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Should Parents Let Their Kids Play Football?

Trey Binder

          Fourth and 2 on our own 2-yard line it was the first playoff game of my senior year, I was at middle linebacker, which some people may say is the leader of the defense. We were up by 6 in the 4th quarter with less than 30 seconds left to go. The quarter back faked the hand off to the running back and dropped back to pass, everyone on our team was expecting the run so we were all out of position. The fullback leaked out of the back field trying to score the game winning touchdown, but I recovered well enough to cover him. The quarter back had nobody to know to so he decided to run and try to score his self. I quickly realized that he was not going to throw the ball so I made a break to tackle the quarterback. The quarterback tried to jump over the line to score but I met him in the air and stopped him at the line for the game winning stop. I am a college football player and I love football more than anything in the world. I do believe there are pros and cons to football but I strongly believe football should be played by kids starting whenever they are able too. Football teaches you a strong work ethic, enables you to meet people that you can call your brothers for a life time, and how to work well with others. I know what you’re about to say, “football is dangerous”, “you could die”, “it is damaging to kid’s brains”. While these are true they could be prevented with the right equipment and the right techniques.  

          As I said before, I am a college football player and I have been playing tackle football since I was 6 years old. So, I know the pros and cons that come with playing football. Football has taught me many life lessons and thing that I will use forever and throughout my life time. Football has given me the strongest work ethic out of anyone I know. For example, on how it changed my work ethic is, I never give up until I do the job right, everything I do, I do to the best of my ability 100 percent, and I always get compliments on how good of a job I do and how hard I work at anything that I do. Now football has changed my work ethic for the better it has also come with some difficult things to come. According to (Bedford) “Behind the scenes is where the true football players are made. Hard work, long days, and fatigue all describe what the preparation is like. However, while all of this seems so difficult the rewards that being a football player provides are priceless.” All the people see when they watch football is the game on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays. They don’t see you in the 6 A.M. workouts, the 3 or 4 hour practices, or the many hours you put in the weight room when nobody is watching.

          During my many years of playing football I have met people that I will remember and cherish for a lifetime. Football has made me into the adult I am today because of many different occasions. There is no better feeling in this world than going through the tunnel and about to run out on to the field on Friday night. All your friends and family are there, everyone in your town and community, and you get to run alongside your best friends and your brother ready to go to war. The feeling that you know someone has your back at all times is irreplaceable, there is nothing like it. But you have to learn to work well with your teammates before you can truly become brothers and successful team. According to (NFL) there is a quote by Vince Lombardi, who is arguably the greatest football coach of all time and he says “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of an individual.” This is important because he is saying you can’t be a successful team on pure talent, you need to work together as a team and become a unit.

          When kids first start to play football, they don’t keep score, they don’t keep stats or records they do it because kids want to have fun with their friends. Pop Warner is the largest youth football league in the united states, and according to (Pop Warner) “Pop Warner exists to use football and a respect for education to develop strong, smart, responsible, healthy young men. We give them experiences that build their appreciation for and understanding of leadership, teamwork, and discipline.” Also, if you continue to read the Pop Warner website they repeatedly say that their number one priority is safety, and they take that very seriously. Pop Warner takes all of the proper precautions to make sure that all of their kids and players are safe. What I mean by precautions is they use all the right equipment, they teach all of the proper techniques, and they enforce all of their safety rules to the best of their abilities.

          Now like I said before, there are some downsides to playing football. No matter how much we enforce safety and use the proper equipment injuries do happen. Me personally, I have only had one major injury, which was a knee surgery. Of course, I’ve had a couple of bumps and bruises but you get that with anything that you do. My knee surgery wasn’t as painful as you may think, it honestly helped me to become a better athlete and I became faster after I was recovered and healed. In the United States, every year over 30 million children and adults play football. Out of those 30 million 3.5 million get hurt and lose participation time, but out of those 3.5 million on 300,000 are serious injuries that cause massive surgeries (Football Total Injuries). Many parents are scared to let their children play football because they think they will get hurt but not all kids who play football get hurt. Football is one of the most violent sports, and injuries are an inevitable part of the game. According to (Sports Injury Statistics), a recent year saw 413,620 injuries in youth football alone. Football has very huge impacts on the body, from the rough and intense practices, to the countless hours in the weight room, to the early morning conditionings, your body will be exhausted and you will be so tired and sore, but you will be in the best shape of your life. According to (Frontline interviews), Steve smith was interviewed and said this about his son playing professional football “I would love for my son to play football, I would even coach him to spend time with him so we had more time together.” There is no better feeling than spen ding time with your dad on the football field and having him coach you and teach you how to get better. According to (football) “The game of football can always provide someone with great opportunity. It always gives people that feel like they have nothing something to hope for.” This is important because no matter how bad someone’s live may-be they can have football. They can have something to look forward to after school, they can look forward to spending times with their friends, and they can look forward to running out in front of thousands of screaming fans excited and ready to watch you play and represent your community.

          In conclusion, I do believe that kids should begin playing football at an early age. I strongly believe this because of the things that football traches you and how it effects your life completely. Football teaches you how to be a hard worker, it teaches how to work with other people and to deal with troubling people, and finally you can meet people you can call your brothers. Football can change your life in a huge way both mentally and physically. Now even know injuries will happen in football that doesn’t mean that it will be a serious injury where it can affect you forever, and I believe that playing football will make you into a man. A strong willed, hardworking adult.

 

Works Cited

Tyler K. Bedford. “Why People Should Play Football.”  | Teen Ink,

www.teenink.com/opinion/sports_hobbies/article/280353/Why-people-should-play-football/. 2014, Accessed 20 Feb. 2017.

“Football.” Pop Warner Football - www.popwarner.com/football.htm. 2013, Accessed 21 Feb. 2017. 

“Sports Injury Statistics.”| Johns Hopkins Medicine Health Library,

www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/pediatrics/sports_injury_statis

tics_90, P02787/, 2014, Accessed 21 Feb. 2017.

“Football Injuries.” Total Injury, www.totalinjury.com/personal-injury-

a-z/sports-injury/football-injuries.aspx, 2017, Accessed 21 Feb. 2017 

“Football Injuries.” The British Medical Journal, vol. 1, no. 2258, 9 Apr. 1904, pp. 853–

854., http://bjsm.bmj.com/, 2017, Accessed 21 Feb. 2017

www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/oral-history/leauge-of-denial/Frontline/,public Broadcasting Service, 1995-2003, Accessed 20 Feb. 2017. 

“Vince Lombardi Quotes.” NFL, www.nfl.com/photos/0ap1000000210584, 2017,

Accessed 23 Feb. 2017.