If you are reading this then I am sure that you are someone who enjoys the game of football (no one would be here to see exemplary writing). At some point, in many previous conversations concerning the game, you have heard someone (typically a mother) make the statement that they would not want their child to play football due to the risk of physical injury that is involved. I hear this from time to time even from parents of high school kids. You hear it even more from parents of younger children.
I will address this issue over the next couple of posts. Hopefully, I can provide some ammo to many of you who fight this battle from time to time.
In focusing on high school age kids there is one main item that can counter the ‘physical harm’ excuse. Of course, that is teen driving.
Some parents discourage their kids from playing football for fear of injury, but will let them drive all over creation on the weekends. Why do I just say weekends, you ask? Because, according to DriveHomeSafe.com, 53% of teen automobile fatalities take place on the weekends.
Some other key statistics concerning the risks of teen driving are as follows:
*automobile accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers
*over 68,000 teens were killed in automobile accidents last year
*16 year old drivers have a higher accident rate than all other age groups combined
*14% of all motor vehicle deaths are due to teen drivers
*the teen age group makes up 7% of all drivers, but accounts for 14% of automobile fatalities and 20% of all accidents
Now, am I advocating that we abolish all teenage driving? No, but I am making the point that if you are going to say that your child shouldn’t play football due to the risk of injury then you are being hypocritical by turning right around and handing him the keys to a car.
A typical response from parents is that kids don’t have to play football, but they do have to drive. Of course, they don’t have to play football, but why on earth do they have to drive everywhere as a teenager? Teenage kids love being unsupervised. And, the unsupervised driving of teenagers is the cause for the above statistics. How many teenage driving accidents do you think occurred with a parent in the vehicle? You know that number will be low. Ask your insurance agent that one and you will probably get a good laugh.
Can teenagers learn responsibility and earn trust by driving a vehicle? Sure, but there are many other less dangerous things that they can do to learn responsibility and earn trust. And, playing football would certainly fit in that category. In my opinion, a young man who commits to the game of football will gain more value from that experience than through driving a vehicle as a teenager.
I am also sure that the parents of all teens who have gotten in an accident thought that they could teach their child how to drive ‘safely.’ Maybe, they actually did, but there is just a high risk associated with teen driving.
Is there a risk involved with playing football? Sure, but listen to these statistics. From 1982-1997 there were 61 deaths reported in high school football. In the same time span there were 147 permanent disabilities from playing high school football and 166 injuries that were deemed as ‘serious’ head or neck injuries. Those numbers from a 15 year span sure are dwarfed by the 68,000 teen driving fatalities last year.
I am not going to say that there is not a risk of injury associated with high school football. But, believe it or not, the risk of getting a serious head or neck injury in cheerleading has increased while the risk for similar injury in high school football has decreased. I say this to make the point that there are physical risks involved with many things.
But, an adult who would say that a kid shouldn’t play high school football due to the physical risks involved should know the facts I’ve listed here. Letting your teenage son drive an automobile or even a four-wheeler or dirt bike, for that matter, can hold a much more serious risk for potential injury or death than playing high school football.
At least, if someone is not going to play football then the kid, himself, can give the real reason why: no interest in the game, lazy, not tough enough, etc. I can accept any of those before hearing about the physical risks involved with high school football. Other actions can easily deem that stance as hypocritical.
My next post will deal, specifically, with the ‘physical harm’ excuse at the youth football level. I promise, you will want to see the studies associated with that age group (some done by the Mayo Clinic). I didn’t even know some of this information until I began research. You won’t want to miss it. That is, as long as you love football.
*** all teen driving statistics used in this post came from parentsonboard.com or DriveHomeSafe.com.
*** all statistics dealing with high school football risks came from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research
6 Comments
The stats that you use are true, but very misleading. a better way to evaluate the risks of High School football vs teenage driving is to divide the injuries/fatalities by their respective populations. Your conclusion might still be true, but you cannot state that football injuries are less likely vs driving unless you compare the injuries vs the total number of persons at risk.
With proper training and safety precautions, both driving at a young age and playing football would be safe. Will there be injuries? Of course. Will there be a death at times? Perhaps. But there are risks with everything and discouraging your child from playing football (or any other sport) due to “risk of injury” is ridiculous.
Dont forget about buying them ATV’s and letting them loose…They will run 70+ mph and they dont wear helmets.
Steve hope you dont mind but i did look at some of the numbers after i read the 1st comment. In 2006 there were 1,071,775 high school football players in the United States. If you look at the 15 year time span there were 374 serious injuries that an average of about 25 per year. If you compare that to the number playing football that about a .002% chance of serious injury by numbers alone.
As for the driver there were 16.2 million teen drivers in 2006 the 68,000 deaths gives you a .4% chance of death (just death not serious injury)….That is a 200 times greater chance in an automobile vs football.
Andy,
You’re right about the greater difference in the risk of injury between football and teen driving. In my second post concerning the issue I worked out the same type of math to prove the theory, but I used both deaths and serious injuries for football. I, also, added up what the NF had listed as participation numbers for the 15 year period in question and used the most conservative estimate for deaths of teen drivers (not even using teen passengers). That is why our numbers came out a little different, but either one proves the point. And you’re right about ATV’s, also. Actually, that is part of the inspiration for the original post. KY has had 2 kids involved in serious ATV or dirt bike accidents in the last month (one in Lincoln Co.). My wife and I fight all the time about the risks of riding ATV’s. For an athlete it is just not worth the risk of injury. I tried to find some numbers concerning ATV injuries, but couldn’t find anything good. As I state in my 2nd post it is hard to compare what 2 different groups classify as a ’serious’ injury because their definition of a serious injury might be different.
Andy,
Actually, we used the same participation numbers. I originally added up all participants in even 8-man, 6-man, etc., but decided against using them. I ended up deciding to use just the numbers dealing with 11-man football in 2005 to make it as conservative as possible to best prove the point if the participation numbers were to be questioned. We could then say that we left out a large sample of full-contact high school players in the study that would further prove our point, mathmatically. However, you and I both know that less injuries occur in 8-man and 6-man so that point could be argued, as well.
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