While the NFL is dead to me, football isn’t yet. I’ve noticed lately all the “socially correct commercials” that no longer depict kids playing football. Once upon a time, there were children playing football. Now it’s a Heinz 57 variety pack, supposedly all the same family, playing soccer.

The attempted destruction of America continues

Demographics are changing and there's less kids playing football. Add the injuries and some schools are dropping football.

Interests have changed and all the kneeling is just helping kill the sport as we knew it going up.

Yes.....I think it started to decline about about 4 years ago.

I believe it is.

I work with a Youth Football coach, who said many schools are banding together, to get enough kids to field a team.

When I was coaching, we had one year when we had 13.5 players (don't ask about the .5), we were concerned about fielding a team. Every young man had to play both ways, sometimes (2 weekends per season) they had back to back Saturday/Sunday games. the boys were whooped at the end of the two game weekends.

The following year, there was a mutiny of the Soccer team and we had 35 players. It was a really tough situation, as some of the boys (13.5 from the previous year) had worked their asses off. Now we had parents who expected everyone to get equal playing time, even for those who missed several practices.

I am so happy those days are behind me, but I would not trade them for anything. Five of the best years I spent with my Son.

As a kid back in the 50's we were always playing baseball, football with the neighbors . Lots of fun. But in school or in other "organized" sports I hated it. Way to rigid, your performance or lack of was harshly judged. Fun factor (to me) was zero. In HS I never went out for sports for those reasons. Instead couldn't wait to go to work, make money, get a car and chase girls. No regrets to this day. Still (especially today) don't watch it on TV.

Very public head injuries at the upper levels of the sport really have taken a toll. Most parents don't like the idea of their sons suffering serious and repeated head traumas, only to manifest itself later in life in the form of debilitating CTE, and the case of HOFer Junior Seau, suicide. No conscientious soul would want that for their child.

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Originally posted by braillediver:
Add the injuries ....

I don’t have personal experience with anything involving significant participation in school sports, but the injury issue is something I have long wondered about. I fully understand how school sports can be a source of great satisfaction, especially for the involved fathers, but I am curious whether that’s justification in view of the increased susceptibility of children to certain injuries.

A relative had problems with physical training throughout his military career due to repetitive exercise injuries he experienced in school, and I often think of another young man of my acquaintance who wanted to follow his father into the Marine Corps, but a small town high school football injury ended that idea.

As I say, I don’t have the personal experience to know how significant that problem can be, but it seems to me that it’s a growing concern among parents and I’m curious what others here think. Has anyone said, “No, we’re not going to do that” due to concerns about life-changing injuries?

(In anticipation of the bogus argument of, “They could get hurt crossing the street,” I’ll point out what should be obvious, but which some people seem incapable of understanding: Yes, there are countless hazards in life, but we don’t improve our chances of avoiding them by increasing their number. The more times we throw the dice, the greater the likelihood of getting snake eyes. And concerns about injuries in children’s sports aren’t limited to football. Even the supposedly completely safe alternative of soccer is coming under scrutiny these days due to the possible risk of brain damage.)

It probably depends on the area. In the league we played for in GA we usually had to shut registration down for every age group because we had more kids than we could handle. I have not asked about this years numbers but I’d expect them to be down.

You don’t see commercials with kids playing football. Football is mainly a boys sport. Soccer is the “woke” sport that marketing people prefer. Though I’ve noticed that Lacrosse has come into fashion for marketers too.

On the topic of injuries...

I coached football from when my son was 4 until he stopped last year at 12. I was also on the board of the local team and was notified of any injury at our park requiring an ambulance. During that time I can only think of two times that the ambulance got called. Thankfully neither occurred to kids on my team. And one of those the ambulance was an overreaction. The kid broke his arm and could have been driven to the hospital by his parents. The other was a pretty serious knee injury.

On my teams we had a total of one concussion and I had one kid break a finger. Other than that there was your normal bumps and bruises and the kid throwing up because he ran too much. Dehydration was probably the biggest danger.

But we also took safety very seriously. Football is a dangerous sport. The dangers can be mitigated with the use of proper equipment and coaching. For equipment we used the highest rated helmets available and sent every helmet to a company for safety testing at the end of every season. We spent a lot of time teaching proper tackling through the season.

I won’t use the example of kids getting hurt crossing the street, but over 50 percent of brain injuries in kids occurs from bike and skateboard accidents. I’d ask anyone who didn’t let their kid play organized sports if they also wouldn’t let them ride a bike. I doubt I’d get many people who didn’t allow both. And I doubt that there’s any way to know for sure, but I’d bet more kids suffer long term health issues due to spending their youth laying on the couch eating chips and watching TV than kids who regularly play sports do because of the sport.

None of that is to say that I think youth sports are 100% safe. And I certainly worry about the long term health of some kids I knew. But that’s more due to the parents than the nature of the sport. Youth sports has gotten way more competitive than when I played. Now there are kids with personal trainers. There are kids that take professional lessons at places like D-bat for insane prices. I see pictures on FB of kids hitting weights and flipping tires at a very young age. Parents are pushing their kids into what I believe are dangerous levels of training IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by Pale Horse:
On the topic of injuries...

Thanks. Good observations.

Injuries have always been a concern, so I don’t see that as the cause. I see the increasingly thuggish nature of the NFL as off putting for the entire sport. The NFL looks and acts like a bunch of prison teams, so there’s not the same role models for regular American kids as there used to be. Add in all the kneeling, and I can see parents being turned off by the whole sport. Parental support is what gets these kids involved.

I have a 6 y.o. grandson that lives in a neighborhood where many of the boys get together and play football together.
Most play in leagues for their age group.
Grandson played in a flag football league, while playing in a soccer league as well.
There are a lot more kids playing soccer than football, The soccer league allows girls to play as well. I have not noticed any of the flag football teams with girls on them.
Unfortunately there are 2 high schools in this small town and the numbers have really decreased.
One of the problems I see are the high school coaches. They usually play the same guys on offense and defense, while the rest of the boys stand on the sideline with their helmet in their hands. Most boys do not want to practice hard al l week and then not even get in for one play.

On the injury issue. There are injuries and there are injuries. Breaking bones sucks but traumatic head injuries or the possibility of long term brain issues because you played a childhood sport is a legit concern. Yup, more broken bones on skateboards no real real chance of CTE.

Parents are now so worried about their kids, I'd say its the risk of brain injury.

quote:

Originally posted by Tn226:
While the NFL is dead to me, football isn’t yet. I’ve noticed lately all the “socially correct commercials” that no longer depict kids playing football. Once upon a time, there were children playing football. Now it’s a Heinz 57 variety pack, supposedly all the same family, playing soccer.

The attempted destruction of America continues

I agree.
The good ole days as a kid we played with Mattel Shootin' Shell Pistols and Rifles (may be my most prized toy I ever had),
Played ARMY and COWBOYS and INDIANS.
I see much more deterioration on the horizon unfortunately.

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Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
I see the increasingly thuggish nature of the NFL as off putting for the entire sport.

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:
Parents are now so worried about their kids, I'd say its the risk of brain injury.

Thuggishness may be a part of it, but the perceived risk of injury probably is a bigger component. Note I said "perceived". I doubt risk of injury is higher today than it was in the past. If anything, I'd think it's lower with better training and equipment. But the media ("real" and social) calls attention to the injuries we see to a much greater extent, so football is waning. Much like allowing your kid to walk to school.

CAVEAT: I am the furthest thing from a sports fan you can think of, so I may be totally off base. Also, this does not account for training injuries from parents pushing their kids to professional levels, as Pale Horse has mentioned.