re: California trying to ban contact football for kids under 12

I was 5 in 1975 and we started with 5-6 year old tackle football. Powder Springs Ponies!

Next was pound ball. We went 55lb, to 65lb, to 75lb, and 85lb. That was the usual progression through the elementary school years. We had weigh-ins before every game. We usually only had a couple guys on the cusp of going over on the scale and not being able to play. We didn’t have as many obese kids back then either but the ones who were 20-30 lbs heavier just couldn’t be on the team. By the time we were in 6th grade, we could play in the 105lb class at parks and rec or play on the 6th/7th grade team. The 8th grade team was separated.

Tackle football was great for our development. There were never collisions violent enough to worry about concussions. I did see a few broken arms and legs along the way though. But that is any contact sport.

I am not in agreement with this because I was an 8th grade head coach for many years. It was a feeder school to a state powerhouse and I had anywhere from 70-80 players on my teams. I was fortunate to have a large staff of former teammates as volunteer coaches. Usually 9-12 helping to coach and we could split practices into groups because with that many we had all levels of development in that 13-14 year old age range. The kids that had played from elementary school on up were usually grounded in fundamentals. It was the 1st year players who needed the attention from my developmental group coaches until they could overcome the mental block that causes some to clam up right at impact rather than accelerating behind the pads at impact. Some got it quick and some took half a season.

But I coached that age group for 12 years and fortunately only saw a few broken bones and one guy that suffered heat exhaustion.

I really think the bill is virtue signaling bull crap because it is extremely, extremely, rare for a kid under 12 to suffer a brain injury with the sizes and speed that collisions occur.