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Conger, MN | I've not been around youth football in a long time. Is the amount of contact in practice now significantly reduced from 25-30 years ago?
I remember lining up against other middle school and high school guys and repeatedly banging into each other, with heads hitting most of the time.
The research shows that repeated trauma -- not just concussions -- leads to CTE.
The movie Concussion (with Will Smith) it is worth the watch. It starts out showing clips of youth football, with kids slamming into each other in practice -- with the strong implication that that type of contact is not only damaging to the brain, but that it is unnecessary.
St. John's (Minn.) coach John Gagliardi limited heavy contact in his practice -- and he did that for decades. They won a heck of a lot of football games. Admittedly, that is D-III football, and very few of the players are going pro. However, if they can be successful with limited contact in practice, it seems high school and youth programs could reduce contact as well. The number of youth football players that are either going to get a D-1 scholarship or play pro is incredibly small.
Tackle football is not going to go away, and saying "no" to a kid's passion and dreams is tough. However, it can be coached in a way to somewhat reduce the risks.
To answer the OP, I'd let my kid play if he was fired up to do so. I certainly would not steer him in that direction though. (My own son played when young, but then got more passionate about hunting and hockey . .. both of which I was happy with.)
Before a decision was made though, I'd want to know a bit about how the program is run . . . and if I was not happy about it, I'd either get involved myself for try to steer my son a different direction.
P.S. Hockey certainly has CTE problems as well, but not to the degree of football. Also, in Minnesota now, hockey does not have checking until bantams -- 8th/9th grade. When checking was taken out, many people -- myself included -- did not like the decision. ("The kids need to learn how to check!" and "How can you remove such a huge part of the game!) However, now, 10-15 years later, the decision seems to have been a good one.
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Youth tackle football
