Football Safety

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In today’s world, parents are often trying to get kids to spend time outside. To solve this problem, many kids play sports to get fresh air, have fun, and spend time with friends outside of school. But just like everything in life, these sports come with the risk of injury.One sport that is known for serious injuries, head injuries especially, is football. Despite what some people say, football is not too dangerous for kids.
New practices, laws, and safety equipment have been developed to increase the safety of the player. Since football was first played, the safety equipment has undergone several changes that have increased the protection of the wearer from serious head injury. Helmets were first made out of leather to protect the head from serious trauma and plastic helmets were developed in the 1940s. Padding has been added since to the sides, front, and back to protect players. In May 2009, Washington state passed a law called the Lystedt Law, which protects young athletes from entering a game to soon after sustaining an injury. It was named after Zachary Lystedt, a young athlete who …show more content…

When a football player is slammed into the ground, the pads will absorb most of the shock and damage. When a soccer player is slammed to the ground, they have nothing to protect them from the hard, compact ground.
Another unfortunate injury in both sports is concussions. In football, head to head collisions are the main reason. But it becomes more tricky in soccer, from heading the ball, heads slamming into elbows, or colliding with the ground. The helmets that football players wear are shock absorbent, and will take most of the damage from a head on collision. According to livestrong.com, “The average youth soccer player can kick the ball with about 600 pounds of force.” In soccer, players have nothing to protect them from a ball bouncing off their heads at 67

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