Kids Should Not Play Tackle Football Essay

Why Kids Should Not Play tackle Football

Football is a sport that over the years has slowly taken over baseball as America’s pastime.What most likely comes to mind when thinking of American football is a fast paced sport that seems to grab your attention and never let go until the final nail biting seconds. This high energy contact sport can be entertaining and exciting to watch, but has underlying dangers especially for young kids that can be potentially fatal. Kids under the age of fourteen do not need to play tackle football due to the risk of injuries, particularly to the head, that occur when participating in the sport.

“A concussion is caused and or defined as, a direct blow to the head, face, or neck or elsewhere on the body with an “impulsive” force transmitted to the head” (Halstead 598). The threat that always seems to cause a major dilemma on football fields

Several NFL players have stated that the game is so risky they wouldn't let their own kids play” (Shotz 11). This does not mean that kids can never play football, or that football is completely inappropriate for anyone to ever play. An alternative is playing flag football, which is much safer than tackle. If kids played this version of football they could focus on the many technical skills that they would need to play at a higher level. Examples of these skills would include running properly, lateral movements, the fundamentals of running the ball and throwing the ball. “Pop Warner, the largest youth football program in the country, experienced a 9.5 percent drop in participation between 2010 and 2012, and participation has only leveled off since then” (Strachan 2). As one can see many parents have come to their senses and taken their children out of youth football. The chance of having concussive injuries would be significantly lowered if more parents and coaches had kids aged six through 14 play flag football instead of