The city’s four middle schools have discontinued their tackle football squads, replacing them with co-ed flag football, Scott Souza reports for the Globe.
Newton middle schools end tackle football
by Village 14 | Sep 19, 2019 | Newton | 22 comments
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This is a wise and prudent move. During the early 1950s, I had signed up to play junior varsity tackle football at Weeks Junior High My folks told our old family doctor about my intentions and he strongly urged them not to let me do it. He told them that he had been doctor to many kids in the community and took notice of the fact that a disproportionate number of those that played rough school tackle football seemed to be having various cognitive and memory problems in later life. He attributed it to head injuries from the butting of heads, falls and bumping into each other. He didn’t let his kids play football and neither did mine after hearing what he had to say.
@Bob – I’m impressed that your doctor was so far ahead of his time.
Our schools should not be sponsoring activities that cause brain damage. Glad to see them doing the right thing.
Tackle football is not safe at any age, and it’s time for our health officials to put an end to this child abuse at every level including high school.
It’s about time. Tackle football is an inappropriate sport for our public schools. Hopefully this will be followed up by eliminating tackle football from high school as well.
@michael…..my child has played tackle football for 8 years and continues to play…,are you suggesting that I am abusing my child by allowing him to play?
@mike Striar…have you ever played or had a child who played tackle football? I just want to understand where your expertise in this area is.
Independent Man, I’m pretty sure Mike Striar has science on his side on this issue.
Finally!!!!!! This is good news.
MMQC, being a scientist myself, I actually have read many of the studies that have been done and understand where the potential risks may be. I would suggest that before you try to close down a discussion with “he has science on his side”, you should actually read the studies that are out there and come to your own conclusion and not rely on what you hear on V14. By the way, in recent studies the incidence of concussions in girls soccer is now greater than football . Hopefully Newton does the right thing and bans soccer too. Wouldn’t you agree?
@Independent Man, the girls’ soccer red herring put forth by the NFL PR machinery has been debunked multiple times; feel free to read up on it. Anyway yes, I certainly believe that if you allow your son to play tackle football then you’ve got no sense and are abusing your child.
Michael, High School Girls Soccer Concussions Rate is NOT a red herring. From WebMD:
“(HealthDay News) — Female soccer players suffer the highest rate of concussions among all high school athletes in the United States, a new study finds.
“While American football has been both scientifically and colloquially associated with the highest concussion rates, our study found that girls, and especially those who play soccer, may face a higher risk,” said study author Dr. Wellington Hsu. He is a professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University in Chicago.”
https://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20170315/which-high-school-sport-has-the-most-concussions
Michael…again you use another common tactic of those who only believe their opinion is correct….you claim my opinion has been “debunked”. Here is one quick citation:
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (March 14, 2017)—High school girls have a significantly higher concussion rate than boys, with female soccer players suffering the most concussions, according to new research presented today at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).
“While American football has been both scientifically and colloquially associated with the highest concussion rates, our study found that girls, and especially those who play soccer, may face a higher risk,” said Wellington Hsu, MD, professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “The new knowledge presented in this study can lead to policy and prevention measures to potentially halt these trends.”
Can you please send me the connection of the AAOS and Northwester’s School of Medicines ties to the NFL PR machinery? I’m sure you have them since you are such an expert on this.
I’m conflicted here because I enjoy watching the NFL and the Patriots. At the same time, it is such a brutal sport that I wouldn’t let my kids play the sport.
At the same time, I also have concerns about the myriad other sports (soccer, ice hockey, lacrosse, wrestling) where contact is expected or inevitable (eg , and that saddens me because sports can be so enjoyable and valueable.
We shouldn’t just focus exclusively on football and think our job is done.
Many sports lead to all kinds of injuries especially during high school. I bet the Newton middle schools are dropping the sport for a variety of reasons. Football damages grass fields for practice and games which costs a lot to maintain. Both soccer and lacrosse use grass fields too which mean high maintenance costs.
Head injuries for girls soccer has increased significantly in the past 2 decades. Generally the demands for high performance of athletes has increased dramatically since 2000. This highly competitive environment will not abate. Young people will face an ever increasing likelihood of serious injuries in many team sports.
Independent Man, scientists aren’t exempt from falling victim to confirmation bias which I think is what is happening here.
The biggest foible I’ve seen in this debate is people (like @independentman) citing counts of “concussions.” It’s a super-friendly argument to make, since we all know what concussions are (well, maybe not so much, but still) and we can all reason why long-term cognitive damage could result from them.
