The Negative Effects Of Playing Tackle Football

Young boys go full force in everything they do, and football is no exception. Most boys will start playing at age five, beginning the blows to the head that continue each year they participate in the sport. Young boys do not realize that concussions each year are greatly detrimental to their developing brain. Playing tackle football before the age of twelve can lead to negative cognitive effects and memory decline later in life. Playing tackle football has an overall negative effect on the cognitive and memory aspects of the adult brain; therefore, the age of players needs to be increased above the age of twelve years old.
Although some football enthusiasts believe that children under the age of twelve should play tackle football because it promotes friendship and teamwork, the negative impact that the sport has on the brains of adolescent males outweighs the comradery that the sport teaches. Children play the sport without thinking of the effects of the brain injuries. Through interviews with past players as well as scientific studies, researchers have found that the cognitive ability of males (average age of early fifties) is greatly affected by the age in which the young player began playing (Boston University School of Medicine). Boston University’s Dr. Robert Stern said the concern is not from concussions, it is from, “sub­concussive hits: these hits that don’t necessarily result in the symptom right then, but people can get hundreds of them a year.” Stern went on to