whoisjohngalt
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Post by whoisjohngalt on Mar 19, 2013 11:00:16 GMT -5
Milee, I get what you are saying if the kid wasn't smart. Doesn't make you cold, just realistic.
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milee
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Post by milee on Mar 19, 2013 11:00:58 GMT -5
I would be fine with it. But I guess based on some of these repsonses, I'm a bad parent... I let my 9 yo play tackle football this past season.. he had a blast. I'd never call you a bad mom based on this. Too little is known, it's not like you're purposefully letting him do something that you know 100% will turn his brain to mush. The science is still evolving and people are still determining what the discoveries really mean.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 11:01:32 GMT -5
I'm with Davebo, I wouldn't love it if DS wanted to be a pro athlete of ANY sort, but I wouldn't actively try and stop him. I'm also not totally opposed to him being in the AF if he wanted to. Guess that makes me a bad mom, too. <<scooches closer to MM>>
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milee
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Post by milee on Mar 19, 2013 11:02:54 GMT -5
What's the AF?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 11:03:26 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 11:03:28 GMT -5
armed forces ETA: FinTex, I meant all of the armed forces, but yeah - it'd be super cool to be all like, "my son's a fighter pilot, bitches!"
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 11:04:16 GMT -5
Abercrombie and Fitch catalogs. Those things are like porn.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 11:06:59 GMT -5
LMAO Arch! Yeah, my limit is porn - I will actively rail against DS doing THAT for a living!
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milee
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Post by milee on Mar 19, 2013 11:07:05 GMT -5
armed forces ETA: FinTex, I meant all of the armed forces, but yeah - it'd be super cool to be all like, "my son's a fighter pilot, bitches!" OK, I may be totally out of the latest catfight on this one, but does supporting or allowing your kid to sign up for the AF make you a bad parent? Really? If that's the new trend, it will have some pretty awful implications for the future of the AF in the US. Yikes.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 11:09:50 GMT -5
armed forces ETA: FinTex, I meant all of the armed forces, but yeah - it'd be super cool to be all like, "my son's a fighter pilot, bitches!" Haha....my father is in the Air Force so that's why I said that. Sadly not a fighter pilot....poor eyesight will ruin that career for you!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 11:09:58 GMT -5
no no no milee, I'm not saying it makes anyone a bad parent (even sarcastically). I'm saying that being in the AF (especially on active duty) can expose you to all sorts of dangerous and life threatening situations, and that if you're okay with your kid being a soldier/Navy SEAL/fighter pilot/whatever in the Forces, then I don't see why it wouldn't be okay for them to play pro football.
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formerroomate99
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Post by formerroomate99 on Mar 19, 2013 11:10:01 GMT -5
I flat out refuse to let my sons play football. Basketball, baseball are ok, but not a sport where they are constantly getting hit. They're finding that a lot of these guys have multiple mini-concussions that add up to some serious brain damage. A few years of glory and big money won't really help if you're mentally and physically crippled by the time you're 40, and since I was close to 40 when I had them, I won't be there to help and protect them when the damage from their glory days starts to creep up on them.
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formerroomate99
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Post by formerroomate99 on Mar 19, 2013 11:13:12 GMT -5
armed forces ETA: FinTex, I meant all of the armed forces, but yeah - it'd be super cool to be all like, "my son's a fighter pilot, bitches!" OK, I may be totally out of the latest catfight on this one, but does supporting or allowing your kid to sign up for the AF make you a bad parent? Really? If that's the new trend, it will have some pretty awful implications for the future of the AF in the US. Yikes. I wasn't aware that they let children join the armed forces. But parents sign their children up for football all the time.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Mar 19, 2013 11:21:23 GMT -5
::In most contact sports, there is always a possible chance of serious injury. Even swimming and diving have risks. Golf? Probably not but I suppose some bad tee shot could injure another golfer or spectator. During high school, a friend of mine, a member of the school's baseball team, received a serious head injury when he unknowingly walked into the practice swing of another player.:: There's a big difference between freak accidents, and brain trauma which may be consistent with a standard part of the game. A freak accident in football is a tackle/fall and landing on the most vulnerable part of your neck paralysing you for life. It doesn't happen every day but it does happen.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 11:21:48 GMT -5
OK, I may be totally out of the latest catfight on this one, but does supporting or allowing your kid to sign up for the AF make you a bad parent? Really? If that's the new trend, it will have some pretty awful implications for the future of the AF in the US. Yikes. I wasn't aware that they let children join the armed forces. But parents sign their children up for football all the time. Your child is still one of your children...even when they turn 18.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 11:25:13 GMT -5
My husband would be ecstatic. Me...eh...not so much. I wouldn't try to discourage them and I'd be happy they were doing something they loved, but I would worry all the time about them getting hurt. I watched a documentary about retired NFL players once and it's pretty sad how much pain some of them are in all the time. Now, older son I don't have to worry about this being an issue. He has zero interest in sports and zero coordination. He's the scientist all the way. Younger son is going to be the athlete. He's only 3 now, but I see it coming. He's polar opposite of his book worm brother and obsessed with anything involving a ball. Basketball, T-Ball, Soccer, Football, Golf, Tennis...he loves to watch and play them all. His Dad does/will encourage football constantly. I intend to be very active with that one encouraging reading, scouts, band...anything else!
