Growing up we did not have youth sports. My introduction to organized sports was Jr. High-now "middle school" where we had playground leagues. There was no "tackle" football anywhere except in high school-and then 10th grade was limited to "B" football. So growing up we played touch and flag football until 10th grade ( now its freshman -9th grade). The attached article-along with several others-makes parental decisions re youth football difficult-especially to children under the age of 12. While I loved and played most all sports-except basketball-in H.S.I have a real issue with young children playing football. If I had a child under 12 who came to me and -for whatever reason-begged me to sign him up for football (tackle) I probably would error on the side of safety and have him wait notwithstanding putting him at a disadvantage when entering H.S. There are just some things more important in life. I know this is just my view and not meant as a commentary on the view of others. Just seems that parents these days have more to concern themselves with than in the past when it comes to their children.
Also I'm not sure of this magical age of 12 either. Children develop differently including their own neurology. What might be safe for one 13 yr old might not be for another 13 yr old whose brain was on a different developmental pace. Glad I'm no longer a parent. I leave such decisions to my son and only provide "caution".
[
time.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2018 03:40PM by waterfield.
