a member of the Mackey-White Committee. RCC is a paid consultant to the NFL Head Neck and Spine Committee. He is a member of the Mackey-White Committee and is a paid member of the Medical Science Committee for the NCAA Student-Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation. He receives royalties from book publications, and compensation from expert legal opinion. RAS is a member of the Mackey-White Committee. He is a paid consultant to Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Biogen. He is a member of the Board of King-Devick Test and he receives royalties for published neuropsychological tests from Psychological Assessment Resources.
This study was conducted by scientists who have worked extensively for football players in their concussion litigation against the NFL and the NCAA. Two work for drug companies that market drugs for football head injuries! Obviously, there are substantial conflicts of interest here. Are the research results affected? You tell me.
9
What is your point?
That they are trying to minimize that young children shouldn't play.
Or that playing while young is okay because these doctors aren't to be believed?
10
School physical education needs to move away from competitive sports and towards activities that build overall health, muscular strength, cardiovascular strength.
Sports has very little to do with that.
This should be a centerpiece of our healthcare policy, raising children who are strong and healthy, who appreciate the feeling of having a strong and healthy body, and who understand how diet plays into that as well.
95
When I was a child (1980s) in rural Oklahoma, we had a rigorous jump rope program. We knew dozens of moves and our PE teacher would bring in kids from other schools to show us their skills. We jumped in PE and practiced again during recess. There wasn't a single fat kid in my grade. We were healthy, we had a blast, and the equipment surely cost our school next to nothing.
47
Competitive sports can and do build overall health, muscular strength and cardiovascular strength. And they also teach kids about competition, teamwork and commitment. They can bridge superficial differences between kids and build friendships. There's no reason to get rid of competitive sports just because football is unsafe.
6
Competitive sports "can" do these things. And they can and do cause brain damage.
Football is only popular in the U.S. and not because of all the supposed, hypothetical benefits you point out. Elsewhere it is regarded as too expensive and dangerous, period.
The problem lies in the widespread worship of violence and death in the U.S.
Violence and death are sacred when we let the mentally ill have guns. Violence and death are sacred when the U.S. looks away from mass murder, over and over, and refuses to act, as Australia did, to impose reasonable restrictions on firearms.
No other advanced nation has our homicide rate from guns. No other advanced nation would live on its knees before the NRA.
Violence and death are sacred in our movies, but the unclothed human body is regarded as sinful.
Violence and death are sacred when we deny millions of Americans access to health care. No other advanced nation denies universal health care.
Violence and death are sacred when we refuse to abandon the death penalty. No other advanced nation relies on it.
Violence is encouraged at campaign rallies by the current occupant of the White House.
And as if the point were not clear enough, the world gasped in disbelief yesterday at the threat of nuclear annihilation by the same occupant of the White House. But in America, this man is being applauded for his tough talk.
Face it. America is a culture that worships violence and death.
2
When will we as a nation finally recognize that our national sport is a brutal exercise in watching grown men irreparably damage themselves for sport in the hopes of making a lot of money. The idea of kids playing tackle football in grade school makes about as much sense as a middle school Ultimate Fighting Championship league!
83
Oh, is that what those grown men are doing? I'm sure you played a lot of football in your youth and know exactly why the rest of us have played the game...NOT!
2
I played high school football, loved it, and took some valuable life lessons from it. But none of us knew then that it could cause such brain injuries. So if you think it's a net plus to play a game which puts so many kids at such risk, you might consider the possibility that you're experiencing the cognitive shortcomings discussed in the article. Wake up. Football is turning out to be the cigarette-smoking of sports.
16
If I ever have kids, they will be as far away as humanely possible in USA from the scourge that is NFL. How can we allow people to have traumatic brain injuries for our own entertainment? How is this modern or sensible. Shaking my head (vigorously enough to put me in danger).
31
"Everybody associated with the game is worried about the participation numbers."
Everybody associated with the game should be worried about the permanent brain damage their sport inflicts on children.
101
In a sane and sensible world, not ruled by primitive emotions and greed, full-contact football would be banned; however, that is not our world, football will persist, and many, many more young men will suffer the everlasting consequences.
5
Meh. Once people are of legal age, they can do what they want with their bodies, in my opinion.
Children are a different story.
3
Well, yes, I agree with you, as long as these adults are making fully informed decisions. Until recently, we had no idea about CTE, and this article seems to be telling us that there are other consequences for brain health as well.
