Is The Sport of Football Truly Dying?
Mates,
Like a number of other Mgobloggers, I coach football. Sign up for the football leagues up north is set to close on Friday for this upcoming season. The numbers of kids signing up for football all over the NW part of the lower peninsula are way, way down. In our area, in the last 5 years we have gone from fielding something like 18 teams to fielding possibly 6 this year. That is an incredible drop in participation and if it is seen across the country does not bode well for our favorite sport.
As one who played football until late in life I think it would be a shame to see the demise of such an exceptional game. Perhaps it is inevitable though. Please share your experiences and insights on this topic. I am hoping for good news from you all.
XM
in many districts is hurting football numbers too.
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Not when club/travel coaches want you to specialize...
The school schedule is in the spring, but there are leagues and tournaments that go year-round. For example, the younger kids will play beginning of April through mid-june, but there were 4 tournaments that I can think of in June and 3 this last month. I don't know of any in August and September, but October has a couple. November starts up the winter leagues at Detroit Country Day and Ultimate Soccer in Pontiac, which lasts through March. That doesn't include showcases for high school kids and these are only the ones that I personally know about.
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Hockey is steadily trending upward in the US.
The number of USA Hockey registered players is up about 20% over the last ten years (442,077 in 05-06 and 533,172 in 14-15).
http://www.usahockey.com/page/show/839306-membership-statistics
Ultimate Frisbee is largely to blame.
At least as of 2013, the latest year I found statistics for nationally. I'm not sure how that relates to anecdotal evidence that football is dropping because kids are specializing in a single sport. There are a lot of variables. Football requires more players than other sports. It's more subject to getting dropped at smaller schools, which could accelerate a decline.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/football-top-spor…
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Basically, I see the bottom half of rosters getting less and less attention. Coaches are running up-tempo practices with more snaps and less contact. The depth kids who could close the talent gap by running drills just aren't getting them. They are standing around half of practice watching the starters run plays.. IMO many lack confidence because of this and are quitting football.
Been a bit of a disappointment... lots of made up and hearsay stats and conjecture. This theory of yours though makes a great deal of sense if taken in combination with the head injury issue.
Does your purse hold all of your feminine hygiene prducts?
Sorry, I just had to come up with something as irrelevant as your knuckles dragging comment. Nothing AlwaysBlue wrote was inaccurate.
I imagine sensors in the gloves/knees/elbows that indicate when a player was down, where the exact line of scrimmage is, whether it was a catch or not, etc.
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What other youth sports would you say are more dangerous than football?
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from 2008-2012. Participation nationally is dropping at a much slower rate.
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Exactly. The liklihood of soccer overtaking football in this country is about as realistic as finding women coaching in the NFL...
heh, sneaky sneaky
I don't know about overall trends at the macro level. But as a parent, here's where I'm coming from at least.
My kid's probably a candidate for football. He's huge for his age, I played and got a lot out of it through high school, and other memebers of my family have played through college.
I kind of just don't want my son to play at the youth level though.
*I live in a large city and have walked by the park to see the youth couches and parents encouraging tiny kids to be a little too *thunderdome* with each other.
Even if the coaches are vetted and cool (like how I'm sure I'd think of you) it only takes one idiot parent that thrives on teaching their kids they are pitbulls to put a tiny kid or a sweet kid at risk.
*Parents are much more litigious now at least where I live.
I realize how stupid it is to give when I was a kid stories but here goes: When I was a kid, I came home from touch football practice to find out some kid kicked my little brother in the balls tha day. The next day I did what any older brother would do. I got there before practice when we played "kill the man with the ball" (it's also got another less pc name, but happily that's not what we called it). I waited till the kid got the ball and I leveled him with all my 4th grade might. The baffled kid asked why. I told him. And it was over. Now. Maybe I fall on him funny and he breaks a bone. He's got helicoptor parents: lawsuit.
*Head injury problems seem to be cumulitive.
This is the big one! Yes I know they are little kids. Yes I know it's unlikely they'll get plastered to the point there are visible signs of a concussion. But if it's based on all of the hits over time those count too.
*I don't think youth football is that helpful in making high school and college football players.]
I've seen enough kids that had to unlearn wrong stuff at that level to not think it was a great head start. I think it's entirely possible to learn football technique at the high school (or at least middle school) level without being behind by graduation. There are plenty of other sports and activities a kid can play to hone athletic ability that will help him should he ever decide to play football at those levels.
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To me youth football is very little upside, for a few shots at a decent downside. I certainly don't disrespect the people that play or coach but I'm just hoping it's not for my kid.
As a dad who played football and has a big kid, of course I think it would be cool to cheer for him doing the same thing, and I'm totally aware that not encouraging him to play at a younger age might make it so he doesn't want to play when he's older. But I'm ok with that. I have even bigger concussion concerns at higher levels, and I just want him to be happy anyway. So if not playing kid football makes him discover something else that's cool that he'll do in high school instead of what I did, that's fine too.
