Tackle football poses an intrinsic threat to youth athletes. The National Institutes of Health released data that suggest that tackle football raises the risk for athletes of all ages to develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Repeated traumatic head injuries cause tangles of a protein called tau to build up in the brain; the more injurious impacts to the brain result in more tau proteins forming. This type of degenerative brain damage is like that seen in Alzheimer’s. CTE can cause dementia and even death.
Young athletes who aspire to play football in college or even enter the big leagues are naturally going to experience more traumatic head injuries over a longer period. To protect youth athletes, there need to be safeguards in place that lessen the amount of contact between players. The NIH considers football a collision sport but lists flag football as a non-contact sport. While players do block one another in flag football, tackling is outlawed.
Let’s leave the tackling to the pros. Children with growing bodies and developing brains do not need to play a sport where the risk of brain injury is common. Instead, flag football is a safe alternative that has all the fun of traditional tackle football without the traumatic impact. School-age children are learning, and concussions can impede their ability to attend school, focus, and retain information. In November of 2023, researchers released findings based on the study of the brains of 152 athletes; 63 of them, more than 40%, had CTE; 48 of them played football, most of them no higher than high school or college. This is not a problem only for the pros in the NFL, but for children who participate in tackle football.
To prevent children from the possibility of developing CTE, flag football should replace tackle football in schools. It is a safe alternative, one that could potentially save a child from growing up to experience a degenerative brain disease that ends in dementia and death. The NFL even encourages children and coaches to play flag football over tackle football; youth athlete safety is a priority for the largest football organization in the world. While flag football may not be as “fun” or “interesting” to watch, it can protect student-athletes from major health issues later in life.