We can debate study after study, but anecdotal evidence tells me it is not a good idea to hit your head on anything at any age for any duration or for my children to do so. I doubt that a study or other evidence will change behavior either way as football is an emotional thing, nothing to do with facts or your kids brain and life being damaged forever. We just like the game for some reason and are willing to ignore the facts to watch our kid get hurt - be it soccer or football or boxing or a number of other dangerous activities. We should just stop wasting time and money paying for the studies, as we all know by now, facts don't matter. Facts just clog us up from doing whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it.
Move ahead to the next game parents and coaches!!!
4
If you doubt these facts can change anything, what's your explanation for youth football participation declining by 20% over 8 years?
2
"… Hit at any age… "I agree, it only took one good hit for me to suffer TBI; An auto accident in my junior year – what, 17 years old?
I believe that the NFL's marketing of "big hits" has made the game rougher at all levels. Look at a football game on tape from the 1960's and it's totally different. I saw a reply of the classic Nebraska-Oklahoma game from back then and the lineman looked like regular human beings. And bulging biceps weren't necessary before defenders started grabbing at the ball (thank you George Allen).
11
I agree. ESPN and other broadcasters are seriously at fault also, for the way they glamorize and dwell on those big hits on the big screen.
I always wondered why the football jocks in my college classes didn't seem to be the 'brightest bulbs'. Perhaps, had we had this information years ago, I would have been more sympathetic.
9
Please change the rules to minimize or eliminate head impacts for at least the youngsters. There will always be risk in sports, but this is too much.
18
Pretty obvious that nobody should play football, as it's too damaging to the body and mind. Also obvious that America is going to keep playing football. The right that Americans hold most dear, clearly, is the right to be self-destructively idiotic, as demonstrated by the election of Trump.
So I hope the news keeps being spread, that football destroys the body and brain, and takes decades off one's lifespan. And anyone that chooses to play the silly game after that news, has chosen their own destruction willingly, and there's no reason to strive to save such people from themselves.
8
More and more people around me are losing interest in football. It's a slow process but if the present trend continues I think we'll see it become an insignificant part of our sporting scene in a generation or so.
1
The people "choosing" to play are parents that put their kids in the sport. A ten year-old boy cannot (legally, intellectually, or emotionally) consent to the lifetime of injury that results from his parents' choice to let them play.
5
It sure is a whole lot safer keeper your kids indoors. Maybe stick an XBOX controller in their hands.
1
There are so many great ways children can develop themselves physically, in fact, FAR more effective ways.
track, short and long distance
dance
swimming
gymnastics
...
8
Colleges offer scholarships for e-team sports and drone racing is covered on ESPN. Controller thumb is way more benign than a traumatic brain injury, dislocated shoulder or torn knee ACL.
Time to invest in companies that manufacture soccer balls. The more we learn about the ugly consequences of this brutal `sport', parents will be less likely to sacrifice their children to its future. For too long the NFL ignored the damage inflicted on the source of their profits: young men from all walks of life. As a new season gets underway, lets hope the inevitable damage is slight. At least we can take some comfort knowing that the end is in sight.
3
Unfortunately, studies are starting to show that soccer (presumably thanks to heading) is also associated with brain injury.
Soccer also has a high rate of concussions, especially girls' soccer.
Um, the companies that make soccer balls are the same companies that make footballs.
1
Um before AND after 12. You're not supposed to bang your brain around. Ever. Football needs to go away.
61
There are so many other sports that are more fun to play, safer and require less equipment. I just don't understand the draw...
20
That's right: you "don't understand the draw." There's frisbee throwing and tennis and basketball...but football players and football fans love football for reasons you cannot understand and never will. Life for men has been and forever will be about taking risks. Crack open the Iliad...and, gasp, a cold beer.
We should ban car racing, boxing, hockey, baseball, wrestling, and anything else that non-men like beings disapprove.
3
I am looking forward to the day when public middle and high schools drop tackle football. There is no reason why taxpayer funded educational institutions should be offering a non-educational activity for minors that has so many proven health risks to those who participate but who are too young to really evaluate the long term risks of what they are doing. When high school football dies, and it will eventually, I expect college and pro football to eventually atrophy as well.
73
Me, too, but in the Deep South, it'll be played for thirty years after everyplace else abandoned it.
