This thread is hilarious! Sounds like a lot of you never played football in your life and you robbed your son from doing the same. Probably for the best....
I know a ton of ex-football players that wont let their kids play. When I've met people that had this mentality that playing football changed their life, taught them discipline, gave them purpose, had a huge impact on who they were... those people seem to be the ones that let life pass them by and have little else to hold onto. They probably struggled dealing with life at an early age, maybe had it tough, or we just flat out bad kids. People that lacked discipline and household leadership. Just my opinion based on life experience.
No, I wouldn't. I don't trust the coaches at any level of the sport. I think they are all in it to re-live past glories of their own, and don't care about the well-being of the kids. There's no importance placed on fundamentals and technique. They all want their players to be D.J. Swearingers and Brandon Merriweathers out there, and that's where injuries occur. I play in a flag football league that shares a field with pee-wee practices, and just watching these clowns yell at 6 year olds for not running a play-action pass properly is infuriating. I told one of the assistants that I thought the head coach of one particular team looks like he's taking his PTSD out on these kids, and he said, "This is him toned down. The parents of the kids actually tried to get him to quit, but he promised he'd get a handle on his temper." I can tell you right now, if I had a son, and I saw that guy yelling and pulling him by his collar for missing a tackle, there would be hell to pay.
I'm willing to bet that all of you have watched a game in one capacity or another (in person, TV, etc.), yet you won't let your own son play...? LOLs. Sounds like a hypocrite to me. I guess it's always the "it's not me, so I don't care" mentality... y'all really don't care that other parents' kids let their kids play? You know the consequences, but you don't try to persuade them NOT to let their kids play ? That's unbelievably sad to hear.
One of my biggest regrets in life was not playing football in school. The coaches practically begged me to play because of my athleticism but I had intense pressure from family not to play.
No no no no no. Never. This thread is interesting to me because I think it shows that there might be something to the fears about a talent drain in football some 15-20 years down the line, barring huuuuge changes in the game that, admittedly, would make the game far from the football we know today. I know a guy (surprisingly, not a douche!) who coaches his son's youth football team and he estimated that signups were down some 25% this past season when compared to just the previous year. And this is a huge youth league in an area that loves it's football (south-central IL). That's not insignificant.
I played varsity football in high school for 3 seasons and had an opportunity to play in college but choose to compete in other sports. I enjoyed football, and never was seriously hurt. When I played no one feared head injuries but just broken bones. I was taught to take a hit rather than run out of bounds if it meant an extra yard and I enjoyed being hit honestly. Because of my commitment to other sports I did not need to practice more than a handful of times in all of high school. I am torn honestly. I was knocked out in the 7th grade twice and as a junior in high school had 2 concussions. However I had no lingering issues and cannot really say that it has had any appreciable impact on my life in a negative way. I have discussed this with my wife and she says no to football. I believe that the head injuries at the high school level may be overstated, but can understand my wife's position. I suppose my position is if my son is blessed to have a special talent for football and really wants to play, he can... Otherwise I would prefer baseball.
Let's say I had a son that was athletically gifted. If I knew he would be a pro athlete one day, I would steer him away from football. I would suggest he play baseball. Especially if he is left handed, and can pitch. The money is stupidly there. They get the dumbest contracts. I'm cool with basketball too. That's my first love. The nba money is good. I'd let him play soccer. Don't know if mls has the money yet, but that's what Europe is for. (Or a Middle East oil country) Golf and tennis is cool too. And if I have daughters, golf and tennis. The hell with soccer and wnba.
So... only dumb parents are letting their kids play football, is that everyone's take? I don't mind if I'm the only one pointing this out, but I have a valid point by saying how it sounds like you're contradicting yourself (all people who are "against football", in general) when your main point is "I won't let my son play football", but you still support the sport. Meh. I've made mine.
Would you want your child to join the military and be in a combat zone? If not, move out of the USA. Would you want your child to be a mailman? If not, quit getting mail. Would you want your child to be a cop? If not, quit getting protected. Just because you don't want a child doing (insert occupation here) doesn't mean you can't support (insert occupation here).
Based on Swoly's support of p*rn, he would be a bad parent for discouraging any of his kids from going into the p*rn industry.
It's not about being dumb/smart SwoLy, it's simply a choice. A choice that may or may not have an impact on your sons physical well being in the future. Since I don't have the ability to see the future, I choose to error in the side of caution! Like I stated in my previous post, my son DID play football, all the way to the middle of LAST season. If my son was the kicker he probably would still be playing football, but he wasn't, he was a linebacker/running back, two injury prone positions! Towards the end, they were primarily using him as a running back, that's when I saw an increase in his limping/aching/complaining. Why? Because it's a totally different beating on your body when your getting hit, versus, you hitting somebody! If someone wants to allow their son to play football, fine! Your not dumb or smart, you've simply made a choice, a choice you have to live with. ....... ....... .......
If he wanted too . . . I would I would not push When I was young .. I was chomping at the bit to play I would have been deeply hurt if I was not allowed to play I would not have cared what the reason was That said . .. I understand some parents need to make those EXECUTIVE DECISIONS Depends on the kid . . . Rocket River
None of those are comparable jobs to a football player in the nfl or any other football league, GTHOOH with that. How dare you compare working door-to-door delivering mail or working overseas defending a country to being a football player?!!? Seriously? You should apologize to all the service men and women. #$*&)#($*& that comparison is extremely poor. Major, AGAIN: what makes you think I would condone child p*rnography, man? Just another CRAPPY comparison. Only ADULTS can be in those movies. BamBam, it's the parents' choices, but they're also choosing to support a sport that no one here wants to let their kids play? OK, so forget the dumb/smart thing... I'll drop that, but doesn't that sound hypocritical to you? Seriously? So it's OK to let all the current players play? Why aren't they saying that it's dangerous and why aren't they stopping from watching the sport and supporting all that?