But what we’re learning in research is that it’s not the actual concussions, but the more minor head injuries. In football, this means Every Single Play™ for someone on the line, and many-to-most plays for other positions. Improved helmets may reduce “concussions” but they haven’t been shown to have a dent on minor head injuries, except for making players feel more invincible.
In soccer, it may include headers, which we’re fortunately moving in the right direction on as well, banning them below certain ages. Soccer without headers still looks and feels a lot like soccer, but football without the helmets and tackles just might not feel like football to us, so we’re naturally a bit more protective.
As for anecdata, a friend of mine played in the NFL for ten years as a cornerback, with one diagnosed concussion – he’s now 36 and doesn’t recognize his kids on a regular basis. My neighbor growing up played in the NFL in the seventies and describes how every red zone drive had him seeing stars.
But it’s not just the NFL. I have two friends who played (terrible) D3 football at my college who have adult-onset epilepsy. I don’t know of any other friends who have it. Again, anecdata.
The more we look, the more Tau we find in the brains of people who played less and less football at younger and younger ages, and an absence in those who played other sports (not including soccer). This speaks to @Michael’s point that there’s no evidence that football is safe to play at any age.
I’m confident that in 50 years (okay, maybe 100, but I hope 25) society will look back on us the way we look at Romans watching gladiators in the Coliseum. Of course, I would hope my kindergarten son would have the conviction, critical thinking, and sense to avoid playing tackle football, but I’m grateful that he now won’t have to face that danger for himself or his friends.
MMQC, I would argue that the confirmation bias is on the side of those who want to ban football. I make a risk/benefit assessment based on all of the information, not what people tell me I should or should not think. Football coaching at the youth level has changed a lot over the years. If I thought coaches were either teaching my child the wrong way to play or putting my kid in danger, I wouldn’t have him play. Overall, after 8 years of playing, it has been a fantastic experience for him. It’s not for every kid, but those who play get a lot out of it at the youth level.
Michael, High School Girls Soccer Concussions Rate is NOT a red herring. From WebMD:
“(HealthDay News) — Female soccer players suffer the highest rate of concussions among all high school athletes in the United States, a new study finds.
“While American football has been both scientifically and colloquially associated with the highest concussion rates, our study found that girls, and especially those who play soccer, may face a higher risk,” said study author Dr. Wellington Hsu. He is a professor of orthopaedics at Northwestern University in Chicago.”
https://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20170315/which-high-school-sport-has-the-most-concussions
Independent Man: Don’t bother with this group. It’s like, well, banging your head against a wall.
My father, who both played and coached football, agrees with the “anti-tackle” side of the argument. He says when he played, helmets were leather (remember the movie “Leatherheads”?), and head injuries were almost unheard of. Unfortunately, no one wants to invest in such an expensive option. (And for animal rights advocates, doubtless there’s a compassionate (and cheaper) one.
@Pat: not to disagree with the thrust of your comment (or your father’s wisdom), but I don’t think leather helmets went away because of cost or animal ethics.
As helmets improved in quality (they’re more protective today than ever before), players felt increasingly invincible wearing them. That invincibility allowed them to take more risks as players, and the game got tougher, stronger, and faster as a result. Football didn’t really begin to ramp up in popularity until the modern padded plastic-with-big-face-guard helmets emerged in the late 60s/early 70s.
So while I agree that minimal/no helmets would actually make the sport safer in certain respects, I’m not sure the changes wouldn’t kill the popularity of football — not that it’d bother me an ounce!
@MJW..I respect your opinion, and that’s what it is, your opinion. What I find amazing is how morally superior you and Michael seem to be. As I said in my posts, it’s a choice to have your kid play or not to play. I know in newton you like to ban most things you personally find morally offensive, but I just don’t agree. There are many studies out there on both sides of this argument. As I said above, my choice in letting my son play involves many factors: level of play, coaching, position he is playing, and the studies I have read on risks. And as for my kid, he does have the conviction, sense, and critical thinking to make good choices. In his case, he chooses to play football along with other sports. I support him because, again, at the high school level I believe the benefit outways the risk. At the college and pro level, we are talking about a different situation. Could you send me the studies you use in your argument that “minor head injuries” correlate with health issues later in life? I would like to read them for myself.
By the way, if you have been to one, I would suggest you go see some youth football games before passing judgment on us child abusers. Newton South beat Brookline last nigh under the lights….the whole school was there. It was a great game, fantastic atmosphere….and South won!
@MJW: my father said the leather helmets ‘gave’ and also absorbed shocks better. Plastic was the new big thing, and while cheaper and lighter, they didn’t (don’t) function in the way the leather did.