Child's Football Tragedy

Child's Football Tragedy

by shannon | Published on October 15th, 2009, 9:02 am | Sports

Whoa! Yes, I was that girl in high school awkwardly flying across the quad in the mud in front of all the "cool" seniors. I fully admit that I have lacked any sort of grace or coordination for my entire life. While the jocks and their posse were training on the field I was dressing up and building sets in the theater. I used to put on shows for a crowd of 200 while my cousins and the rest of the family were out on the field in front of 2,000.

I understand that sports are very important for schools to raise money and provide grand opportunities for those involved. Being part of a team is a great thing and promoting excercise and discipline go hand in hand with sports. These are all things I wish to encourage in my own children. However, sometimes a parent goes a little overboard when it comes to their child and sports. For some reason, football seems to be that one sport where people go a little nutty. There are people who automatically assume their son will be a football player. They never leave room for anything else to seep in. The kids are playing football as soon as they are able to walk.

While a child's brain is still developing we throw a helmet on them and heave them into a dog pile. I fear that we do not have proper safety standards for young athletes. Time and time again we continue to hear about these catastrophic events with our children on the field. I am all in favor of supporting and encouraging children who wish to play sports, but I do think that changes need to be put in place and parents need to use some common sense. Most people would not allow their 7 year old to bungee jump just because they wear a helmet. Why do we make exceptions for full contact sports. I do think extra precautions should be in place so tragedies like this, in my home town, are fewer.

[Liv]

I think we just need to ban sports in schools all together. Give the money to the theatre.

[Serendipitous]

I support both sports and the arts. I think it absolutely sucks that some children don't have the opportunity to dabble in both until they find their focus, their passion. And I also think it sucks that some children (usually because of their parents either pushing them or not setting limits) get worn out trying to do both, or trying to do every sport, or whatever the case may be. (For the record, I had parents who wouldn't let me do both and wouldn't support me in sports, so I was stuck focusing on music.)

Back to the subject, I think it's important to remember that with football, the children are playing against other players in their own age group. Even with some children being smaller or larger than other/average children their age, contact wouldn't be markedly different as it would with an elementary schooler playing against a high schooler. As for wearing helmets, I wonder how many football moms and dads let their children go out bike riding without a helmet. I think there are some situations where a helmet may reduce injury but not completely prevent it. (Next time I throw someone off a building, I can shove a helmet on the victim and see if that makes a difference.)

From the article:

Although brain injuries such as concussions occur frequently in contact sports, subdural hematomas are “extremely rare,” said Dr. Phillip E. Stieg.

“This is a freak accident,” said Stieg, chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. “How many hundreds of thousands of kids play sports like soccer where they knock their heads against a ball, or football and baseball when you can get hit in the head? All those sports have potential for head injuries, and you only hear about one of these every couple of months.”

David, an offensive and defensive tackle, collapsed while running during a kickoff drill. His coaches said there was no contact at the time, although he was involved in normal contact earlier in practice.

I know that by allowing your child to play any sport, you're increasing his/her chance of being injured, which in some cases may result in death. But freak things happen off the field/court/etc from kids just being kids... Geez, I still remember hearing about the family who took their daughter to see a hockey game (not sure if it was NHL) for her birthday and dangit if a puck didn't fly into the stands, smack her in the head and kill her.

Anyway, anything can happen... soooooo seize the day, live life to the lees, live like you were dying, live life to the fullest, don't worry be happy, to thine own self be true [insert your favorite saying here] etc etc etc blah blah blah