NYT: Athletes Who Played Tackle Football Before Age 12 Develop More Brain Problems

[sexualbanana]

Too much doom, gloom and conspiracy theories in this section lately, so I thought I'd inject some new blood.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/s...ain-youth.html

Coles Notes:
- Former players who played tackle football before 12 have an increased risk of problems with behavioural regulation, empathy and depression.
- They also suffered from reduced brain flexibility compared to those who started playing after 12.
- Another study that took MRIs of football playing kids between 8 and 13 showed diminished brain function in certain areas.
- Enrollment in youth football is dropping.

Football is as popular now as it's ever been, but the increased publicity around injury and concussion awareness has caused many parents to shy away from putting their kids in the game. I think it's safe to assume that a majority of Beyonders now have young children, would you consider allowing your kids to play if they wanted?

Where do you see the future of sports going with so much attention being paid to the price being paid by players after they leave the game?

[Antonito]

its going to be interesting to see how this pans out, right now the NFL and college teams are limiting physical contact in practice because the players already know how to hit after spending most of their youth doing hitting and Oklahoma drills. What will happen if the junior leagues start banning hitting practice and/or switch to touch football altogether?

I think the biggest factor will be lawsuits and liability. There are millions of kids that are willing to risk brain damage, but can the various leagues create waivers that will stand up in court?

I'd let my (theoretical) kids play, but only if the teams got rid of the really ignorant stuff like Oklahoma drills and it would be under the rule that 1 concussion ends the season, multiple ends their career.

[Buster]

I played football as a kid. No way am I putting them in football now.

[J-hop]

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its going to be interesting to see how this pans out, right now the NFL and college teams are limiting physical contact in practice because the players already know how to hit after spending most of their youth doing hitting and Oklahoma drills. What will happen if the junior leagues start banning hitting practice and/or switch to touch football altogether?

I think the biggest factor will be lawsuits and liability. There are millions of kids that are willing to risk brain damage, but can the various leagues create waivers that will stand up in court?

I'd let my (theoretical) kids play, but only if the teams got rid of the really ignorant stuff like Oklahoma drills and it would be under the rule that 1 concussion ends the season, multiple ends their career.

The biggest problem would be identifying a concussion. One of the worst things you can do is throw someone who's got a minor concussion back on the field to conitinue playing the game. I know the last concussion I got I didn't really have any idea I'd suffered one until an hour or so later. No coach is going to be able to ID a concussion unless it's really bad.

[sexualbanana]

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I played football as a kid. No way am I putting them in football now.

I play football with a lot of guys who played CIS. Some who played decades ago and some who played as recently as this year. The main thing that sticks out is the awareness of concussions and how much more acceptable it is. For example, the older guys will tell stories of the times they got concussions and would go back in because, according to the coaches, it was just a headache. Whereas, with the younger players I know, it's become more acceptable for coaches to sit guys because they have a headache.

Unfortunately, with the time frames that are involved in these studies, no one will really be able to definitively tell if these new precautions have had any effect on the safety of the game for at least another 20-25 years.

[Masked Bandit]

I've struggled with this information for a few years now. I played in school and I would be lying if I said it was anything shy of the single best part of my life under 18 years of age. However, a couple of decades later I would also be lying if I said I didn't see lingering effects on myself and a few other guys that I played with and still have contact with. My boy started asking about playing when he was six or seven and thankfully he seems to have dropped it for now but if down the road his buddies get into it I'm going to have a problem. Athletics can be a very positive part of life, but brain injury can ruin the rest of your life.

[Buster]

The problem isn't just concussions, you get CTE from even the lesser collisions that are considered a "normal" part of play.

[J-hop]

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The problem isn't just concussions, you get CTE from even the lesser collisions that are considered a "normal" part of play.

This.

[tonytiger55]

Play Rugby..?

[JRSC00LUDE]

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The problem isn't just concussions, you get CTE from even the lesser collisions that are considered a "normal" part of play.

It's good these things are getting more coverage and research, that's for sure. I don't know what I'll tell my kid as he begins to enter more activities. I do know that while I never experienced any issues whatsoever earlier in life, I've had seemingly innocuous hits to the head in the last five years that have left things behind such as 30 hour complete memory gaps, issues in ascending altitudes (increases in pressure/pain inside head), sleep issues, short term temperament changes, etc.

I can't help but to assume many of these could have been avoided by lesser amounts of cumulative impacts.

[Masked Bandit]

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The problem isn't just concussions, you get CTE from even the lesser collisions that are considered a "normal" part of play.

Exactly. Everyone in sport these days is very aware of concussions and how to deal with them, it's the hundreds of non-concussive impacts that still slip under the radar.