OT: Mounting Evidence: University study concludes youth football is bad for the brain
Findings:
"groups who participated in youth football before the age of 12 had a twofold “risk of problems with behavioral regulation, apathy and executive function” and a threefold risk of “clinically elevated depression scores.”
and mention of this:
"Last year, doctors at Wake Forest School of Medicine used advanced magnetic resonance imaging technology to find that boys between the ages of 8 and 13 who played just one season of tackle football had diminished brain function in parts of their brains."
September 20th, 2017 at 8:48 AM ^
Soccer, boxing and gymnastics aren't "lucrative"??? Neymar, Floyd Mayweather, and any parent who has paid untold thousands so their daughter can learn how to do a backflip disagree with you...
September 19th, 2017 at 3:58 PM ^
I think there are more alternatives than play football or play video games. There's always masturbation.
September 20th, 2017 at 9:15 AM ^
"A lot of my problems stem from youth sports. Dad would never go to my masturbation matches, but even worse were other kids parents getting in Coach's face when he put me in ahead of their kids.
I showed all of them when I got that scholarship to Ohio State."
September 19th, 2017 at 3:59 PM ^
September 19th, 2017 at 4:06 PM ^
I personally saw how all the kids I played youth and HS football with ended up with SEVERE mental issues. None of them have gone on to become healthy adults, let alone doctors, lawyers, business leaders. While we didn't lose any teammates to death on the field, it sounds like we were REALLY lucky about that.
The threat is real.
Since we know the risks FAR OUTWEIGH all the benefits of playing football, I think that is a good reason for a negligence lawsuit against my firends parents.
I just hopw the parents don't cie that massive amoutn of evidence that kids who play football live healthier, longer lives than the general population. That would be devastating to my case.
September 19th, 2017 at 4:26 PM ^
September 19th, 2017 at 4:43 PM ^
"kids who play football live healthier, longer lives than the general population" that might be true, but it doesn't necessarily mean that football caused this result. Could very well be a sample selection bias. Correlation =/= causation.
September 19th, 2017 at 5:34 PM ^
Be reading too much into it, but I think that might be his point. Football probably doesn't make us live longer/healthier lives, so why are so many agreeing that it causes depression with the same level of evidence?
September 19th, 2017 at 4:08 PM ^
September 19th, 2017 at 4:19 PM ^
September 19th, 2017 at 4:27 PM ^
I fear we all know what the answer is and don't like it.
September 19th, 2017 at 4:30 PM ^
September 19th, 2017 at 4:53 PM ^
X-C for everyone? Ever run with a headache? Hurts with every foot fall. Maybe there's a micro-jolt to the brain 1500 times a mile when one runs. Who knows?
September 19th, 2017 at 5:25 PM ^
September 19th, 2017 at 5:23 PM ^
It's really not a surprise, is it, that chronic trauma to the brain would not be the greatest idea right? Particularly starting at a young age. However, from a science standpoint, this is not yet a decided issue. Quoting a study is helpful to some degree, but it depends on the quality of the study. There was a really good study that came out this past summer that compared Wisconsin athletes who played high school football in the 1950s vs those who didn't. Comparing them showed no difference in any of the behavioral or other outcomes of concern.
Obviously, that latter study has its own issues as football is different than it was in the 1950s. However, it belies the point that there is a level that football is safe to play. So, for those of us who enjoy the sport, how is risk to the athletes minimized. That is what needs to be determined and where the (non-sensational) science is leading.
September 20th, 2017 at 9:42 AM ^
My totally unscientific opinion is that if you stop playing football after high school, and never played before 12 years old, your brain has enough time to heal any damages to the point that it is like you never played at all. I have no evidence to back that up, it is just a gut feeling.
September 19th, 2017 at 6:25 PM ^
September 19th, 2017 at 10:06 PM ^
I know a kid like that. Great athlete in every sport. Baseball was boring, being a hockey goalie was boring, basketball was ok but he ended up as a running back in high school. And he was the kind of kid who would jump off the roof of a house because it was fun.
September 20th, 2017 at 9:39 AM ^
Football is unlike any other sport. The only one that even came close for me was wrestling, but that doesn't give you the team aspect that football does.
September 19th, 2017 at 8:06 PM ^
September 20th, 2017 at 3:15 AM ^
So many folks on here are trying so hard to refute these studies and act as apologists for football. It's predictable, but pretty sad.
As a father of an 11-year-old son, here is my take, and the simple calculus I have done: Do I absolutely, positively KNOW without a doubt that football "causes" CTE, or will lead inexorably to CTE for someone who plays? No, of course not, and anyone who says they know is lying at this point.
But, is there enough evidence out there to make me strongly suspicious that the game, as played now, especially by someone my son's age, MOST LIKELY significantly increases the risk of things like concussions, closed-head injuries, etc., that COULD likewise increase the risk of CTE, or even lesser problems later in life like chronic headaches, mood disorders, etc? Yes, I think there is.
I am left with two basic options: 1. Ignore those risks, and let my son play football anyway; 2. Tell my son he cannot play football, at least until later life (high school maybe?) when he is old enough to better understand the risks and make an informed decision.
As a father, I am picking #2 every day. I don't think people who take #1 are bad fathers, FYI, they just see the calculus differently than me...
September 20th, 2017 at 7:05 AM ^
September 20th, 2017 at 9:38 AM ^
Out of curiosity do you also weigh the benifits of playing football when making your decision?
I'm totally against full contact football below middle school (7th grade here in MI). Most kids are 12 years old in the fall of their 7th grade year. That seems to be above the upper end of the dangers outlined by this study, they use the language "before the age of 12". I totally agree that anyone under that age is not physically ready for full contact. But what are the dangers if you only play from 7th grade (12 yrs old) through 12 grade (17 yrs old)? Playing football during that time for me was the best experience I had at those ages, probably only boy scouts even came close.
So these studies just confirm my decision that my sons won't play full contact before middle school, and odds are that they won't be good enough to play in college so their careers will end in high school.
September 20th, 2017 at 9:44 AM ^
I have no doubt there are benefits to playing football, but none that can't be found in other team sports, or really any other "team-building" kinds of activities that have nothing to do with sports. I played football for a few years, along with other sports, and I probably couldn't be convinced that it was a sui generis experience.
And I think we agree completely here anyway...Once my son is 13 or 14, and has a more physically developed brain and at least some more developed reasoning abilities, we can talk, weigh the pros and cons, and he can make a choice.
September 20th, 2017 at 11:58 AM ^
I disagree that the benefits to playing football are matched in other team sports. No sport is as physically gruelling like football except wrestling. But wrestling is an individual sport.
I have more respect for my teammates in high school that showed up to every practice, gave it 100% but never saw the field on game day. Those are the most mentally tough kids I've ever met. Riding the bench in baseball or basketball just isn't the same.
But yeah, 7th grade to 12th grade is my limit on full contact. Before is a huge no no, and after would require a full ride scholarship to a very strong academic school, sorry SEC.
September 20th, 2017 at 10:14 AM ^
get more pussy than other students. CTE is a totally acceptable trade-off.
September 20th, 2017 at 10:22 AM ^
Really? Even more than softball players??