Originally published at: Why do parents still let kids play football? | Boing Boing
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I’m pretty sure it’s because American Football is the mystical invocation that feeds the Spirit of America. It’s like clapping for fairies in Peter Pan, If you don’t play American Football hard enough, Lady Liberty* withers and fades.
*no, not that commie nag the French gave us that invites terrorist welfare queens across the border, the real one that looks like Sarah Palin and carries an AR-15 (but I repeat myself…)
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I’m starting to suspect there will be a lot fewer kids playing football within the next decade. The way summers are heating up, we’re very likely to start seeing kids die of heatstrokes during two-a-days, and while there will always be hardcore dads willing to sacrifice their sons for reflected glory, there will be many, many more who won’t.
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I’m no fan myself but, I don’t think most kids play football solely for the chance of becoming a professional. I also think others do find the sport to be interesting.
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If you aren’t inflicting your parents’ mistakes on your children do you even qualify as a culture?
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Because sports are cultlike? I mean I was thinking that after being in a mall for the first time in years a few days ago, seeing all the stuff for sale and the sports merch I seen people wearing.
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Honestly… As a Brazilian, that saw lots of other sports, I challenge any commentator to explain the rules of American Football (aka Hand Egg) for dummies during a game. I saw some games and I can’t understand a single f–king f–k aside
a. there’s Touchdown
b. there’s guys smashing on each other in very suggestive ways.
And, believe me:
I saw Rugby Union, Cricket, Baseball, Softball and… Aside Australian Football, no other game was so mindboggling than Handegg
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Not really in my experience, there’s too much diversity of opinion.
I don’t have much experience of US based sports though, and I do find the idea of playing the national anthem before every game weird.
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I don’t think anything will improve my Monday more than learning that people outside the US call American Football “Hand Egg.” Combined with the way the one gentleman waits for the snap by placing his hands directly beneath the juevos of the man in front of him is…delightful.
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I have never found the sport to be that interesting. Folks choose schools over their great brain-trauma-inducing football programs. Why?
Because for people that do find the sport interesting, it can be a hell of a lot of fun to play and watch, and generational emotional investment isn’t an easy thing to toss aside. Friday night lights with half the town sitting in the stands or cheering like a nut with tens of thousands of people on a sunny Saturday afternoon can be incredible communities to feel a part of for a hell of a lot of people.
Now, is all of that enough to outweigh the damage being done to the participants? Probably not, if we acted rationally as a society. But we all know that’s not really how humans work, so here we are.
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SPORTS! (not just Football) is often a vehicle for people and families with less options to achieve something. As much as i dislike Football i recognize that it does give some folks an avenue for self-realization, it does come at a cost but it’s no different from working folk who do other things that have a heavy toll on their bodies and overall health. Not to say any of it is ok, but as long as kids and parents are aware of the dangers of a given sport then its up to them to judge if the risk is worth it.
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oh good
wait, what 
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And, as a Brazilian, I agree Cricket is posh as f–k, but at least I can understand what happen in the field
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Something to do with penises, patriotism and alpha-domination, a substitute for actual battles, merch sales, beer sales, loyalty , the whole machine behind the industry.
Related, Cheerleading is also a huge industry for an activity that doesn’t need to be, but the marketing rights and sole-supplier contracts and the BS competitions make it out to be a staple, it just is and don’t ever question it.
Both activities are dangerous as all heck, yet even a podunk Midwest high school can get a 65,000 seat stadium (not a food bank of affordable housing mind you… no… never that).
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Well, youth tackle football is shrinking fast around here. It’s got nowhere near the popularity of soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball. Youth flag football is now a pretty popular activity though, and I think that keeps the pipeline to high school football from completely collapsing. Just this year high schools are starting girl’s flag football. I’m wondering how long until there is boy’s flag football, and if that will eventually replace the tackle program. Already in the summers the high school boys play in 7v7 passing leagues because they want to avoid injury.
As big as the NFL is, the house of cards feels like it’s starting to sway.
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“We can’t say it’ll kill you with 100% certainty as some have survived”
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As big as the NFL is I think what surprises those of us outside is the size and monetization of college football in the States.
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Most cricket fans (and players) are from India and Pakistan though and for them it’s not. It’s the people’s game. You haven’t watched the game if you haven’t watched it with Indians and Pakistanis in my opinion.
ETA
With apologies to my cricket playing and supporting brothers and sisters in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and many other countries. I’m just most familiar with Indian and Pakistani young people bringing cricket obsession to a new level for me.
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This just came out, researched in Finland, endorsing team sports, though it did not separate out team sports incorporating “being hit on the head lessons”.
Players of UnAmerican football (
) who head the ball frequently have higher levels of cognitive dysfunction than those who give less head. (Not this study, but have read that study)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/sms.14464
We conducted a 2-year nonrandomized controlled trial in 504 children aged 6–9 years at baseline. The children were allocated to a combined dietary and PA intervention group (n = 237) or a control group (n = 160) without blinding.
Interventions
The children and their parents allocated to the intervention group had six dietary counseling sessions of 30–45 min and six PA counseling sessions of 30–45 min during the 2-year intervention period. The children were also encouraged to participate in after-school exercise clubs. Cognition was assessed by the Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices. We assessed dietary factors by 4 days food records and computed the Baltic Sea Diet Score (BSDS) as a measure of diet quality. PA and ST were assessed by a combined heart rate and body movement monitor, types of PA and SB by a questionnaire.
Results
The intervention had no effect on cognition. Increased BSDS and consumption of low-fat milk and decreased consumption of red meat and sausages were associated with improved cognition over 2 years. Increased organized sports, ST, and reading were positively, while unsupervised PA, computer use, and writing were negatively associated with cognition.
Conclusion
Combined dietary and PA intervention had no effect on cognition. Improved diet quality and increased organized sports and reading were associated with improved cognition.
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