Bruce Arians: People who say they won't let their kids play football 'are fools'

[BigRedRage]

That means nothing. I bet they could have ask 10 other people and gotten 10 other answers. He couldn't have framed it another way and not call out a bunch of his own fans fools?

its like getting mad at paula dean for being racist, what did you expect the old white southern woman to say?

Personally I take no offense to it at all, hes just another dude that put jeans on this morning and has his passions and opinions.

 

[USAFMEDIC]

It is like saying your kid cannot be a race car driver. It is dangerous. We all know it is dangerous, but we have a lot of drivers. I agree the single-digit kids to be kept in flag football. That is where you are taught the game, the formations, and the plays. My kids got hurt a lot playing soccer too. Of course one was hit in the head with a baseball. Once they are in high school, it should be their choice. The NFL players make a lot of money and are adults and know the risks. Most college players take the risk for a free degree. If a person decides to play football, they should sign a medical release. Everyone knows the risks here. If you play, do not whine about it later. JMHO.

 

[Dude]

It is like saying your kid cannot be a race car driver. It is dangerous. We all know it is dangerous, but we have a lot of drivers. I agree the single-digit kids to be kept in flag football. That is where you are taught the game, the formations, and the plays. My kids got hurt a lot playing soccer too. Of course one was hit in the head with a baseball. Once they are in high school, it should be their choice. The NFL players make a lot of money and are adults and know the risks. Most college players take the risk for a free degree. If a person decides to play football, they should sign a medical release. Everyone knows the risks here. If you play, do not whine about it later. JMHO.

I hate this. What the hell do O line and D line kids learn playing flag football?

NOTHING....................

Get a good coach and let the big kids have fun too.

 

[oaken1]

I hate this. What the hell do O line and D line kids learn playing flag football?

NOTHING....................

Get a good coach and let the big kids have fun too.

Leverage?

 

[Dude]

Leverage?

That would be a big no. Shadow blocking only. Contact is NOT allowed by either team during blocking.

 

[oaken1]

That would be a big no. Shadow blocking only. Contact is NOT allowed by either team during blocking.

no ****? Back when I played flag ball we were knocking the **** out of each other...putting a guy on his ass was a mark of honor....

 

[Dude]

no ****? Back when I played flag ball we were knocking the **** out of each other...putting a guy on his ass was a mark of honor....

When was that? If so just put on the pads.

By the way what I said is rule 10 for all youth flag football look it up.

 

[oaken1]

When was that? If so just put on the pads.

By the way what I said is rule 10 for all youth flag football look it up.

oh,...you know...late seventies.... I guess flag ball sure has changed....whats the damn point?? may as well just do passing drills and award points for catching the ball.

 

[kerouac9]

I hate this. What the hell do O line and D line kids learn playing flag football?

NOTHING....................

Get a good coach and let the big kids have fun too.

Footwork getting around the edge, dropping back into coverage, shadowing an incoming rusher, field awareness. As someone who played a year of Pop Warner OL and HATED it, I can say that even playing OL/TE in flag football taught me a lot about the game.

And I didn't have to get hit in the head dozens of times to accomplish it.

 

[cardncubfan]

I hate this. What the hell do O line and D line kids learn playing flag football?

NOTHING....................

Get a good coach and let the big kids have fun too.

His post said single digit kids meaning 9 & younger should be playing flag football.

 

[Dude]

Footwork getting around the edge, dropping back into coverage, shadowing an incoming rusher, field awareness. As someone who played a year of Pop Warner OL and HATED it, I can say that even playing OL/TE in flag football taught me a lot about the game.

And I didn't have to get hit in the head dozens of times to accomplish it.

Getting around the edge when all a guy can do is put his arms up and not touch you is no where near the moves needed with contact. Not even close. Shadowing an incoming rusher???? That's just dumb. You need to know how to get under them and stop them. Attack at angles and yes even cut block. Getting in a short stop fielding position with your arms up back peddling is just wrong. As to filed awareness yes it's good for a young kid to play their first year in flag.

By the way starting off calling us that let are kids play bad parents I thought was wrong of you to do. My kid has been thought from day one not to lead with his head nor would I let him play for any team that asked him to. Kids are specializing at a young age. You may not like it and that's ok but don't judge what we have done you don't have a clue.

His post said single digit kids meaning 9 & younger should be playing flag football.

I know we covered that. You're a bad parent for letting a 9 year old play but not a 10 year old. Dumb and short sided IMO. Every kid is different and so are the leagues and programs. My kid played flag at 7. Tackle at 8 and 9. A year off at 10 to play two seasons of baseball than again at 11 and 12. He is now 13 and will play again this coming fall. The only kids to get hurt in all that time were 4 WR's falling. 1 after a hit 3 just on their own running and tripping.

