Football is one of the most popular sports in America and young athletes are trying to get involved.  However, what is the right age for a kid to start playing tackle football?  As we know football is a full contact sport where the objective is to score more points than the other team by scoring touchdowns or kicking field goals.  To score a touchdown players must run and or pass the ball over the goal line.  Running and tackling in football have resulted in thousands of injuries throughout history.  Throughout my 19 years I have witnessed many devastating injuries such as concussions, torn ACL’s, and spinal/ neck injuries. At a young age watching my brother play football I experienced him have a neck injury which mentally scarred me as a 6-year-old.  More recently I had suffered a torn labrum while I was playing football with my friends.  However, that does not change my perspective on football and when kids should play.  Football is a highly skilled sport which requires time and practice to develop as a player.  The best way to get better at a sport is to start as soon as possible as a young child and practice very often to learn technique and skills.  Today, many NFL players started playing football at a young age for fun and now they are getting paid to do something they love.  Allowing children to start playing football at an early age will enhance the player’s knowledge and skill of the game and it may lead to a great future.  Children can learn a lot from football such as playing as a team, giving up your body for another player, or attacking something aggressively to capture his/her goals.  

Is football a dangerous sport? Yes, it is but according to sports illustrated, it is not as dangerous as walking down the street or riding a bike in your neighborly town.  Sean Gregory, a senior writer at Time Magazine talks about the risks involved in football and how new information has provided medial staff’s and coaches the awareness of possible injuries occurring in football and the proper procedure after an injury has occurred.  The awareness of injuries such as concussions can prevent future damage but it is also up to the kid playing football to notify the coach and trainers about a possible injury.  Injuries are very common in this sport but for one reason.  That reason is that players hate to lose so they give everything they have on the field and sometimes that results in severe injuries.  However, it is not just football that has seen an increase in injuries.  Sports such as basketball, soccer, hockey, and lacrosse have experienced more injuries in the past couple of years compared to previous years.  There is a risk in every sport so why is football different than the other sports.  As a child, I hated to lose and I did not like the feeling after the game when I lost.  I did my best to prevent losing and the way I did that was to perform better than the other team and to be as competitive as I possibly could be.  Football for those who have not played is a sport where each player is accountable for their position and with one mess up it can affect the whole team.  There are many lessons to be learned in football that people may not experience when playing a sport like tennis, golf, or track and field.  These lessons are teamwork, discipline, setting goals, and never give up.  Teamwork in football is vital because if you work together you can beat the other team and it keeps all players liable for their job.  If one person messes up, then the play will most likely be a failure.  Discipline is also a major lesson in football.  During the season a player must stay in shape and do everything they can to provide a positive aspect to their team to be successful.  When you are an athlete you do not want to be the worse; you want to be the best and the only way to do that is by setting goals for yourself and the team.  Finally, never give up.  Failure is a good thing but do not stay down.  Once you fail get back up and keep trying until you succeed.  All of these lessons in football will be crucial to how successful you will be in whatever career path you choose.  The decision to let your kid play football can determine their integrity and courage later in life and how successful they can be.

Pee-wee football is the best time to start playing football for a younger child.  Children are generally at the same weight and at the same strength level at a young age which appears to be the best time to learn the game of football while minimizing injuries.  Teaching children how to properly tackle at younger ages rather than in high school prevents injuries as well.  Players will tackle leading with their head or shoulder when they do not know how to tackle.  This inability to tackle properly will lead to many head injuries for both the defender and the runner especially when both players are increasingly becoming stronger and faster in high school.  Therefore, it is vital to teach technique as soon as possible while playing pee-wee football.  According to Larry Rogers, “Sports medicine professionals have mounted a massive campaign to inform players, parents, and coaches of the characteristics of concussions and the risks they present.”  The ability to inform everyone of concussions will prevent future concussions and even more brain damage to the player.  Parents care about the safety of their child and their development as young athletes.  The best way for a player to develop in football is to be around the game for a while and learn the ins and outs of how to stay safe while performing at a high level.  Parents are left with many difficult decisions in their life and allowing their kid to play in a contact sport is a major debate amongst all parents around the world.  Children are very active at young ages and many of them want to play in every sport possible to see what they are talented at and what they enjoy.  For a child to become skilled at a sport they will need to practice a lot and teaching kids at such a young age will be beneficial to their future development.  To know what you love in life it must have happened before to know how you feel.  “In the summer between my sophomore and junior year, unbeknownst to me, a group of my friends’ parents ganged up on my mom and convinced her that she would really regret it if she did not allow me to play.  Amazingly, she finally relented and said I could play! I played that season of football and fell in love.  I have not missed a football season since that fall of 1985 and my life has never been the same” (Creighton 1).  Although Chris Creighton started playing later than most football players it is valuable to know that one decision can have a huge effect on a child’s career and desires at such a young age.  

