Last night, a little boy in my community died during warm ups for his freshman football team. 
In recent years, there has been a number of unexpected deaths of student athletes throughout the county in which I live. Causes have ranged from heat stroke to heart defects. My best friend has a 10 year old boy and she will never put him in football and has even kept him home from school on particularly warm days when activities such as "run your heart out" and whatnot are ocurring. I don't know why I associate these student deaths directly with football, but I do and so do others. My DH and I were both high school athletes and know that we will put our future LO in sports. But I, myself, am getting more and more leery about football. What do you girls think about putting your kids in football, or sports in general? Do you worry about the safety?
You might also enjoy...
-
We have already agreed that DS can play any sport he wants...except football. It's just too dangerous.
-
How do you die doing warmups?
I played football in high school for three years... it was a pretty great experience. We all had mandatory physicals, and each day someone would do tests to see if the heat/humidity was too much... sometimes practice would be canceled if the humidity was too high.
-
I definitely will encourage my kids to find a sport they like and play regularly, but football is off limits for them both.
-
football is the only sport, we will not let our son do. I am terrified of brain injuries and have seen the worst case scenario, so I just cant do it.
-
@mrbee: I wondered the same thing regarding death during warm ups. It wasn't too hot yesterday where I live. I am digging around to find out the cause of the kid's death last night. Some info leads me to believe he may have had an undetected heart condition. I'm so happy to know there is one person that still sees the value of football. My DH played pop warner before solely focusing on baseball. DH sees no problem with popwarner. I am not sure where I will fall on the issue.
-
My kids can play football if they want.
-
My husband played football from 4th grade on and it's a huge deal in our area. That said, it still might be off limits, though if he really wants to play, I'm betting we'd let him. BIL raced motocross for 8 years and that was 1000% more scary. I think we'd be getting off easy with football after being around motocross.
-
We want to keep DS from playing football.
Hopefully he'll enjoy soccer, basketball, baseball... -
Football is the only sport that has caused horrible fights in our household and we don't even have babies. I'm adamantly opposed to letting a son play football but DH sees no problem with it. I see too many risks associated with closed head injuries to justify letting a little guy play it. Maybe, and that's a BIG maybe, when he's older but absolutely no pee wee football...young heads aren't designed to take a beating like that. Not that grow up heads are any different but still.
-
@PointeShoesTutus: I agree on pee wee football... not really a fan of any full-contact sport at that age!
-
DS can play any sport except football. Honestly though neither DH nor I like or watch football, so I doubt DS will express any interest in playing the sport. I have read too many articles about concussions, brain injuries, memory loss and the numerous surgeries football players need to allow my baby to participate in football.
Not sure if this is the situation @mrsmcd is referring to, but the cause of death in the situation below is not yet known. May not have to do with football at all:
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_23824963/football-player-14-dies-after-practice-collapse -
I have a loooong no-go list: football, rugby, hockey, lacrosse, boxing. Other sport-like stuff LO will not do until I no longer have a say in it*: ski jumping, motocross, any form of auto racing, parachuting, paragliding, rappelling (there might be some wiggle room on this one, but not until his later teens).
He is going to learn to swim, surf, and maybe play baseball, golf, or tennis.
*And even after that, I will be reminding him frequently of my (his poor old mother!) feelings on these matters!
-
Football gets such a bad reputation. My husband played in the NFL. My best friend had more numerous and more serious injuries playing girls high school soccer than my husband ever had during years of playing football. Our children are welcome to play football and we will teach them how to play safe and play smart just as we would with any sport.
-
@mamamoose: You are right that football has a bad reputation and that other sports can be dangerous, too. I played high school softball and our shortstop had to have knee surgery every single year because of an injury she had sustained in middle school. To me, the head injuries that result from playing football are what's most scary. Also, I just don't like football, even though my family are diehard Florida Gators fans (I'm the black sheep in the family for that). I think it's wise to teach kids how to be responsible athletically, and I'm glad you're doing that. I'm also glad your husband had a safe experience in the NFL.
-
I read a nytimes article recently that said all HS athletes should do a stress test as part of their HS physical - it would catch many of the defects that lead to sudden death.
I do not want my son to play football. I want to keep his brain intact!. I will push for soccer or basketball...but that wouldn't rule out defect issues. I know there are injuries in every sport, but football is worse (and no extreme sports, please!).
-
I'm going to steer my kids away from full contact sports. I kinda hope they become math-letes...
-
@honeybear: haha, I kind of feel the same way! DH did a lot of parachuting in his 20s, and I'm nervous about future father/son parachuting adventures.
Luckily for us, there is no American style football in Europe. I am slightly concerned about rugby though. At 2.5, DS is already a bruiser, so if he continues on his current growth trajectory he could probably be a good rugby man. I don't want him to have cauliflower ears though!
DH and I were both big high school athletes though, so I will just encourage him to do what he likes as long as it isn't too violent.
-
@honeybear: yikes, surfing?!? I'm a scaredy cat in the ocean. I wonder how the prevalence of shark attacks compares to life-threatening football injuries.
-
Also... just as an update. Its been confirmed that the little boy who died this week did suffer from a known heart defect for which he regularly saw a cardiologist. So his death could likely have occurred regardless of the sport being played. Also, a newspaper article this morning reviewed five student-athlete deaths and cound that two were the result of cardiac arrest (cheerleading and cross-country), one was from heatstroke (football) and two were from congenital heart defects (both football).
-
I'm a worrier so I've never wanted to put my son in football. Luckily I don't think we'll have to worry about it..... DH and I were both band geeks so it's more likely my kids will be into that too. Neither of us are athletic, so it would be very surprising if any child of mine wanted to play football.
-
When I think of the number of injuries caused by other activities (soccer, riding bikes, going in a car, etc), the number of football injuries seems much smaller. My kids can play whatever sport they choose to. As you said, @MrsMcD: a cheerleader and a cross-country runner died. These things can happen to any kid running around.
-
@artbee: It'd be surprising if our kid wanted to play football too! I think the arts are more in his future.
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
22 comments