1
Parents make risk management decisions about what activities to allow their children to engage in on the basis of incomplete and inconclusive information all the time. There are often no second chances if you guess wrong. The various studies in question all lead in the same dismal direction.
9
Not so infrequently our intuitions are correct but it's always helpful to have a reality check, so hats off to BU for confirming outcomes of some noncontroversial things:
-- Equal accelerations from punches to the head, falls or a tackles are indistinguishable by our brains; there is no magical immunity from brain injury dependent on a given source of acceleration.
--Participating in tackle football produces high shock accelerations of brains and the injuries we'd expect from that experience.
These basic points don't seem very complicated or difficult to understand, but then football in the US is a kind of psychosis of its own and clouds our thinking. Hence we're going to have have a "debate" about this. How about starting with the observation that paid employment involving young people being regularly hit in the head wouldn't enjoy tolerance by parents or the general public?
16
Yup. Dr. Daniel Amen has been saying this for decades. Banging your Jello brain around inside a spiky skull is just plain unconscionable. I posit that there is NO age at which it's good to be hitting your head repeatedly.
45
The article could be written better to emphasize that the brain-altering effects of starting football before age 12 are significant and independent of how much more football the children/men played later. The study indicates that NFL players who started football before age 12 had the brain-altering effects to a greater degree than those who started after age 12. It indicates lasting effects of brain trauma suffered by children playing football.
14
In a study of 6 former professional soccer players, 4/6 had CTE. If even soccer is producing CTE, is any sport safe to play?
Before pulling your kids out of all sports, recall that numerous studies show that children who participate in team sports perform better in school, have more friends, and have a reduced chance of developing mental and physical health problems (with the exception of CTE, apparently). Teddy Roosevelt and Gerald Ford both played college football (the former without the benefit of even a helmet), and went on to become Presidents of the United States.
In my opinion, the benefits of team sports still outweigh the negatives. Just something to think about.
2
The damage is due to soccer players using their heads to butt the ball. It's a move that will probably be banned by FIFA within the next few years.
If that move were banned, it would basically be a far safer sport.
There are risks to anything. There are risks to getting out of bed in the morning. You might slip on the rug and fall and hit your head.
But obviously there are vastly more risks to sports that purposely use the head as an object to strike hard objects.
Seems rather obvious, doesn't it?
To me the benefit of teams sports do not outweigh the benefits of a physical education that focused on building a strong and healthy body, rather than on competition.
8
thank you
1
This was a study of 12 people known to suffer severe dementia. While the football pool of more than 100 was self-selected, it's not quite the same. And with such a slanted sample, the rate of CTE was still far lower than in football. The soccer players in the study developed Alzheimer's at an average age of 63, which is roughly the same as the average age among the general population. Despite ample attention for the issue, this brings to just 8 the number of soccer players known to have developed CTE, in a worldwide pool of tens of millions.
There are many factors here suggesting the soccer risk is much, much lower.
Why don't we similar reports like this regarding the cognitive impact on kids growing up with guns in their homes?
Perhaps most of those affected kids are dead rather than suffering the results of repeated concussion -- simply another statistic that the NRA wants us not to know.
18
I played early as a child and well into college. I had a couple concussions in high school and had my "bell rung" numerous times over the years. Back then, they sat you out for a week and then back at it. I loved the game, but at 68, everything that hurts me today, I can tell you where it happened on a football field. I was small for football, but I hit hard and played hard. I was the little engine that thought he could;) I no longer watch football and could care less if I ever see another ball with points on the end. I will do everything in my power to keep my Grandson's off the football field.
106
While the study is interesting and the authors appropriately discussed many of the limitations of their study, the conclusions regarding any role of head impact at the early age are suspect at best and probably wrong. A more likely explanation is that kids who start football earlier become better football players faster than those that start later (this is true for any sport, although a gifted athlete will rapidly outpace an average athlete with more experience). A consequence of more training will be the ability to hit harder (better coordination) and more often (better sense of the field and how a play will evolve). Thus, when these "early starters" move on to high school football where the collisions are much more violent than the relatively minor collisions at the early age, they will both hit harder and play more due to their enhanced skills.
2
I think the most likely explanation is that hitting your head repeatedly against hard objects, AT ANY AGE, is a very bad idea.
