Letting your kid play football

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:That's why I only played football for one year when I was a kid. I loved football but I fucking hated running. I even liked the drills. But it was like 10% football, 90% running.

I had the same experience in my one year of football plus all the down ups and crap. I thought I was a RB or WR. The only time I touched the ball the entire season was when I recovered a fumble. The next year I went out for golf.

...I love watching football more than almost anything but to me it is an absolutely horrible sport to play. I mean there is a lot of good that can come from it but those things can also come from plenty of other sports. And I think a lot of good can come from individual sports too.

I started a thread on this topic that was a miserable failure "what is the point"? I dont think any 9 year old should be put in a position of violent football collisions.

That said, my son is 9 and so lazy I would consider it if he told me he wanted to play. But I certainly wouldn't push for it. If this was just 5 years ago I might have but I know now it is just a horrible percentage play.

DWags wrote:

GRR Spartan wrote:

So was I and can point to a number of teammates who were knocked out multiple times who started struggling with life before they were 25.

In coaches defense they were doing what they had been taught and there was no scientific evidence what they were doing was causing harm.  

The USMC had all recruits fight with  pugil stick without helmets for almost  40 years too until they added pads and helmets after it was costing them recruits to medical reasons.

Also the old suspension helmets and fucking water helmets.  Geez.

They were all we needed, milk back then had a lot of calcium to build hard heads.

Yes. Little proof of long term genetic effects and some loosening up of the frontal lobe. People like impulsive people, they tend to go farther in life.

What sport will benefit the most from parents not letting their kids play football? My guess is soccer.

steveschneider wrote:What sport will benefit the most from parents not letting their kids play football? My guess is soccer.

I would think Basketball or Baseball. All 3 sports can be started younger than football can though. All 3 are relatively cheap and you can start pickup games almost anywhere. Someone here or somewhere else posted about how Americans love sports that are statistical. Baseball is one of the most statistical games there is, there is a way to track everything. Soccer is very random, there can't really be advanced stats in soccer. I wanna say that Roc posted the link, it was pretty interesting. I've got nothing else to add here. As long as people are getting paid millions of dollars to bash their heads in, it is often better than the alternative, or at least seems more attractive, especially to those that aren't currently making millions of dollars.