re: So now that playing football is pretty much guaranteed CTE...

"Heads Up" training is mandatory for youth football where I coach, but it is useless. It's more for the liability of the school involved. You can teach a kid the proper technique until you are blue in the face, but when the action is live, they revert to head down battering ram type tackling.

I will also point out that I see horrendous overall technique in college and even in the NFL. Horrible! It seems more and more people from youth to the NFL are going for the open field "defensive back hits" where you hit them from their thigh pads down and take out the legs.

that's just bad coaching if a kid refuses to play safely and will not use proper technique he shouldn't be on the field. in regards to pros and college the issue of "defensive back hits" is not a technique problem that's a mentality issue. they are choosing to hit high on the ball carrier.

i'd let my kid decide

unless his decision was to play football

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So now that playing football is pretty much guaranteed CTE..

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I really don't see why this is some huge shock to people.

Common sense should've told you if you're in a sport where you hit your head against someone else's head for 3 hours multiple times in a 3 month span for 10 years or so, you might have some long term negative effects from it. We needed CTE to be defined to know that?

Mine played tackle football from 5 till he graduated.

I would also probably put him in flag football until he was 5th or 6th grade

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their 450# bench

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HAHA the big guys gotta brag about something

You people going to keep your kids at home in a padded room 24/7 until the age of 18?

You can get injured playing any sport. Hell you can get injured playing on the god damn monkey bars. You gonna let them ride a scooter? Rollerblade? Ride their bike? Gonna be in full pads with a helmet on every single time no matter what right?

Certainly won't be allowing them to drive at 16 I assume? Super frickin dangerous if you look at the statistics.

Meanwhile let's put them on what is essentially speed while their brains are still developing because by god you have to sit still and learn for 8 hours a day. Adderall good football bad amirite?

anyway - I'll be letting my kids be kids without living in constant fear of everything and hopefully one day can watch them on the gridiron as a proud papa if they choose to play and enjoy it.

I let my kids be kids but I didn't put them in unnecessary danger. No point in playing youth football at such a young age

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those of you with sons....will you be letting him play or not?

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They started last week. We're excited. This is his 6th season. His first in Junior High as a 7th grader.


I played 10 years of football and was somewhere between Uncle Rico and Al Bundy talent-wise. Anyhoo, I capped it off with the 94 LSU Spring Game where I got concussed from Kris Perret on a brutal decleating blindside just before getting the sack.

Then I found rugby for the next 13 years capped off playing US Super League against the best mens teams in the country(quite a few Men's National team players). Nuff said.

To each their own but CTE isn't stopping me from letting my son play football, rugby or any contact sport he wants.

As for 20 years later, I work in a very technical IT field and no mental health issues other than being a perverted deviant.