 

[kerouac9]

Getting around the edge when all I guy can do is put his arms up and not touch you is no where near the moves needed with contact. Not even close. Shadowing an incoming rusher???? That's just dumb. You need to know how to get under them and stop them. Attack at angles and yes even cut block. Getting in a short stop fielding position with your arms up back peddling is just wrong. As to filed awareness yes it's good for a young kid to play their first year of flag.

By they way starting off calling us that let are kids play bad parents I thought was wrong of you to do. My kid has been thought from day one not to lead with his head nor would I let play for any team that asked him to. Kids are specializing at a young age. You mat not like it and that's ok but don't judge what we have done unless you have seen it.



I know we covered that. You're a bad parent for letting a 9 year old play but not a 10. Dumb and short sided IMO. Every kid is different and so are the leagues and programs. My kid played flag at 7. Tackle at 8 and 9. A year off at 10 to play two seasons of baseball than again at 11 and 12. He is now 13 and will play again this coming fall. The only kids to get hurt in all that time were 4 WR's falling. 1 after a hit 3 just on their own running and tripping.

I stand by it: You're a terrible parent if, today, knowing what we know now, you're letting your pre-high school age kid play tackle football. An unforgivably terrible parent. In 20 years, doing so will be illegal, because the science will be so clear.

The ONLY reason cited by defenders of this as to why kids should play tackle football is so that they're better prepared to play tackle football later. That's hogwash. There's no reason why an 8-year-old needs to learn to be knocked down and "get back up" at the price of brain damage now and down the road. It's not possible brain damage — it's definite brain damage.

Want to teach your kid how to fall down and get back up? Help him learn how to ride a bike? That'll happen all the time. Hit him in the back with a baseball — less lasting damage.

The fact of the matter is that 90% of young kids are going to be a little disappointed if you tell them they can't play tackle football, but 100% of them are going to suffer brain damage if you let them play. The reason that kids play youth football is because their parents register them for it and directly or indirectly pressure them to play. I've seen it happen.

Rodney Gunter didn't play football until his senior year in high school. He's playing in the NFL. 99% of high school football players will never play another snap after their senior year. It's just not worth the price.

 

[Dude]

I stand by it: You're a terrible parent if, today, knowing what we know now, you're letting your pre-high school age kid play tackle football. An unforgivably terrible parent. In 20 years, doing so will be illegal, because the science will be so clear.

The ONLY reason cited by defenders of this as to why kids should play tackle football is so that they're better prepared to play tackle football later. That's hogwash. There's no reason why an 8-year-old needs to learn to be knocked down and "get back up" at the price of brain damage now and down the road. It's not possible brain damage — it's definite brain damage.

Want to teach your kid how to fall down and get back up? Help him learn how to ride a bike? That'll happen all the time. Hit him in the back with a baseball — less lasting damage.

The fact of the matter is that 90% of young kids are going to be a little disappointed if you tell them they can't play tackle football, but 100% of them are going to suffer brain damage if you let them play. The reason that kids play youth football is because their parents register them for it and directly or indirectly pressure them to play. I've seen it happen.

Rodney Gunter didn't play football until his senior year in high school. He's playing in the NFL. 99% of high school football players will never play another snap after their senior year. It's just not worth the price.

You started off saying under 10 now it's high school. Middle school is out too???? Every kid is different. Nothing you just said has any fact to it and is only your opinion as to the safety of the kids. The bold part is bull dung. You have by what your saying have never seen a good program. You can have your opinion. Calling me a bad parent without knowing what he has learned and done only makes you a one sided opinionated dick not right.

As someone who played a year of Pop Warner

This must mean you have brain damage and how you got it.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/358827-percentage-of-kids-who-are-injured-in-football/

"In 2013, USA Football released preliminary findings after the first year of a multi-year study. They note that fewer than 10 percent of youth football players incur an injury, and of those injuries, 64 percent are considered minor injuries. In general, younger and lighter players are at less risk of injury than older, heavier players."

https://www.infosports.com/football/arch/1686.htm

Those three factors help explain why age-group football � when taught and managed correctly � is actually less dangerous, statistically speaking, than soccer.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission examined athletic injuries on a sport-by-sport basis. It found that organized football among 5-to-15-year-olds had 12 per- cent fewer injuries per capita than organized soccer for the same age group. Football also had 50 percent fewer injuries than bike riding and 74 percent fewer than skateboarding.