There are many positives to playing football but the negative impacts it can cause to its players that may prevent parents from letting their children play are very dangerous.  Football is a sport where physical contact is necessary to win and when there is heavy contact there are injuries.  Football has led to many injuries over the past ten to fifteen years, some severe and some minor.  According to the NCAA the overall injury rate in NCAA football was 8.1 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures.  There were more than 41,000 injuries and 25 million athlete exposures from 2004 to 2009.  More than 30 percent of these injuries are ligaments and 7.4 percent concussions are the most common severe injuries.  As a parent looking at these statistics it will lead to second guessing their decision and ultimately not letting their child play football for their health and safety. Although these statistics are alarming there is a benefit to getting injured.  A lot of the times the player comes back stronger and will not re-injure that part of the body because during rehabilitation it becomes much stronger.  For example, Adrian Peterson, one of the best running backs of all time has torn his ACL and meniscus but has come back better and stronger than ever before.  Brain damage is a major reason for not letting children play because it can have a massive effect on them later in life.  Tackle football can cause trauma for children at such a young age. For example, when I was younger I witnessed my brother be carted off the field with a severe neck injury which made me not want to play football.  Parents want the perfect life for their children and one way they do that is to make sure their kids are never hurt when they are so young.  Not having injuries as a young child can benefit someone but when a kid is injured it builds character.  People need to learn how to cope with the negative times and sometimes football can teach kids how to handle those situations.  As I previously stated concussions are one of the major injuries that occur frequently in football.  According to The Handbook of Sport Neuropsychology, youth programs do not take the same protocols towards concussions as the NFL.  Frank M. Webbe discusses that the trainer’s protocols are time efficient which is not what the athlete needs.  Athletes need to recognize their injury and cooperate with the trainers so their health in the future is safer than it would be without a trainer.  When a player suffers a concussion, they try to stay on the field because they are usually one of the best players and they feel like they are hurting their team if they are injured.  Concussions are a major issue in football today since we have new research that enables us to recognize the real issues that concussions have on the human brain.  Many former players are claiming that they are dealing with depression and memory loss after dealing with multiple concussions in their career.

Technology is allowing us to find out more information about all injuries occurring in football and the effects of those injuries.  Technology has told us the real dangers of concussions however with that research the football community is finding ways to prevent concussions as best as possible.  In the article, Can Football be Saved, written by Nicholas Schmidle, High Schools around the country are looking for ways make football safer for their athletes and NFL athletes.  Three years ago, a new helmet hit the market which was designed to prevent head injuries.  However, concussions are not preventable, they can only be minimized.  After analyzing statistics about concussions at a high school, they found that the helmets reduced the number of concussions during the football season. Although these helmets help with concussions, it is not the only reason for the reduction in concussions.  Another factor is that coaches are starting to really train the players on how to properly tackle the opposing player.  The defender is learning how to form tackle instead of diving at a player head first which is when concussions are occurring the most.  In the article The War Against Concussions it discusses how “league officials should focus on increasing concussion awareness” (Abreu, Edwards, Spradley).  The recognition of concussions both by the player and staff will reduce the impact of the concussion on the player.  No matter how hard the player hits his or her head they should be examined to reduce the chances of creating a more severe concussion and creating a bleak future for the player.  Another article, Don’t Let Kids Play Football, written by Bennet Omalu discusses the main reason why parents have a problem with allowing their child to play.  Bennet Omalu claims that “kids who play football are subjected to advanced radiological and neurocognitive studies during the season, there can be evidence of brain damage at the cellular level of brain functioning” (Omalu).  This is in fact a major problem for children who need to develop their brains at a young age but I believe that the decision should be up to the children.  If the children want to play football, then the parents should not hesitate to do so.  

There is no arguing that football is one of the most dangerous contact sports in all of America but it is one of the best games in the world.  Every kid who wants to play football should have a chance to show what they can do on the field at whatever age they want to.  If a child wants to start playing football at 5 years old, which is the youngest age possible, then they should be allowed to play.  Many doctors believe children should wait to play football until they develop and become stronger which I agree with but there is more to the game then just becoming stronger and developing their body.  It takes years to learn the game of football and if a kid decides to start playing in high school they will be years behind on the ins and outs of the game.  When someone does not know proper form and technique in football it will lead to many injuries because knowing the sport and where you are supposed to be on the field is so important.  Allowing children to start playing as soon as possible will enhance the players’ skills of the game and it could lead to a great future both for the kids and parents.  Children as they grow older and develop can receive scholarships and eventually make money playing a sport that they love.  There are some risks that occur during football such as severe injuries.  These injuries include concussions, torn ligaments, sprained ligaments and other broken bones.  Although these injuries can happen at any point during someone’s life time, it is more common in the sport of football.  There is new information coming out every day that can cause an injury to heal faster and there is new technology that can minimize the amount of concussions in football. Kids can learn a lot from football such as playing as a team, giving up your body for someone else, or attacking something aggressively to achieve his or her goal.  All of these lessons are for the greater good of the child and their development towards being good and strong adults.  Parents should always want their children to develop and become the best person they can be and football helps with that development.  There are a lot of risks that go into allowing a child to play football but in the end the rewards outweigh the risks and parents should allow their kids to start playing tackle football as soon as it is eligible.
