Tackle Football; Why Children Under The Age of 13 Shouldn’t Participate

Arguably one of the biggest (if not the biggest), controversies in football across all levels deals with the question: should children be allowed to play contact football? My thought on this debate is simple: kids should not be allowed to partake in contact football, at least until they reach the age of 13. There are people who make the “they know the risks” argument, and that is certainly understandable. However, when we’re talking about children, especially those who aren’t teenagers, then how much of a choice do they actually have? In an article written by The Washington Post’s editorial board, they essentially are in agreeance. The article says that “children aren’t allowed to accept the risks of smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, so it defies logic to let them accept the dangers that football may present to their developing brains.” In 2017, a long-term study on as many as 214 former high school, college and professional football players was completed by Boston University researchers. Each participant was asked to partake in a variety of phone interviews and online surveys designed to test their responses to certain questions. The test results found that “those who started playing contact football before the age of 12 suffered more behavioral, cognitive and emotional problems than those who started playing after they turned 12. Exposure to repetitive head impacts may double the chances of developing behavioral problems and triple the risk of experiencing depression.” According to Robert Stern, one of the authors of the study from the university’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, “The brain is going through this incredible time of growth between the years of 10 and 12, and if you subject that developing brain to repetitive head impacts, it may cause problems later in life.” The article goes on to mention how participation in youth football is in a steady decline because of safety concerns, and that the majority of the university’s studies conducted on deceased brains of former NFL players were found to have CTE (110 out of 111 to be exact). This evidence further shows that perhaps tackle football should wait for kids under the age of 13. Maybe flag football, a topic discussed in another blog, might actually be the answer.