Should we really be letting 8-year-olds smash into each other on football fields like mini-gladiators?
Full-contact sports like tackle football, rugby, boxing, and hockey have become rites of passage in many cultures. They teach discipline, resilience, and teamwork. But let’s not sugarcoat it — they also come with repeated blows to developing brains and fragile joints. We’re talking concussions, spinal injuries, and long-term trauma... and all before they hit puberty.
Medical experts have warned for years that repeated head impacts in youth can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease found in numerous former athletes. Yet we still cheer when little kids take hard hits in youth football or full-check hockey. Why? Because we call it “toughening them up”?
We don’t let kids drive, vote, or drink — but we let them play collision sports that could alter their brain chemistry forever?
Supporters argue that banning contact sports is “soft” and robs kids of valuable life lessons. But life lessons shouldn’t come at the cost of brain damage. There are safer ways to learn discipline than being knocked unconscious in a Pop Warner game.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about banning sports. It’s about evolving them. Delaying full-contact until teens are neurologically more developed isn’t cowardice — it’s common sense.
If we have the data, the injuries, and the tragic stories, what more do we need to take action?
Let kids play. Just don’t let them destroy their futures in the process.
Full-contact sports like tackle football, rugby, boxing, and hockey have become rites of passage in many cultures. They teach discipline, resilience, and teamwork. But let’s not sugarcoat it — they also come with repeated blows to developing brains and fragile joints. We’re talking concussions, spinal injuries, and long-term trauma... and all before they hit puberty.
Medical experts have warned for years that repeated head impacts in youth can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease found in numerous former athletes. Yet we still cheer when little kids take hard hits in youth football or full-check hockey. Why? Because we call it “toughening them up”?
We don’t let kids drive, vote, or drink — but we let them play collision sports that could alter their brain chemistry forever?
Supporters argue that banning contact sports is “soft” and robs kids of valuable life lessons. But life lessons shouldn’t come at the cost of brain damage. There are safer ways to learn discipline than being knocked unconscious in a Pop Warner game.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about banning sports. It’s about evolving them. Delaying full-contact until teens are neurologically more developed isn’t cowardice — it’s common sense.
If we have the data, the injuries, and the tragic stories, what more do we need to take action?
Let kids play. Just don’t let them destroy their futures in the process.