8
Unlike baseball, basketball, and hockey, which requires specific skills that need to be learned early (hitting, pitching, shooting, dribbling, skating), a 14-year-old boy, who sprouts up in 9th grade and becomes the biggest and fastest kid in his grade, can become a star of his high school football team (except quarterback). Tackling, blocking, running with the ball and catching can be learned.
There is absolutely no reason for kids to play tackle football in full regalia. Meanwhile, there is no downside to flag football. The upside is less brain and other injuries, and the ability of a small fast kid to be a star of the team.
6
I'd like to see these results laid over a map of the country to show states, rural vs. urban, and trended presidential votes. I suspect that the parents ignoring these warnings are generally from rural or poor urban areas, poorly educated, and lean Republican. To this day, and in spite of "science" studies by "elites," football remains almost a religion in these areas of the country.
12
I'd like to see the participants' locations overlaid on a map showing frequency of church attendance. I suspect believing in magic is part of what allows families to put their children at such risk.
3
These key conclusions from the study somehow didn't make it in the article:
- "However, more research on this topic is needed before any recommendations on policy or rule changes can be made," stated corresponding author Robert Stern, PhD, professor of neurology, neurosurgery and anatomy and neurobiology at BUSM. (Note: Direct quote is from the article summary linked from the NYT article.)
- The researchers point out there are many important health and psychosocial benefits of participating in athletics and team sports during pre-adolescence.
The survey also didn't study a non-football-playing group of similarly aged male adults. Does the football group overall show higher rates, lower rates, or the same rates of described conditions than non-football group? We don't know.
Finally, the sample size is extremely small to break into sub-groups. If 214 players were surveyed, at least 100 (hopefully) were in one under-12 football group. So how many qualified? To say rates are "two times" or "three times" more likely, the original number has to be extremely low.
The group isn't representative of the actual population of youth football players. About 1.2M play youth football. About 1M play high school football. Of that, about 68,000 will go on to play college football. Of that group, about 1,000 will play professionally. If the study had followed the actual disbursement of players, only 14 of the those interviewed would play college and 2 would play in the NFL.
1
I don't think we need to be brain surgeons to conclude that hitting our heads against hard objects is a very bad idea.
Physical education in schools needs to be about HEALTH first. Activities that promote health, cardiovascular fitness, muscular development, coordination ... these are the benefits that children will carry with them all throughout their lives. Learning about a healthy diet should be a part of the same education program.
"Teamwork" and "competition" can be learned just as well by participating in a science fair or debating society.
8
Right, we just need to keep making assumptions about football like you are doing. Sheesh!
1
I played Pop Warner in early 70's and we were taught to tackle helmet first. This article has me a little anxious to say the least as i can remember more than a few times having my head bashed with helmet to helmet tackling when on offense and defense.
7
We will doubtless see future studies that contradict the findings documented here. The NCAA and NFL have too much money at stake to ever admit that football is inherently dangerous and causes long term damage to cognitive functions. Sure, they will make token gestures to appease opponents, but come Saturday and Sunday, the games will be as violent as ever.
2
It's fascinating to think about how much study will need to go into the mysteries of football and head injuries before everyone is convinced.
Would you take your laptop computer, pack it into a padded bag, and then slam it into doors to open them?
13
Parents I meet in CT who push their sons to football seem most concerned with popularity and social acceptance - especially for boys who haven't had a lot of success with other sports. Football takes all the boys, whether they show talent our not - it's a no-cut sport - and it's a brutal low barrier to entry way to make a child feel included.
Parents should push harder to help kids develop skills for other sports and non-sports activities, encourage them to play outside, and urge them to put more effort into schoolwork. There's lots of places to invest that energy other than in brain damage.
28
I will of course make sure every parent in our church knows of the study and reads this article. As for me, I have played tennis for as long as I can remember and I love sports in general but I do not watch football at my college or professional football. I respect the players of course but the "sport" frightens me.
11
It seems pretty astonishing that participation in tackle football dropped by only 20 percent since 2009. This is probably not evidence that US parents dont care about the cognitive function of their children, more likely evidence that they have serious problems digesting the voluminous information that repetitive blows to the head almost certainly lead to unwanted brain changes. Sure, many dismiss the 110 out of 111 brains of NFL players that show CTE. They played football a long time and the sampling of brains was selected in part on the basis that these players had some premortem psychological difficulties. However, our scramble for information on this issue has gone well beyond histopathology of long time players. More and more studies are showing behavioral alterations in young people, as well as evidence that it is simply playing (no concussions needed) that is the culprit. It certainly took us a long time as a country to decide that elimination of lead in gasoline was worth while, given that lead exposure only decreased IQ by a few points. How much of a change do we need before all parents decide its just not worth it for their kids to do football, boxing, or MMA?
