As of 2015, recent numbers show that about 1.23 million from ages 6-12 years old participate in youth football yearly and the number is growing. The history of youth football (also called “Pop Warner”) has a history that dates to the 1930s. It’s safe to say that it’s an American tradition that many of generations have played. It started as a way to get young vandals to stop hurling rocks at abandoned buildings to the most polarizing and popular youth sports game in the entire country. Aside from the health benefits of the game, it gives the children playing the game a gain in skill and discipline they can apply to their everyday life and the future.
Although many parents are worried and scared about letting their children play the game of football, it’s not all so bad. Playing football at an early age is beneficial in many ways. They learn skills and discipline that can carry them their entire lives, not to add the sense of community and friends these kids make that usually are with them much of their school life.
The bond and trust that you make with teammates in football is like no other. Eric Stanton, football junior varsity coach of North Hollywood High School told me that “it’s like going to war together” and that stuck with me because on the surface that might look like a cliché saying that everyone says but taking a deeper look at it, it has a deep meaning. They’re all focusing on one common goal, get the win at all costs. That comradery is like no other, practicing and pushing each other to become the best player you can be isn’t easy but with the bonds and relationships you make in that journey, anything is possible. The long-lasting relationships you make with your teammates carry out a lot because in some cases you see them more than your own family and they become your family in a sense.
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Playing youth football is essential because they’re learning what work ethic is and showing how they can be productive on and off the field. They learn repetition is key because they practice and learn drills and plays and repeat. They use these essential tools to succeed outside the field as well. Ryan Stegall, a professor at Northwest Missouri State University did a student and found that student athletes tend to have a higher GPA than a non-student athlete. He went into detail and said, “growing up playing sports and having learned about work ethic at a young age helped them to have their education as a priority always” (3). I found that very interesting because many sports team tend to have a 2.5 GPA limit to even tryout, and seeing how many student athletes go above and beyond show that the early exposure to work ethic has and will take them a long way in life.
A big part of learning about the work ethic is learning how to handle a defeat. You’re not going to win every game you play, that’s just not possible, even if its 1 game you lose. Handling a defeat is just as if not more important than winning. When a young child learns that winning isn’t everything it’s a great thing because they won’t be afraid to try something they might not be good at but they’ll still try because they know that the result won’t affect them. Having a good coach will instill that in all their players, and they will prosper and understand that football is much more than just a game, it’s a life changing experience. A life changing experience that starts with the basics like practice, play, repeat. Those are essentials in life, when you want to learn something you practice and repeat until you are confident enough to do it.
A huge part of playing is that it builds character. Having tough coaches, friends, playing games that are difficult, taking loses all builds character because you learn from all those situations. When playing a sport and making a team, it helps boost your confidence because you know you put the work in and made the team and that you are good at that sport. I used to play football when I was younger and making the team did boost my confidence and self-esteem because I knew I was a part of something not many kids at the school were a part of. Also, representing my school, I took great pride in that because the school expected a lot from us and I must say we delivered for the most part.
The biggest benefit from playing youth football is eventually making the pros and having great wealth. But just like anything, if you want to make a career out of something you’re passionate about, you must be completely dedicated. Many pros have said that they fell in love with the game playing at an early age. Being dedicated from an early age and staying dedicated is the hardest thing to do because they’ll be distractions along the way but staying dedicated gives them a chance to change their life. According to the NCAA, most Division 1 and 2 and lower give out between 25-85 (depending on division) football scholarships a year. All together that’s about 35,000 scholarships given out each year. It’s very competitive, so having the dedication and mindset that you really want to do this, you can be awarded one of those coveted scholarships. If not, over 10,000 walk-ons join football programs every year, although a tougher route, it still can lead to a career in the pros.
Many people see football as “America’s game” but that isn’t the case. As more studies come out and more former player come out, it’s quickly turning into “America’s most dangerous game”. The biggest issue is that the safety of the children. Many leagues let kids start playing tackle football as early as 10 years old. Long term injuries are the biggest secret that they try to hide, but that’s no more.
Although playing youth football seems like a nice thing to do, recent studies and many accounts say different. Athletes who began playing tackle football before the age of 12 had more behavioral and cognitive problems later in life than those who started playing after they turned 12. Boston University did a study and showed “participation in youth football before age 12 increased the risk of problems with behavioral regulation, apathy and executive functioning by two-fold and increased risk of clinically elevated depression scores three-fold. Those numbers are truly scary, the numbers just keep going higher and the symptoms worsen because of the gained popularization of football nowadays. In the same study, it speaks about the neurological consequences of playing youth football.
According to Michael Alosco, PhD and lead author of the study, he concluded that “repeated head impacts through tackle football before the age of 12 can lead to greater risk of for short and long term neurological consequences. There’s many stories of former athletes who played football sadly paying the price for that because of constant headaches, being paralyzed, not being able to do everyday things like talking, walking, etc.
Aside from the real life scary issues of the short and long term injuries there’s also various other mental and physical problems that come with playing youth football. When playing in such a tough and macho sport, someone’s self-esteem can be high and low. When taking a defeat, some kids might take that personal and take over themselves and become obsessive over it. According to Marika Lindholm, in her article “The Pros and Cons of Youth Sport Aren’t Only Physical” she speaks about depending how someone handles a defeat can define their long-term character. That’s true because if you’re a sore loser as a child and stay that way, you’re only going to become more obsessive and it will eventually consume you because you’re not going to know how to let it go.
Parents believe that if their child is great at football, that they’ll eventually going to get a football scholarship, but it’s not that easy. For the 1.3 million students playing high school football, there’s about 35,000 football scholarships given out each year. That means they have a very small chance to get one. So, they shouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket because that basketball is the size of a grain of rice. Youth football is the catalyst of bad parenting because as much as how popular it is, it is basically giving your child a death sentence because of all the dangers involved. If not that then broken dreams because making a collegiate football program is near impossible if you do not have elite level talent. The issues and problems are too risky and vital to one’s mental and physical health that youth football should be banned.
It’s safe to say that playing youth football has many benefits that affect them in their life outside football. Practices that will carry them along their journey of life whether it’s playing football or not. Having a sense of community is vital because those people will push you and support you to become the best self you can be. No other sport helps better build your character than football because of how tough and different the sport it. You earn from winning, losing, in practice, etc. Many parents need to know about these aspects of football because all they say is the hitting, it’s much more than that, it’s guidance, family, and most importantly an opportunity for growth within themselves.
When choosing a topic, I didn’t have to think too much because my career goal is to become a sports broadcaster or journalist. Football is already a very controversial topic, but youth football is another level because you’re talking about children now and their long-term health and how they can be affected by playing the sport. Searching through the web, the hardest thing I came across was the endless sea of articles, studies, personal accounts to use and I had to narrow down which ones were most useful to me.
Since I was on the side of “youth football is beneficial” I had to find the very best articles to use because the opposition had so many sources that it was crazy, but I felt like I choose the best sources possible to get my points across and hopefully counter the opposition. Writing this very extensive formal research paper, I felt that I have become a better writer through all of this and will use this in my future classes and career later in life. Knowing about this topic personally helped a lot because I do have experience and have many friend’s accounts on what they went through and they also helped me better narrow down what I wanted to talk about. This was a growing experience, in that I’ve learned as I went down this journey to find the sources, use them, quoting correctly, etc. Hopefully I wrote the best essay I can for my final formal paper.
