re: Dan Patrick show raised an interesting question this morning.

This is interesting stuff. I think football as we know it is on its way out. I played football, started in Jr High, through High School, and played college ball at South Dakota. When I get back together with the guys I played with, which includes some NFLer's, we talk about this stuff. One guy isn't even 40 and can't bend down to play with his kids because of knee injuries suffered in college. Most of us can feel the wear and tear on our bodies as we age. Don't know if that is just us getting older or if the mileage is different than those who didn't play college football. Thankfully I don't know of any teammates that suffered permanent brain injuries, though we don't know just yet as those issues may appear as we get older.

One thing we do agree on when talking about our kids is that pee wee football is pointless. There is no need to play tackle football until puberty hits, sometime around Jr. High. Now, you could call me a hypocrit, but my son played pee wee football because he wanted to and I coached the team. I coached because I wanted to be there to make sure some meathead didn't have these young kids doing Oklahoma Drill the entire practice. Funny thing is that I think there are quite a few kids that are turned off by the physicality of the sport at a young age and quit never to return. I know quite a few kids who tried youth football and quit after a year because they didn't like it. they probably won't come back to the game.

Anyways, my son is going into 8th grade next year and I honestly don't want him playing football anymore. I still love the game but I don't want him getting hurt. I know what it takes to be successful in that sport and I don't want him having to pay that price. He's a hockey player, which is his primary sport, and he also plays baseball. I think that is enough. I don't want him getting hurt in football and missing time on the ice with hockey or having to cut baseball season short for football. He can continue to play hockey or baseball (softball) the rest of his life. Football you can only play so long and it just isn't worth it, which is hard to say because I had a great time playing football and made lifelong friends, but you can do that with other sports also.