Pro and con: Is football too dangerous for kids? - WHYY (2024)

FAQs

Why football is dangerous for children? ›

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Tackle football is dangerous for children. Children who play tackle football absorb repeated hits to the head. As adults, they're at higher risk of suffering cognitive deficits as well as behavioral and mood problems.

Football might cause neurodegenerative disease

CTE is a degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of concussions and hits to the head, and clinically, it's believed to be connected to mood and behavioral problems. A brain with CTE fills with clumps of a protein called tau, which causes cells to die.

Key Characteristics: Football has the highest injury and concussion rates among all sports, regardless of gender, according to the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study. Injuries to the head/face, ankle, knee and hand/wrist are the most common.

Ideally, kids should stick with flag (or non-contact) football until they are at least 13 years old. One small study of retired NFL players have shown an association between cognitive impairment and playing tackle football prior to age 12.

Sports with the most injuries

Basketball, football and soccer have the most injuries overall, but the number of injuries varies with each age group. Football is the most dangerous sport for children ages 5-14, while basketball has the highest number of injuries among people ages 15-24.

Which sports did the researchers classify as aggressive? Football, basketball, soccer, and wrestling, due to the “frequency and intensity of physical contact” and the potential to cause injury to an opponent.

There are many positive aspects to American football, but there are also negative points. For example, injuries can occur and can be very serious. Also, American football can lead to concussions, which is a problem for young players.

The pros and cons of something are its advantages and disadvantages, which you consider carefully so that you can make a sensible decision.

What are the pros of football? ›

The health benefits of football include:

Reducing body fat. Building strength, stamina and speed. Training your brain, improving concentration and coordination. Promoting teamwork, being social and boosting your confidence.

Positives that kids can get from football

Off the football field, the sport teaches kids about life, setting goals for their lives, and it even sets friendships they will keep for the rest of their lives. Building all these things in a young person's life is crucial at this stage of their life.

Players such as Frank Gifford and Junior Seau were found, after their deaths, to have signs of a degenerative brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a form of brain degeneration believed to be caused by repeated head trauma.

Constant pressure will impact your child's self esteem in a negative way. Over pressuring your child can lead to decreased problem-solving skills. Too much pressure can cause children to start to blame themselves when things don't go their way. Putting pressure on your child can lead to a fear when playing sport.

Football is a great way to be part of a team and stay physically active. But football is a contact sport, so injuries do happen. Doctors and scientists are studying how repeatedly hitting the head during tackling affects the brain. These injuries can cause serious brain problems later in life.

CTE has been found to lead to depression, loss of judgment, inability to control impulse, rages, and memory loss, and can ultimately result in dementia. What's worse, these symptoms are not immediately apparent and can emerge up to 10 years after one stops playing football.

There is also some moderate concern about concussion risk from heading the ball, but not nearly as much as with collision sports such as football. But relatively speaking, soccer remains one of the safer sports for children and teens.

1. B.A.S.E. Jumping. There are a lot of dangerous sports out there, but base jumping seems to claim more and more victims with each passing year since its inception.

There is no question that football is one of the most violent sports in the world and that players, including myself, are aware of the risk we take to play the game that we love.

Is football the most dangerous sport in America? ›

After extensive research, our team has found that Basketball is the most dangerous sport in the US, with 2,823 injuries sustained in 2021 – 64% more than American Football.

In a study of footballers, the most common fear was the fear of shame and embarrassment. This is seen in athletes who play it too safe as they don't want to be the one who makes a mistake. For these athletes, the fear of making a mistake is larger than the hope of doing something well.

Football has been associated with violence ever since its early beginnings in 13^th century England. The original 'folk' form of the game, most often played on Shrove Tuesdays and other Holy Days, involved only slightly structured battles between the youth of neighbouring villages and towns.

The most common competitive stressors experienced by athlete's are injury, preparation and performance expectations.

Recreational football players can sprain an ankle, dislocate a shoulder, or just push their bodies further than they can go, and end up with sore muscles the next day. Similar to other contact sports, knee and shoulder injuries in football are very common. Additional common football injuries include: Ankle sprains.

Football. Football is the sport that causes the most injuries, with an estimated 455,449 annually.

From Latin prō (“for, on behalf of”) and contrā (“against”).

First, write the decision that you have to make at the top of a two-column grid. Label one side "Pros" and the other "Cons." Then, list all of the possible positive consequences of the decision in the pros column, and all the negative effects in the cons column. (See our example below.)

Pro is an abbreviation meaning "professional".

What does football do to your brain? ›

These include neurological issues—chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), concussion, mental illness, and memory loss—as well as ACL tears, arthritis, heart conditions, musculoskeletal injuries, pain, and inflammation.

Passing and receiving

These two basic tools are the most essential ingredients for any footballer's success. Accuracy is the key when it comes to passing and receiving.

Football is more than just a game; it teaches lessons that the players carry with them long after they've hung up their cleats. Teamwork, discipline, perseverance, goal-setting, handling success and failure, time management, and keeping fit.

A regular exercise like playing football can boost your self-esteem and help you concentrate, sleep and feel better. Football helps to keep the brain and your other vital organs healthy and is also a significant benefit towards improving your mental health.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation states they "strongly recommend you delay enrolling your child in tackle football until the age of 14."

Youth football is a great way to build discipline in a child, and it's a terrific tool for learning how important teamwork is. It's a sport where you really have to concentrate on your job and be able to trust what your teammates are doing.

Teamwork: Youth football teaches kids accountability, leadership, and the impact of positive sportsmanship. Every position has a purpose and to execute a play successfully, each individual needs to fulfill their responsibility, while working together—a skill that's valuable both on and off the field.

At any level. Mark Hyman, who co-authored Concussions and our Kids along with neurosurgeon and athletic brain trauma expert Mark Cantu, makes the strong case that parents should say no to tackle football for kids until at least age 14. That's because young brains have a harder time recovering from the hits.

A CDC study published in Sports Health reports youth tackle football athletes ages 6 to 14 sustained 15 times more head impacts than flag football athletes during a practice or game and sustained 23 times more high-magnitude head impact (hard head impact).

Disadvantages of Team Sports

With many players moving around the field or court, the chances of getting hurt are higher. Members of teams can also become competitive to earn individual awards rather than focusing on team goals. Coaches also have less time to focus on individual training in team sports.

What are negatives of sports? ›

Legendary former quarterback Brett Favre is warning parents not to let their children play tackle football before the age of 14, lest they greatly increase their kids' risk of eventually developing the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

A CDC study published in Sports Health reports youth tackle football athletes ages 6 to 14 sustained 15 times more head impacts than flag football athletes during a practice or game and sustained 23 times more high-magnitude head impact (hard head impact).

A recent study conducted by Boston University revealed that one in five high school football players suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition that diminishes brain capacity and is associated with high risks of memory loss, behavioral issues and depression.

These include neurological issues—chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), concussion, mental illness, and memory loss—as well as ACL tears, arthritis, heart conditions, musculoskeletal injuries, pain, and inflammation.

Associations between humility, restraint, niceness and femininity also had a negative impact on girls' involvement in the sport. Prohibitions around desire and determination proved especially damaging to girls' attempts at ownership and assertiveness within the game.