Many are opting out. Participation in youth tackle football has been declining for years. But especially in communities of color, tackle football’s lure remains strong and the balance tips toward opportunity, a four-month investigation by The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland has found.
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Last year, the Boston University CTE Center released a study that said the developing brains of children are at risk for damage from repeated impacts to the head and brain that have been associated with impulsive behaviors and cognitive problems.
The study notes that children who start playing tackle football at an early age or participate in the sport for more than 11 years run an increased risk of such impairment.
When I was a kid, there were these giant piles of dirt and gravel leftover from a construction project at the middle school. We would ride our bikes up and down the dirt piles and make mud bombs to throw at each other. It was really fun.
There were also rusty nails and broken glass mixed in, and several kids broke bones falling off their bikes on those piles.
And when it rained, the storm drain would back up and make a muddy pond where we could jump in and splash around.
The point is, being fun is not a good enough reason to do something unsafe.