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jdolbeer t1_jaru3kf wrote

Will be interesting to see how reception of this goes (both the bill, and my comment).

Youth tackle football is wildly dangerous for kids. The thought of letting kids slam into each other and cause various brain trauma is a bit absurd to me in 2023, with all of the data we have around the results (inc whataboutism in the form of "but it's ok for grown men to blah blah blah"). I think football as a whole either needs to change dramatically or slowly be phased out, but unsure that either will happen and we'll continue to see deaths in youth football that are incredibly tragic and wholly avoidable.

I say this as somebody who has been a fan of football for quite a long time, watched Red Zone religiously for a decade and has won and lost a heap of money playing Fantasy Football. The *game* had been enjoyable for me for a long time (hell, I even played in middle/high school). But it's impossible for me to just continue to ignore the facts of how brutal this game is for people's bodies and brains.

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drpvn t1_jarvq9u wrote

This should happen. Hockey doesn’t allow checking until age 13.

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soflahokie t1_jarwurh wrote

I agree with banning tackle football for children, it leads to more skill development and removes the "I'm bigger therefore I'm unstoppable" nature that peewee football tends to fall into.

Hockey doesn't allow checking until age 13, with the increasing restrictions placed on physical play at higher levels it's allowed for way more skilled players. The same thing is happening with football, and it needs to as players are way bigger and faster today than they were just 20 years ago.

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Diligent_Office7179 t1_jarxus8 wrote

I played football, I love football, and I hope future generations can play football. But I also know how our government/constitution work. States have broad authority when it comes to topics like this (well being of children)

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mrmrmrj t1_jarynw3 wrote

This will actually EXPAND the pool of football players under 12 which football desperately needs as lacrosse and hockey take share among the best child athletes.

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SarahAlicia t1_jaryrzl wrote

Next they are going to ban my Running Full Speed Headfirst Into A Brickwall youth league :(

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Diligent_Office7179 t1_jas02tu wrote

I’m not an expert on this but it’s my understanding that literal deaths in youth football are very rare and are not necessarily higher than in other sports.

I don’t disagree with the overall point though that tackle football at a young age is dangerous and I see merit in this proposed ban

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asldkjgljkaeiovne t1_jas0u83 wrote

Let's just pretend this isn't a revolutionary change to the nation's leading sport while we also pretend revolutionary changes are typically fully adopted by everyone without question. Your "argument" is willfully ignorant of human behavior in general, you know damn well the risk associated with youth football resulting in traumatic brain injury is, fortunately, statistically zero, but sure, let's all pretend that fact isn't real. You also know your attempt to associate "pro lifers" with parents who might oppose such a rule is a pure red herring, a logical fallacy, and rather juvenile in my opinion. For the record, I support limiting tackle football by age and I'm pro-choice, but that shouldn't matter because arguments made that are ignorant of objective and factual premises don't concern bias, something you appear to have an issue with.

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jdolbeer t1_jas1ubu wrote

There's a lot of cardiac arrest in basketball (94% of the youth deaths in basketball are attributed to sudden cardiac death), due to undiagnosed heart conditions. After that there's football with traumatic brain injury, exertional heat stroke, and exertional sickling. These latter 2 being a direct result of overtraining/practicing that isn't seen in other sports. Baseball is due to freak accidents with high speed balls etc.

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jdolbeer t1_jas2ynk wrote

>you know damn well the risk associated with youth football resulting in traumatic brain injury is, fortunately, statistically zero

Lol what? You can't be serious, can you?

Let me just help you out here -

A CDC study published in Sports Health reports youth tackle football athletes ages 6 to 14 sustained 15 times more head impacts than flag football athletes during a practice or game and sustained 23 times more high-magnitude head impact (hard head impact).

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