Would You Allow Your Child to Play Football? [POLL]

There’s an old saying that starts out with “If I knew then what I know now….”  With all that we now know about football and concussions and the debilitating injuries that also come with the package, would you allow your child to play football?

It wasn’t that long ago, the “hits’ or biggest sellers of the game were the hits.  With John Facenda narrating and NFL Films music playing, “The Greatest Hits of Pro Football” sold the game to boys everywhere.  60 minutes once did a piece called ‘The Violent world of Sam Huff” after the Giants linebacker. ESPN would glorify them further on the highlight package and boys everywhere would take it to the playground, then the field.

Those hits we now know came with a price. Among the many who have paid it, former Eagle Andre Waters whose suicide many believe came as a result of the brain damage he sustained playing football.  Former Giant Dave Duerson who also committed suicide,    He sent a text message to his family saying he wanted his brain to be used for research at the Boston University School of Medicine, which is conducting research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) caused by playing professional football.

Yesterday Brent Celek left the Eagles game with a concussion. The birds also have quarterback Michael Vick and running back Lesean McCoy unable to get back onto the field for the past 3 weeks as they try to recover from concussions.

When you throw in all the physical debilitating injuries that people carry for the rest of their lives for a game that they played for a few years and mostly never made a dime, It’s enough to make any parent ask “Is this this really necessary?”  What do you think? Please take our poll.