Pick the right program for your kid and have fun. I would also say do what we do and go buy your own helmet. A good one will run you about $350 but it's worth it.

 

[kerouac9]

You started off saying under 10 now it's high school. Middle school is out too???? Every kid is different. Nothing you just said has any fact to it and is only your opinion as to the safety of the kids. The bold part is bull dung. You have by what your saying have never seen a good program. You can have your opinion. Calling me a bad parent without knowing what he has learned and done only makes you a one sided opinionated dick not right.

This must mean you have brain damage and how you got it.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/358827-percentage-of-kids-who-are-injured-in-football/

https://www.infosports.com/football/arch/1686.htm
Pick the right program for your kid and have fun. I would also say do what we do and go buy your own helmet. A good one will run you about $350 but it's worth it.

I probably do have a small amount of brain damage/CTE from my one season of Pop Warner.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles...nked-to-long-term-brain-damage-in-nfl-players

Nearly 5 million children play tackle football each year, making it the nation’s fourth most-popular youth sport behind basketball, soccer and baseball in 2012, according to prior studies and the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. About 70 percent of the nation’s young football players are younger than 14 years old.

At some of the sport’s youngest levels, ages 9 to 12, tackle football players can take an average 240 head blows a season, sometimes as many as 585, previous studies have found.

And while the hits might seem innocuous, with pint-sized players swaddled in seemingly oversize helmets and double-wide shoulder pads, the force they deliver on the field is hardly child’s play: Each hit can parallel the magnitude of those dished out at the high school and college level.

The shameful water-muddying performed by yourself and others on this thread tries to conceal the fact that, yes, soccer players get injured — blown out knees and other things — but the design of football is to create collisions that cause long-term brain damage.

If your kid really wanted to bash himself in the head with a rubber mallet, you'd stop him. There's no amount of training or "good program" that is going to make banging yourself on the head with a mallet safe. CTE and other long-term, chronic brain injury is the result of these collisions that are part and parcel — and according to some here, the entire point — of tackle football at all levels.

It's probably worse for football before high school because even though the kids are smaller, their brains are still developing:

http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/brain_development_teenagers.html

 

[Dude]

You clearly didn't read my links. You clearly don't know what your talking about. You change the line or the bar of your stance every post. The links I gave you show it's safer for youth players then even high school. They have less injures in total do to the lack of head injures do to their lack of size and speed. That's not my opinion it's a fact. The older kids are the ones where their is proof as to a very small number. No where near your crazy 100% garbage. Not even in the NFL all 100% of the players like you said in youth football get brain damage. Your link of X NFL players playing youth football has no fats to it but they played youth football. Not that it was done in youth. Great players play youth football. Not all but id does help. Still it's old school it's not played like that today or with near the same gear.

Have you even looked at a modern youth helmet today? You do know kids today get kick out of the game and the next for a head shot? I bet you don't. People get it and are on top of it. You fanatical out of touch stance is not based in 2016 youth football realty.

But you got me. Hitting himself on the head with a rubber mallet? Ok that's just like youth football. Let alone the way it's played today.

That's just a stupid statement.

 

[kerouac9]

You clearly didn't read my links. You clearly don't know what your talking about. You change the line or the bar of your stance every post. The links I gave you show it's safer for youth players then even high school. They have less injures in total do to the lack of head injures do to their lack of size and speed. That's not my opinion it's a fact. The older kids are the ones where their is proof as to a very small number. No where near your crazy 100% garbage. Not even in the NFL all 100% of the players like you said in youth football get brain damage.

Have you even looked at a modern youth helmet today? You do know kids today get kick out of the game and the next for a head shot? I bet you don't. People get it and are on top of it. You fanatical out of touch stance is not based in 2016 youth football realty.

But you got me. Hitting himself on the head with a rubber mallet? Ok that's just like youth football. Let alone the way it's played today.

That's just a stupid statement.

Each of your links speak about traumatic injuries. CTE and other brain injuries from football happen due to the accretion of many sub-concussive hits to the head.

The links you posted--one of which Is a message board copy-and-paste of an article from surely peer-reviewed Parenting Magazine, and the other one's conclusion is "of course it's okay to play youth football" are not credible. Anyone who has been paying attention the last 10 years and cares about kids' health should at least conclude that the risks should be carefully weighed.

Again -- the entire point of football is to hit someone and get them on the ground. It's definitionally unsafe and going to lead to head injuries -- he effects of which often aren't visible for years.

 

[oaken1]

I stand by it: You're a terrible parent if, today, knowing what we know now, you're letting your pre-high school age kid play tackle football. An unforgivably terrible parent. In 20 years, doing so will be illegal, because the science will be so clear.