72
How much of a change do we need in order to acknowledge negative effects, you ask. The issue is football, but anthropogenic climate warming could be another issue, among many others.
The answer, I believe, is that much more change will be needed. It is slowly dawning on this amazing race of bipeds that awful outcomes are on the horizon, or else they are with us already. If football players developed brain injury symptoms during the first few plays of their careers, there would be no football, and if the seas rose much faster than they are rising, and if earth's ecosystem collapsed before our eyes, we would be more likely to reign in our carbon emissions immediately.
But at it is, our species is like a dull-minded animal that is so short-sighted that it can't see the end of its nose, and as a result it's likely that the animal will simply fall off a cliff without ever seeing it. Many climatologists believe that we have already fallen, that we are falling, and that we don't even recognize the dire conditions we are creating.
Human nature in general dictates the delays in responding to the effects of our own actions. Only by reason can we overcome our limitations, and only with empathy can we care about the plight of us all and reason together.
4
Definitely the message got through to some of us. I have a 10 year old boy who I have encouraged to play nearly every sport but tackle has never ever been a possibility. Its a non-starter, specifically because of the information that has come out between my own childhood and my child's childhood. Even if its a "maybe", it's your kid's brain, and I am hardly the only parent, mom or dad, who shares this view. I'm sure participation percentage-wise in our town is down from the previous generation.
9
After reading this, what mental contortions, what rationalizations, does a parent have to go through in order to justify, let alone encourage, his/her son to play football?
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Maybe that it is a beautiful, elegant game that conditions boys to strive to the pinnacle of athletic achievement, that it is the manliest of team sports, that it requires courage, fortitude, unity, and endless effort to achieve greatness. Ya' know, "mental contortions" like that.
1
Try rugby if you have to have contact. Football is just a sport. Get some distance
Precisely the kind of thinking some might call rationalization! "Beautiful" and "elegant" are in the eye of the beholder. And just perhaps, there are alternative routes to the abstract virtues you enumerate, Just perhaps.
So the headline is misleading and the study is flawed.
First of all, the data is recorded from phone and online surveys, not exactly rigorous testing, and not a controlled environment for respectable research. How do you know phone and internet derived results are truly representative or "brain problems" as the study suggests.
Second, there is no pure control group, instead the before 12 years group is compared to the after 12 year group. They should have also used a random sample of citizens and put them through the same testing in order for a real comparison. How do we know tackle football does not improve brain function in your 50s? Unlikely, but we can't know unless a pure control is used.
Finally, this is not exactly a sample that is representative of most youth football players. 32 percent of the study participants went on to play in the NFL. What youth football team has a 30% admittance rate to the NFL? Unless they are coached by Barry Bond's trainer, there is no team like this and the sample is not representative of the general population.
11
If you're studying football players and the age they started playing football, you don't need to compare them to non-football players. Comparing football players to non-footballers is a legitimate investigation, but not the point of this one. (You can't compare non-football players with respect to the age they started playing football.)
Also the study appears to have compared starting age between groups of equal experience, so the number of NFL players vs. non-NFL players doesn't matter.
As far as the surveys go, significant findings are significant findings. Whether they imply "brain problems" is something for psychologists to determine.
25
A single study is never perfect, and even if a study is done well it needs to be replicated and correlated with other studies before making generalizations. However, this is what is happening with sports head injury and later life brain disorders. Study after study is confirming the relationship and establishing it as a common complication of contact sports. So, criticize this study if you will (please read the original research, don't just go by a newspaper article) but the preponderance of evidence is mounting that football is bad for brains. Even the NFL has moved past denial.
21
Skepticism is not denial. In fact, it is a lack of skepticism that feeds denial.
Headers in soccer need to be examined as well.
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Lots of teams/leagues outlaw heading at an early age. Worth looking at, but not indication re tens of millions of participants that it has anyting near the impact of continual collisions in fb. Still, not to be ignored.
Kids under 12 very rarely head the ball they are too frightened of it.
They are and have been. That was the basis for USA soccer to implement the "no heading" rule in U11 and under leagues as of Jan 2016.
6