Would you allow your son to play football?

[Hungary Jack]

Lots of scary evidence surfacing about the brain trauma endured by NFL players, and likely college players too. Just curious how our fathers (or imagine you have a young son) feel about this issue if their young son wanted to play football.

[Hungary Jack]

I have no idea what sports, if any, Little Hungary will want to pursue. But I am leaning toward taking football off the table.

[clake]

There's chances of head injuries in any sport. Yeah, some more than others but I don't feel like I should make my child live in "bubblewrap" his or her entire life.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

It's hard to say for sure because a lot could happen in the years between now and the time when my future son would be able to play football. But if it hasn't made significant changes? I don't know if I'd forbid it, but I'd put a good bit of effort to steer him away from playing.

[lukethedrifter]

I'm guessing that once the research is done hockey will fare even worse than football.

[Hungary Jack]

I'm guessing that once the research is done hockey will fare even worse than football.

I don't think so (maybe I'm biased because I played). I think the collisions in football are more numerous and more violent.

[lukethedrifter]

I'm guessing that once the research is done hockey will fare even worse than football.

I don't think so (maybe I'm biased because I played). I think the collisions in football are more numerous and more violent.

You are.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/sport ... sions.html

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2011/2/8/19 ... ic-lindros

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 153213.htm

[Hungary Jack]

I'm guessing that once the research is done hockey will fare even worse than football.

I don't think so (maybe I'm biased because I played). I think the collisions in football are more numerous and more violent.

You are.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/sport ... sions.html

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2011/2/8/19 ... ic-lindros

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 153213.htm

I would never deny that hockey is risky, but I don't think this data shows that the concussion rate in hockey is the same as it is in football. The rates in both sports have obviously been underreported.

[lukethedrifter]

I'm guessing that once the research is done hockey will fare even worse than football.

I don't think so (maybe I'm biased because I played). I think the collisions in football are more numerous and more violent.

You are.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/sport ... sions.html

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2011/2/8/19 ... ic-lindros

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 153213.htm

I would never deny that hockey is risky, but I don't think this data shows that the concussion rate in hockey is the same as it is in football. The rates in both sports have obviously been underreported.

“Hockey, by the way, has a higher incidence of concussions than football,” Dr. Maroon told me. This is true of women’s college hockey, at least, which doesn’t even allow body-checking. (Women, in general, seem substantially more prone to concussions, and explanations vary, from weaker necks to a greater honesty in self-diagnosis.) And in December, 2009, Reggie Fleming, a New York Rangers defenseman in the nineteen-sixties who was known more for his fighting than for his scoring, became the first pro hockey player to be given a diagnosis of C.T.E. Hockey may now have a concussion crisis on its hands, with the N.H.L.’s best and most marketable player, Sidney Crosby, having been blindsided during the sport’s annual Winter Classic; attempting to play again, four days later, he was drilled into the boards, and he hasn’t played since. I play hockey twice a week myself, and was once concussed, or so I now believe, while skating outside, on a frozen pond, without a helmet.


Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011 ... z1EWO234ik

Noted: the quote is referring to women's hockey

[cpebbles]

For a small high school team where the linemen average under 180 pounds, sure, but nothing more competitive than that.