So much for Pee Wee football

[Toga]

Medscape: Medscape Access

 

[care taker]

???

 

[DeGrozz]

???

You have to log in to read the article. I'm guessing it's not good news though.

The article is titled Football in Childhood Tied to Cognitive Disorders in Adults.

 

[Toga]

???

Sometimes when I link to Medscape it will open for others - sometimes not. The basic takeaway is this -

The study shows that children who began playing the game before age 12 had a threefold increased risk for depression and a twofold increased risk for impaired behavioral regulation, apathy, and impaired executive function compared to their counterparts who started playing at age 12 or older.

The sample included only those who had played high school, college, or professional football, who had not participated in any other organized contact sport, and who had not had a concussion within a year of their initial LEGEND interview.

Study author - Robert A. Stern, PhD, professor in the Departments of Anatomy, Neurobiology, and Neurosurgery, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center, and director of clinical research, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, Boston University, in Massachusetts

 

[Finwad32]

Pads and pee wee football should've been separated a long time ago. Just more data to verify...

 

[Millhouse]

Parents who let their little kids get hit might be passing on generic tendencies for depression and cognitive issues. If you ban hitting, those kids might still have the same issues. Need to pay parents who sign up to change their minds, then compare their kids to the ones who played later on

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Parents who let their little kids get hit might be passing on generic tendencies for depression and cognitive issues. If you ban hitting, those kids might still have the same issues. Need to pay parents who sign up to change their minds, then compare their kids to the ones who played later on

It's an interesting hypothesis, and one worth testing, but you're not going to get a correlation out of that.

 

[Finwad32]

I get that a lot of research still needs to be done. And all I can really do besides tell people how I feel, is practice what I preach. If I have a child that is interested in playing football they will not play for a program that hits prior to the high school level.

There are plenty of skills you can develop prior to that point.

 

[Gooorange]

A friend of mine sent this article to me just yesterday related to youth football

I'm a brain scientist and I let my son play football

 

[texascpa]

A friend of mine sent this article to me just yesterday related to youth football

I'm a brain scientist and I let my son play football

You know if the media pushed all the studies as equally as they did with the "99%" study, I wonder what people's opinions would look like.

 

[FasterCuse]

I actually just saw an interview that was done with Alex Smith of the KC Chiefs, and he specifically said that he wouldn't let his kids play tackle football until high school. He had a good point that any of the skills that you need prior to high school (passing, catching, route running, even certain blocking schemes) can be acquired without the need to tackle and hit.

 

[texascpa]

I actually just saw an interview that was done with Alex Smith of the KC Chiefs, and he specifically said that he wouldn't let his kids play tackle football until high school. He had a good point that any of the skills that you need prior to high school (passing, catching, route running, even certain blocking schemes) can be acquired without the need to tackle and hit.

And there's plenty of former NFLers who allow their kids to play. Down here, one of our local leagues had David Klingler heavily involved. He had no issues with letting his son play tackle at a young age.

 

[longtimefan]

And there's plenty of former NFLers who allow their kids to play. Down here, one of our local leagues had David Klingler heavily involved. He had no issues with letting his son play tackle at a young age.

People on both sides, as with most any issue.

But the trend, informed by the emerging science, is toward less contact at an early age.

 

[bevosu]

Playing Tackle Football Before 12 Is Tied to Brain Problems Later

 

[FasterCuse]

And there's plenty of former NFLers who allow their kids to play. Down here, one of our local leagues had David Klingler heavily involved. He had no issues with letting his son play tackle at a young age.

I get there are people on both sides, but not sure why we need to have our kids play tackle football at such a young age when science has proven that head trauma in younger kids is tied to brain issues later on in life. If kids can still acquire the skills they need to have a successful football career later on in life, and not be at risk for a brain injury, maybe eliminating tackling in pee wee leagues isn't such a bad idea. No reason the kids can't play flag football at that age.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

A friend of mine sent this article to me just yesterday related to youth football

I'm a brain scientist and I let my son play football

Lots of doctors smoke

 

[longtimefan]

Lots of doctors smoke

Back in the day, tobacco companies featured such doctors in their ads.

 

[PhatOrange]

My 8 year old plays flag football. He's pretty good so all the pop warner guys are trying to recruit him over to pop warner. I said no thanks we're good. Flag is tons of fun and not demanding. PW practices 2 hours a night 4 days a week. Give me a break.

Said pop warner coaches' 10 year old got carted off last weekend on a stretcher with a neck injury and taken to a hospital. Hes now out of all activities for a month. 10 yrs old.

Yeah we're good. No tackle football for us. Not necessary or worth it.

(They don't even allow hitting or checking in youth lax until 7th grade)

 

[Newhouser]

Tackle isn't essential until high school. Tough guy youth coaches push it rather than focus on the skill level. The only thing contact does in the youth levels is weed out kids who don't want to engage.

 

[Millhouse]

I'm skeptical about this. Little kids are slow and weak. The collisions aren't that bad. Banning hitting when they are too weak and slow to do damage but allowing them to hit when they're strong and fast seems like doing something for the sake of doing it. Maybe the answer is to let kids play football and have fun until they're teenagers and then ban this stupid game after that.

I played pickup footballball all the time with my friends as a kid with no pads no pads and i didn't suffer no any drain bramage.

there was a two week span where everyone seemed to grow and kids were getting hurt bad where we all said NO MAS. then i played a safe sport like soccer where i got my brain and kidneys kicked in

 

[tep624]

I'm skeptical about this. Little kids are slow and weak. The collisions aren't that bad. Banning hitting when they are too weak and slow to do damage but allowing them to hit when they're strong and fast seems like doing something for the sake of doing it. Maybe the answer is to let kids play football and have fun until they're teenagers and then ban this stupid game after that.

I played pickup footballball all the time with my friends as a kid with no pads no pads and i didn't suffer no any drain bramage.

there was a two week span where everyone seemed to grow and kids were getting hurt bad where we all said NO MAS. then i played a safe sport like soccer where i got my brain and kidneys kicked in

I was thinking the same thing on sandlot or pickup football. I used to play that a lot as a kid, we played tackle, played for as long as we wanted and had no adult supervision like these kids do.

 

[cuse10]

Taking a header in soccer rattles your brain as well. Why no concern when children are doing this like football?

 

[Toga]

Taking a header in soccer rattles your brain as well. Why no concern when children are doing this like football?

Have said a number of times - eliminating heading outside of the box wouldn't materially affect the game.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I played pickup footballball all the time with my friends as a kid with no pads no pads and i didn't suffer no any drain bramage.

But isn't it your brain that's telling you it isn't damaged? I mean, how can you trust it to tell you the truth?

 

[shandeezy7]

I'm skeptical about this. Little kids are slow and weak. The collisions aren't that bad. Banning hitting when they are too weak and slow to do damage but allowing them to hit when they're strong and fast seems like doing something for the sake of doing it. Maybe the answer is to let kids play football and have fun until they're teenagers and then ban this stupid game after that.

I played pickup footballball all the time with my friends as a kid with no pads no pads and i didn't suffer no any drain bramage.

there was a two week span where everyone seemed to grow and kids were getting hurt bad where we all said NO MAS. then i played a safe sport like soccer where i got my brain and kidneys kicked in

You're skeptical about any study that has ever been completed , so this is not surprising. Also, size and speed are all relative. Sure, 10 year olds aren't hitting with the same force as 20 year olds. However, if you get knocked to the turf and bounce your head off it at a relatively high speed, you can end up with the same effects, especially with brains that aren't fully developed and neck muscles that aren't strong enough to prevent violent whiplash. Watch this video and tell me there aren't violent collisions in youth football.