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According to the Associated Press, a California proposal to ban young people from playing soccer has cleared its first legislative hurdle. Growing fear of concussions and the growing popularity of flag football justify the ban. However, it is obligatory to explain why separately in order to discover the true basis of the ban.
Awareness of concussions has been expanding for about a decade.
In 2018, UM Medicine’s Sports Health and Safety Institute and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute discovered that concussion rates among football players aged 5 to 14 were higher than previously thought, with 5 out of every 100 youth football players suffering a football-related concussion each season.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Youth Football Act to reduce brain injuries in 2019. The law limited full-touch practices to two days a week during the season and banned them in the off-season. The law also limited full-touch sessions to 30 minutes per day. .
Was there still a call from Californians to ban innings in youth football after this statewide attempt to make the game safer?Lawmakers pushed this proposal under the premise that flag football is a safer option.
According to a CDC study, youth soccer players ages 6 to 14 suffered 15 times more head injuries than flag football athletes in practice or a game, and 23 times more head injuries at large. scale.
These figures should come as no surprise.
Many of those head collisions in football occur between the offensive and defensive lines, positions that are rare in flag football. Contact football is played 11v11, while flag football is played 7v7. Depending on the number of participants and positions, young soccer players are at a higher risk of suffering a concussion.
However, the CDC’s website does not focus on risk reduction. It states we need more efforts to prevent head impacts during youth football games and that “we all play a role” in protecting young people from concussions. How can “we” prevent and protect? The CDC advises parents, schools, and sports programs to transition to non-contact games like flag football.
Has flag football been demonstrated to be safer despite posing a lower risk?
A California mother with three sons who have played both flag and tackle football does not believe flag football is safer. She stated, “Flag football is still a contact sport. If you think that since a 7-year-old boy is running up to collect a flag, they aren’t smashing into each other, you’re mistaken! We are talking about boys.” In her football experience, her boys were more injured when playing flag football because the players did not use protective equipment.
Of course, it’s possible that this mother is simply talking about other cuts and bruises, which have nothing to do with concussions. However, the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine conducted a study hypothesizing that flag football among youth has lower rates of injuries and concussions than contact among youth. football.
Their conclusions are quite the opposite.
The study found that injury rates in youth football were rather low. However, youth flag football had a higher injury rate than tackle football. There was no substantial difference in the rate of severe injury or concussion between tackle and flag football. The study couldn’t say that youth flag football was a safer alternative to youth tackle football.
This study supports the mother’s perspective, but the mother unknowingly brought up the real issue. She stated, “We’re talking about boys!”
Last year, The Christian Science Monitor published an article titled Flag on the Play: Why Flag Football is Growing Across the US. According to the author, football is America’s most popular sport, and girls want to play. “With the growth of the concussion crisis, flag football is the most socially and medically secure way for girls to play.” According to the Associated Press, flag football is gaining popularity across the country, particularly among girls. The sport has created scholarship opportunities for female athletes, with over two dozen NAIA colleges fielding women’s teams in 2023 and more preparing to join.
In other words, the ban on touch football for young people is aimed at marking the playing field.
Football has traditionally been a boys’ club, a male-dominated endeavor. This proposal to ban youth tackle football is more about abolishing the boy’s club than reducing concussions.
Tags: Black commentary, commentary, J. Pharoah Doss, opinion, Viewpoint