why kids should not be playing football

strollingbones

Diamond Member
Sep 19, 2008
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seems doctors are beginning to realize the toll that continual hits to the head causes...

stop seeking the glory days thru your kids...stop letting them play a sport that can have long lasting effects on their brains...

Football, dog fighting, and brain damage : The New Yorker

ne evening in August, Kyle Turley was at a bar in Nashville with his wife and some friends. It was one of the countless little places in the city that play live music. He’d ordered a beer, but was just sipping it, because he was driving home. He had eaten an hour and a half earlier. Suddenly, he felt a sensation of heat. He was light-headed, and began to sweat. He had been having episodes like that with increasing frequency during the past year—headaches, nausea. One month, he had vertigo every day, bouts in which he felt as if he were stuck to a wall. But this was worse. He asked his wife if he could sit on her stool for a moment. The warmup band was still playing, and he remembers saying, “I’m just going to take a nap right here until the next band comes on.” Then he was lying on the floor, and someone was standing over him. “The guy was freaking out,” Turley recalled. “He was saying, ‘Damn, man, I couldn’t find a pulse,’ and my wife said, ‘No, no. You were breathing.’ I’m, like, ‘What? What?’ ”

They picked him up. “We went out in the parking lot, and I just lost it,” Turley went on. “I started puking everywhere. I couldn’t stop. I got in the car, still puking. My wife, she was really scared, because I had never passed out like that before, and I started becoming really paranoid. I went into a panic. We get to the emergency room. I started to lose control. My limbs were shaking, and I couldn’t speak. I was conscious, but I couldn’t speak the words I wanted to say.”

Turley is six feet five. He is thirty-four years old, with a square jaw and blue eyes. For nine years, before he retired, in 2007, he was an offensive lineman in the National Football League. He knew all the stories about former football players. Mike Webster, the longtime Pittsburgh Steeler and one of the greatest players in N.F.L. history, ended his life a recluse, sleeping on the floor of the Pittsburgh Amtrak station. Another former Pittsburgh Steeler, Terry Long, drifted into chaos and killed himself four years ago by drinking antifreeze. Andre Waters, a former defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles, sank into depression and pleaded with his girlfriend—“I need help, somebody help me”—before shooting himself in the head. There were men with aching knees and backs and hands, from all those years of playing football. But their real problem was with their heads, the one part of their body that got hit over and over again.

“Lately, I’ve tried to break it down,” Turley said. “I remember, every season, multiple occasions where I’d hit someone so hard that my eyes went cross-eyed, and they wouldn’t come uncrossed for a full series of plays. You are just out there, trying to hit the guy in the middle, because there are three of them. You don’t remember much. There are the cases where you hit a guy and you’d get into a collision where everything goes off. You’re dazed. And there are the others where you are involved in a big, long drive. You start on your own five-yard line, and drive all the way down the field—fifteen, eighteen plays in a row sometimes. Every play: collision, collision, collision. By the time you get to the other end of the field, you’re seeing spots. You feel like you are going to black out. Literally, these white explosions—boom, boom, boom—lights getting dimmer and brighter, dimmer and brighter.

parents letting kids play football should be charged with child abuse....

in my opinion....
 
yeah let's just cover our kids in bubble wrap, knee pads, elbow pads, shin guards and that all important helmet every time they get out of bed.

we're already teaching kids to be afraid of everything under the sun so we might as well make them afraid to even get out of bed.
 
read the article skull...dont just jump in and blow smoke....are you willing to let your child be a cripple by 40 due to playing football?
 
read the article skull...dont just jump in and blow smoke....are you willing to let your child be a cripple by 40 due to playing football?

That's just one anecdotal story. There's plenty of old timers that played all of their lives that are fine. It's all about taking care of yourself WHILE you play, and not over-doing what you know your body can't do. Be responsible for your own welfare, and all that.

Football is good for communities, gets the kids good friends for life, a great start to their social networking, etc. and plus it's great fun for them. Men like violent sports, bones, it's a whole testosterone thing. It's nature's way, we were born like this. I just wish punching a dickhead in the face wasn't so legally frowned upon nowadays. :(
 
I've seen those fear mongering articles before and i don't need the new Yorker to tell me anything.

I played football from pee wee through high school I was a straight A student all through grade school, high school and college. I am now in my mid 40s and have had zero zip nada problems from playing football and i daresay that football gear, especially helmets are a hell of a lot better now than they were when I was playing.

And why aren't you railing against soccer? All that bouncing a ball off an unprotected head must be bad too.

