[Leftcoast]

Uh .... I guess I'll stick up for youth football. 

My son played Pop Warner in 4th And 5th grade and will be on a frosh high school team this year.  I'm way more worried about the high speed, asymmetrical high school collisions than the low speed, evenly weight matched collisions I saw in Pop Warner.

Pop Warner was a great experience for him and his league had several ex-Stanford players on the coaching roster.  He's not an NCAA caliber prospect but as a fairly athletic lineman he enjoyed his chance to contribute and be part of a highly successful team that encouraged discipline, hard work and achieving goals.  The work level and physical training was far more intense than he saw in years of mid-level AYSO soccer and he loved the challenge.  All of this may sound too earnest for these ironic times but as a parent of a teen that's seen several of his ex-friends make poor life decisions I still see real value to be had in football for my son.

One under realized value of football is that there are a large number of roles and roster spots for all body types making football the most democratic sport on most high school campuses.  More kids letter in football than any other high school sport - it's not even close.

So, yeah, I worry about any sport where the league requires an ambulance at every game and wonder about the ratcheting up of risk levels as players move from Pop Warner to High School, college and the NFL but aren't you glad that a sport that produces an Andrew Luck or David Castro still has a spot on the youth sport scene?

[Leftcoast]

Uh .... I guess I'll stick up for youth football. 

My son played Pop Warner in 4th And 5th grade and will be on a frosh high school team this year.  I'm way more worried about the high speed, asymmetrical high school collisions than the low speed, evenly weight matched collisions I saw in Pop Warner.

Pop Warner was a great experience for him and his league had several ex-Stanford players on the coaching roster.  He's not an NCAA caliber prospect but as a fairly athletic lineman he enjoyed his chance to contribute and be part of a highly successful team that encouraged discipline, hard work and achieving goals.  The work level and physical training was far more intense than he saw in years of mid-level AYSO soccer and he loved the challenge.  All of this may sound too earnest for these ironic times but as a parent of a teen that's seen several of his ex-friends make poor life decisions I still see real value to be had in football for my son.

One under realized value of football is that there are a large number of roles and roster spots for all body types making football the most democratic sport on most high school campuses.  More kids letter in football than any other high school sport - it's not even close.

So, yeah, I worry about any sport where the league requires an ambulance at every game and wonder about the ratcheting up of risk levels as players move from Pop Warner to High School, college and the NFL but aren't you glad that a sport that produces an Andrew Luck or David Castro still has a spot on the youth sport scene?