Football and has gotten a ton out of it. There are risks, but in his situation, his team, his league I think the benefitsoutweigh the risks. I can easily imagine a situation where I felt differently ( having seen a couple episodes of Friday night tykes).
I think Witz57 is bang on. I coached youth football for over 10 years with my two older boys but knowing now what I know about the cumulative effect of concussions I am NOT letting my 10 year old play until he's in 7th grade. That's five years, more or less, of reduced exposure to hits but also reduced exposure to learning so my guess is it's doubtful he'll want to play when he gets there and that's ok with me.
The rest of your points: coaches, crazy parents, etc are also right on the money as well. Great post.
I blame video games.
kinda /s :P
Nearly all of my analysis is speculation but with many years of observation.
Numbers are down in large part for several reasons. Many parents cite concussions and head injuries as major reasons for not 'allowing' their kids to participate. Despite the fact that one can logically assume years of blunt trauma to the head could lead to issues, the vast majority of data compiled is from professional athletes that have played many years longer and at a much higher level of competition that the average HS kid.
Another obvious reason is the economy here in MI. We know it is still far from great and despite growth in particular counties, some regions are still seriously struggling. As folks leave the numbers inevitably drop.
Single parent/split homes are another significant reason. Won't place blame on any one side but we can see how something like football could be problematic, especially if a child is back and forth regularly between the two. If it is a single parent situation money may be tight or possibly just over-concern for their children. (Don't mean this to sound bad)
Another reason that is potentially leading to low numbers falls to the schools and districts themselves. Many schools I have been in and around do not seem
To put the same emphasis on athletics as they once did. Schools do not spend crazy $ on facilities, jerseys, etc. I know this is a very broad statement because many schools still do a phenomenal job in these areas. However, compared to schools down south the total money put towards football is merely a fraction up here in the north.
The last cause I've noticed is simply social media. Between the SM and the schools emphasis on creating a fun atmosphere at the game from the student sections, it's almost like it is cooler to be part of the show going on in the stands as opposed to the actual game on the field. Plus students often do not take rejection well (since some rarely experience it) and so the thought of playing football, being critiqued/yelled at is simply not as fun as a party in the crowd.
These are just some of the more obvious things I've noticed as a coach. By no means am I saying someone is terrible if they are guilty of one or more of these things. However, combined they all do seem to be leading to the general pussification of America.
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"Pussification of America"
God, I hate this. Please, grow up. Your generalizations/suppositions that "kids don't play football because they don't want to be yelled at" are just that: suppositions.
I coach (basketball). I have kids that are coddled. I also have kids that are bulldogs and would run through brick walls for me.
I would guess that 20-30 years ago there were players that were coddled as well - just look at Bo Schembechler. I would bet 20 years ago, there were coaches that would bitch about "pussification of America" and that "it wasn't like this when I was a kid". It's the Socrates effect. As the 400 BC philospoher once said:
“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”
Old people always think young people are, in some way, worse than they were at that age.
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I wouldn't mind seeing fewer kids playing football and more kids playing soccer. I'm tired of our country having a crappy soccer team.
Football is simply too dangerous, I would be surprised if the NFL is still around in 50 years with all the current research being done on head injuries. I played football from 9 years old to 18 and loved every second of it but probably would not let my sons play. It'll be hard to watch the sport I love die but having had a few concussions in my life, I'm not sure its worth the risk.
It won't die because it's too popular and lucrative of a spectator sport. You will always be able to find somebody to take on the perceived risks for a shot at fame, cash, and glory.
It will be like auto racing in that sense. Parents (even parents who were racers themselves) generally are not thrilled at the prospect of their kids taking up racing, and try to discourage it. Yet there are still plenty of kids that line up to do it.
What you do have when this happens, however, is a smaller and smaller pool of talent to draw from. The lucrative, glamorous NFL will still have football, but don't bet on every college and high school continuing to have it.
Football will never leave the top spot in America even if less people are playing it. It's the Super Bowl vs. the MLS championship.
Why are you comparing football with the 5th most popular sport?
I love soccer, but I am under no delusions about it becoming intensely popular state-side*. But I always find it funny how people who hate soccer get so defensive about it gaining popularity.
Soccer person: "The MLS is doing really well. Ratings are up, the leauge is expanding, Portland sells out every game and has insane game atmosphere."
Non-soccer person: "IT WILL NEVER BE AS BIG AS FOOTBALL."
*A big reason being TV. Soccer is not good for the networks, it doesn't have commercial breaks (money!), and it doesn't cater to short attention spans (can't run to the bathroom, might miss something, but there's no break to do it).
... everything is dying. it's just a matter of when, not if. And on that note, going back to the bottle.