But let's douse our kids in sanitizer and wrap them up. God forbid they learn how to toughen up.
 
i have always found football to be a tough sport on growing bodies...first the growth palates and now the brain...but hey if you are willing to take the chance with your childs furture so be it....

show me retired soccer players suffer dementia at the same rate as retired football players and i will protest playing soccer...

i do not think it is overprotective to keep one's child from a sport that cause lifetime physical damage....even non contact sports..ie....baseball have the potential for damage but not like football


gt there are lot of activities that channell that drive without this amount of harm....
 
Bones,

What exactly is the rate of dimentia for NFL players? That would settle this argument one way or the other. Plus, it's basically a one in a million shot to go all the way to the NFL to begin with.
 
Why Kids Shouldn't :

Go Outside.....they might get Skin Cancer if it's sunny; they might get a cold if it's raining; they might get frostbite if it's cold

Let's not forget stranger danger and child abductions, Swine flu, Skinned knees, bruises, black eyes, hurt feelings etc etc etc etc etc etc.

So bones you show me a sissified kid who has been overprotected and sheltered his whole life by smothering parents who were only trying to protect him that has gone on to have any kind of success in life.
 
This brings up an interesting topic. Especially since you are pretty much singling out protecting boys from football.

Just what do you teach a boy so that he becomes a confident man?

IMO a boy should be taught certain things and many of those things are physical.

For example

A man should be able to fight not only to protect himself but to protect his wife and kids. would you want your man to be afraid to defend you because his mommy turned him into a pansy that was afraid to get hurt?

A man should be fit and strong enough to be able to physically remove another person from danger. Would you want your man to be so weak as to not be able to carry you if you were seriously hurt?

You can't have it both ways. You can't refuse to teach boys to be strong, physical and fearless because you're afraid of them getting hurt and then expect them to be strong capable confident fearless men.
 
o hell so now the only way to toughen up a kid is football.....fuck me...yall really wont consider anything else will you?

October 9, 2009 — A new National Football League (NFL) study has identified a higher rate of dementia among retired players than in the general population. The preliminary study demonstrates more cognitive impairment among not just elderly retirees but also those younger than 50 years.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/710274

note the higher rate of arthirtis too....

its just hard on the body...the younger one starts the hard it is
 
o hell so now the only way to toughen up a kid is football.....fuck me...yall really wont consider anything else will you?

October 9, 2009 — A new National Football League (NFL) study has identified a higher rate of dementia among retired players than in the general population. The preliminary study demonstrates more cognitive impairment among not just elderly retirees but also those younger than 50 years.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/710274

note the higher rate of arthirtis too....

its just hard on the body...the younger one starts the hard it is

Did I say that?

This irrational fear of contact sports is getting out of control.

the likelihood of your boy being permanently brain damaged from playing pee wee football is less than winning the lottery. But the lessons learned are sure to make a difference in his life.

the point is that we are overprotecting our boys and basically turning them into girls.
 
While adult players can, and do, sustain life-altering injuries from playing football, teenagers have a higher chance of serious, long-term injury. According to a September 2007 New York Times article, “At least 50 high school or younger football players in more than 20 states since 1997 have been killed or have sustained serious head injuries on the field.”

The Dangers of Letting Your Kids Play Football

i have provided urls..do yall have a url showing not playing football turns boys into pussys?
 
All during my playing years, every season I lived with a constant pounding headache. I just thought it was normal, we are bashing heads in practice and during the games. I never gave it a second thought, we're tuffguys after all.

Back then the coaches knew nothing about head trauma, and actually taught players to "get your hat in there." If you got knocked out? Smelling salts! Then right back in there!

Today it's totally different, they teach them NOT to hit with their headgear and nowadays it's even a penalty if you do.

When I hung up the cleats, the headaches continued for awhile, but then eventually went away. It would surprise me not at all if I had concussions all during my playing years.

But....

Back then, they didn't know much about the importance of hydration either, water during practice and the games was a no-no. Today they are very mindful of that as well as head trauma. If you get a headache they take you off contact drills and have your head looked at.

And, there's also very few contact drills in football practice nowadays to start with. Coaches have learned that a worn-out, sore team just doesn't perform on gameday as well as a fresh, speedy, healthy one. Plus, all of the equipment is far better than what was available when I played.

Things have changed in the sport of football for the kids, at all levels and it's a good thing. Let 'em keep playing! It's a great game that teaches discipline, overcoming adversity, teamwork, advance planning and strategy, organization, improvising and many other life skills.
 
so preventing potential brain damage will turn boys into girls...i got it....i understand fully now....

You kids are more likely to be hurt in an car accident than from playing football.

so if you ever put your kids in a car, you should be arrested.
 

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