The ONLY reason cited by defenders of this as to why kids should play tackle football is so that they're better prepared to play tackle football later. That's hogwash. There's no reason why an 8-year-old needs to learn to be knocked down and "get back up" at the price of brain damage now and down the road. It's not possible brain damage — it's definite brain damage.

Want to teach your kid how to fall down and get back up? Help him learn how to ride a bike? That'll happen all the time. Hit him in the back with a baseball — less lasting damage.

The fact of the matter is that 90% of young kids are going to be a little disappointed if you tell them they can't play tackle football, but 100% of them are going to suffer brain damage if you let them play. The reason that kids play youth football is because their parents register them for it and directly or indirectly pressure them to play. I've seen it happen.

Rodney Gunter didn't play football until his senior year in high school. He's playing in the NFL. 99% of high school football players will never play another snap after their senior year. It's just not worth the price.

I mostly agree with your position...but the bolded statement is pure bull****,...and likely only stated to be confrontational. Untwist the mangina a few swirls man...........

 

[Dude]

As to your one link that's all in on one side. If you want to stop CTE keep up on the rules, gear and most of all better drug testing. Blood stile Olympic doping test to start. The game this year is even different than last year let alone 20 years ago. My sons youth team had a big rubber wheel they work on the Seattle rugby head to the side tackling all year on. It's not what it was. I would bet in 20 years it's one of the safer sports not banned. You don't know what youth teams are doing and you sound dumb. As I said they get it you need to get up to speed. You are uniformed to anything not 20+ years old.

My boy cut blocks a lot. That is a rule that seems more parents worry about today.

 

[kerouac9]

As to your one link that's all in on one side. If you want to stop CTE keep up on the rules, gear and most of all better drug testing. Blood stile Olympic doping test to start. The game this year is even different than last year let alone 20 years ago. My sons youth team had a big rubber wheel they work on the Seattle rugby head to the side tackling all year on. It's not what it was. I would bet in 20 years it's one of the safer sports not banned. You don't know what youth teams are doing and you sound dumb. As I said they get it you need to get up to speed. You are uniformed to anything not 20+ years old.

My boy cut blocks a lot. That is a rule that seems more parents worry about today.

You can't mak football safe--I don't know why you eprefuse to see that any head context is too much and does damage. I'm certain you won't be swayed by additional research, but I'll post it anyway:

http://www.traumaticbraininjury.net/sub-concussive-hits-are-causing-serious-brain-damage/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/football-child-subconcussive-hits_us_5644d543e4b045bf3dee2490

This is a critical but often ignored point: The danger when it comes to football (or ice hockey, or soccer, or any other contact sport) is not just diagnosable concussions. The danger is also (and perhaps even more so) those smaller, repetitive hits to the head that don’t lead to symptoms — hits that seem safe at the time. These hits are known as sub-concussive blows, and they are the ones that more and more scientists believe should truly concern parents.

http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/2...in-damage-caused-by-subconcussive-blows/?_r=0

Even if every kid practices perfect form tackling every time, heads hit the turf, players are punched into each other,etc. etc.

Youth soccer has banned headers in practice and games. You can't do the same thing with football. I have little doubt that you and others believe that you're making the game safer for these kids, but you're also in denial that you're contributing to long-term, irreversible damage to their brains at a formative stage.

High school kids can at least engage in a conversation about those risks. Little kids are going to do what their parents, coaches, etc. encourage and expect them to do.

 

[Dude]

You can't make football safe--I don't know why you eprefuse to see that any head context is too much and does damage.

Their you go again. Any, bad parents and all 100% have brain damage. I believe you can make football as safe as any sport of it's kind and safer. You can and they are taking most of the head shots out of the game. You're stuck in the past and want to throw the baby out with the bath water. As for bashing us as parents and the organization my son plays for I find that uncalled for. I know you stand by it. As I stand by saying you're an opinionated dick for you have no clue as to what we, he and they do.

I want the old players to get the help they need. I want new ones to know the risk. I want more rules, better gear and better drug testing. You can get CTE without ever playing football in your life. You do know that right? Are you going to call for a bann on all sports that can result in CTE? Don't drive your car just in case you crash it. I will agree that we wont agree. I will tell you I look after my son with my life. I will tell you the team he played on takes head and all injures seriously. Even over winning.

You keep your kid if you have one off the filed my boy will play.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...-sees-little-risk-of-cte-from-youth-football/

Bailes said the risk of Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy comes from pro football players slamming into each other thousands of times over the course of years, and not from the kinds of hits that children inflict on each other in a few Pop Warner seasons.