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milee
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Post by milee on Mar 19, 2013 11:27:49 GMT -5
no no no milee, I'm not saying it makes anyone a bad parent (even sarcastically). I'm saying that being in the AF (especially on active duty) can expose you to all sorts of dangerous and life threatening situations, and that if you're okay with your kid being a soldier/Navy SEAL/fighter pilot/whatever in the Forces, then I don't see why it wouldn't be okay for them to play pro football. Hm, maybe I'm a hypocrit on this one. But I think they're very different risks and rewards. While I wouldn't actively encourage either of my sons to serve (mainly because I don't think it would be a good fit for them and there are better opportunities for them), I wouldn't try to stop them serving either. Serving in the military does carry a huge risk - death. But the chance of that happening is low and the potential rewards for service are high. So I think it's a reasonable exchange of risk/reward. Although the football players do make good money and may have some fame (which I'm actually not a fan of either), for most the money isn't enough to last them the rest of their life and the risk of brain injury and serious future health issues is, IMHO and in what the researchers are now finding, high. So I don't think it's a reasonable risk/reward. Alzheimers, Parkinsons, dementia and depression are a very high price to pay for participating in what for most people is a recreational activity or something that provides a brief income and then nothing.
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alabamagal
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Post by alabamagal on Mar 19, 2013 11:30:22 GMT -5
If my kids was talented in a sport and had a strong desire to play it, I would not try to stop him. But the chances of making it to the pro ranks are pretty slim.
My youngest played football in high school, offensive line. He has the height necessary to play in college (yes, most offensive lineman are pretty tall, not just heavy). He is started school early so he grew kind of late and is still growing at 18 (6'4" last time we checked).
We chose not to pursue college football, even though there was a huge amount of pressure for him to do so. Most parents around here think a football scholarship is the best thing ever. He had interest from a lot of schools because of his size and his academic ability. But he would have to spend his whole college life in football related activities (i.e. weightlifting) and would have had to put on 50 lbs. He had no chance at playing his first couple of years while he worked on strength and added weight. I LOVE football, but did not want my son to do this. He felt the same way. He has a full scholarship based on academics and is happy to sit and watch a football game. He misses some things about football, but is now a happy college freshman with excellent grades.
He has had 3 concussions in his life. The first and worst was in a car accident when he was 8. He had one very minor one in a middle school football game and one minor one his senior year at football practice. This was another concern that we had with football.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Mar 19, 2013 11:35:09 GMT -5
::A freak accident in football is a tackle/fall and landing on the most vulnerable part of your neck paralysing you for life. It doesn't happen every day but it does happen.::
Right, and that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about frequent hits to the head, which happens on basically every single play of a football game. It's not even the bone-jarring flying through the air hits. It's the repeated non-concussive hits. That's why I'm saying you can't compare that to some freak accident in another sport.
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alabamagal
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Post by alabamagal on Mar 19, 2013 11:49:36 GMT -5
::A freak accident in football is a tackle/fall and landing on the most vulnerable part of your neck paralysing you for life. It doesn't happen every day but it does happen.:: Right, and that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about frequent hits to the head, which happens on basically every single play of a football game. It's not even the bone-jarring flying through the air hits. It's the repeated non-concussive hits. That's why I'm saying you can't compare that to some freak accident in another sport. Have you ever watched a youth football game or even high school football game? The number of concussions suffered on my son's high school football team his senior year was less than that of the girl's soccer team. And have you seen a high school basketball game? I have seen kids knocked down and hit their heads on the hard court quite a few times (no helmet either). Every sport has it's risks. Football through high school is not as bad as people make it out to be. Pro football definitely has it's risks. Or you could just ban all sports and everyone would sit around and get fat and die early of heart disease.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Mar 19, 2013 12:01:57 GMT -5
::Have you ever watched a youth football game or even high school football game? The number of concussions suffered on my son's high school football team his senior year was less than that of the girl's soccer team. And have you seen a high school basketball game? I have seen kids knocked down and hit their heads on the hard court quite a few times (no helmet either). Every sport has it's risks. Football through high school is not as bad as people make it out to be. Pro football definitely has it's risks.::
It's not about concussions (though those are obviously an issue also). It's about frequent, less than concussive hits to the head. It would be like if we found out that dribbling a basketball led to brain damage later in life. It's not massive shots ot the head, it's the smaller, repeated hits to the head showing up much later in life as brain injury.
::Football through high school is not as bad as people make it out to be.::
How do you know that? We're talking about effects which don't show up until people are into their 50's, 60's or later in some cases. That's one of the things they are just starting to get research on. How do those repeated hits in earlier years contribute (if at all) to the kind of delayed brain injury that we're seeing in high profile professional football players.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 12:17:19 GMT -5
I wouldn't let my kid play soccer at the level where they are hitting the balls with their heads either. New research is bringing up some of the same concerns about head injuries that is present in football.
