Every fall, about 3 million children and their parents flock to football fields to play and watch the game they love. Although the monumental number of participants in youth football today, parents are still making decisions to let their child play contact football. However, children under the age of 18 should be allowed to play “contact football” because it teaches core values, fights childhood obesity, and improvements in technology have made football safer in the past 50 years. Childhood is the ideal time to learn life lessons and to grow your brain. Discipline, sacrifice, integrity, are lessons and concepts that will help guide you through all aspects of your life. “Organized sports don 't just help kids ' bodies, but their …show more content…
In the present day, head of industries like Riddell and Nike are making advanced new technologies such as padded base layers and clothing to help the athletes not feel as much of the huge hits they take every day. Even mouthguards are a new technology in the present day! These are just some of the new technologies that are helping keep players safe today. Some football helmets today are even equipped with pressure sensors that alert medical trainers when a player receives a hit that puts them in danger of a concussion or other serious head injuries. These safety technologies are designed for maximum safety …show more content…
Some would argue that playing football is dangerous and that teams don’t have enough medical training to address concussions. The risk of concussions are 3x greater when playing football than any other high school sport. Another shocking statistic is that high school students across the nation suffer about 2 million injuries every year, about 500,000 doctor visits, and about 300,000 hospital visits a year, all caused from football! Some children even suffer severe head injuries. “Each year U.S. emergency departments treat an estimated 135,000 children ages 5 to 18 for sports-related brain injuries” writes Dr. Alexander K. Powers, Neurosurgeon. However, Pop Warner’s concussion policy clearly states that the home team must have a team physician who is either EMT qualified or an active member in the Red Cross Society. In addition to this protocol, both teams must have an active plan with their local hospital in order to address an injury if one was to