There are plenty of sports that have less risk of injury. DS won't play football but he does swimming, rides his bike for miles (not bad for a three/four year old), is starting tae kwon do, is learning some golf from his dad, etc.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 12:19:29 GMT -5
it is a risk....of course
i played through high school. got a scholarship, and then blew out my knee before i ever played a snap in college (spring practice after graduating early)
but i would have taken the risk with zero hesitation
when you find your passion in life, and the opportunity door opens, you take it
btw the scholarships are not guaranteed for 4 years...they are year by year
i lost mine after my freshman year...because i could no longer play
but the dream was there.....and if you have seen anyone that close to reaching their dream, there is nothing like it
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spartan7886
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Post by spartan7886 on Mar 19, 2013 12:23:24 GMT -5
I wouldn't let my kid play soccer at the level where they are hitting the balls with their heads either. New research is bringing up some of the same concerns about head injuries that is present in football. There are plenty of sports that have less risk of injury. DS won't play football but he does swimming, rides his bike for miles (not bad for a three/four year old), is starting tae kwon do, is learning some golf from his dad, etc. Has he been kicked in the head yet? That hurt a hell of a lot more than a proper header, padded helmet or no. And yes, that was supposed to be light contact sparring, but it doesn't always work out that way.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Mar 19, 2013 14:32:03 GMT -5
I think if my kid got thru HS and College playing a sport and didn't get seriously hurt, ... I'd be supportive of their goals to go 'pro' or be involved in some secondary aspect of 'pro' sports. That's the problem with the brain injuries, though. They're not always immediately obvious. Many of the players who turn out to have substantial injury didn't even know they had a concussion. The experts are starting to think that it's not so much a single hard knock that's the problem, but instead the repeated beating that normal play results in. Most of these guys don't have obvious brain injuries and the scientists don't have a good way to study their brain until they're dead and they can dissect it. So how do you know your high school and college player didn't get hurt? Hmmm, haven't sport injuries (concussions) been around for quite a while? Weren't they playing foot ball back in the 50"s? I think the NFL as we know it got started in the 1970's... If it's just a couple of concussions that lead to the mind altering horrors that the current NFL's players are worried about - I'm in BIG trouble. I've had atleast 3 untreated (and undiagnosed) concussions as a kid (1st, I ran into a house - don't ask - had HUGE black eye and black and blue forehead - nausea, double vision, and felt groggy, 2nd tripped over a jump rope and did a header into the concrete side walk - spectacular black and blue bruise with a bloody scrape - double vision and splitting head ache. Flipped a one piece school desk thing while in school - again taking a header into the floor - another spectacular black and blue bruise on my forehead, blurred vision, dizzy, and sleepy. The teacher (private Catholic School) picked me up, picked up the desk, set me back in my seat and told me to keep doing my math excersizes. She did send me up to the Convent for some ice when I kept putting my head on my desk and then said I couldn't read the excercises in the workbook I was suppose to be working on... ) While I never saw a doctor for any of those times - they stand out in my memory cause I remember being kinda scared because my vision changed AND I was terrified what my parents would do when they found out I hurt myself. (There was alot of verbal abuse in my childhood...) ADDED: Yeah, I know personal experience doesn't equal proof.... just saying maybe playing sports for a handful of years as a young adult isn't necessisarily as 'dangerous' as 15 or 20 years of playing a sport (at the level were injuries are more prevalent). Maybe for professional athletes it's the years of injuries, the medications they take (for other things), maybe it's the steriods they may or may not take, maybe it's whatever 'fun' drugs they do, maybe it's a combination of all of those things.
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Mar 19, 2013 15:11:51 GMT -5
If that's what my kid really wants to do then I'd support it. Considering how few players actually make it to the NFL out of all the guys who play in peewee leagues, high school, college, etc it's a huge accomplishment to even get as far as making a practice squad. I've known a few people over the years who were great athletes and they ended up playing football for some of the top colleges in the country. They didn't go pro but they got a degree that was paid for by someone else and are doing just fine in life. The guys who are actually good enough to go pro good luck to getting them to just walk away it would take a serious injury or scare and a lot of thought before they'd do that. There's no denying playing football increases the likelyhood of injuries vs. someone like me who's a desk monkey but there's so many things I did as a kid that could have crippled me and I don't want to be too overprotective.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Mar 19, 2013 15:16:31 GMT -5
It would really depend on the position. How many punters get traumatic brain injuries? I'm betting not a whole lot. Running back on the other hand...
All theoretical for me since I only have daughters though.
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Bob Ross
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Post by Bob Ross on Mar 20, 2013 11:46:49 GMT -5
I'd be thrilled! Not to mention, I'd make them buy me a new set o' everythang simply because "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out." Well, it might be hard to take them out if they were a big, scary NFL-sized person. I'd probably have to go for the knees.
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