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OK, maybe not everyone but it has struck a chord with many people I know.  Hruby writes a long form piece on making a choice about letting your son/daughter play tackle football at a young age.  Sure he has been critical on football for a few years now, but this article is very informative and somewhat balanced on both sides.

I am writing this post not to steal his work, rather have it here for posterity sake and include one very interesting quote.  This is what I believe to be the most applicable (for the audience) when it comes to concussion management and assessment (emphasis added by me);

“If I said that one in 10 middle schools has an athletic trainer, I’d probably be overestimating,” Guskiewicz says. “Having a trainer isn’t going to prevent every injury or solve every problem. But it’s important. Some people say this is extreme, but I think that at the high school level, if you can’t afford to hire a certified athletic trainer, then you shouldn’t field contact sports at your school.“

The root cause of concussions is not sports or football, it is simply life.  They happen everywhere; from cabinet doors, to staircases, perhaps headboards, bicycles, trampolines, etc.  To avoid inherent conflicts of interest there needs to be a sole person or persons that have it as their job to keep kids/athletes safe.  We could always do what has been done before and rely upon the coach, but that seems to not be working out too well (conflict of interest).  As a buddy of mine, dad once said; “if you always do what you always did, you will always be what you have always been.”  There needs to be change.  I cannot think of a better point that having athletic trainers to do the work they are educated and trained to do: keep athletes safe.  Yes, there are way more good coaches than bad, but why not give the man/woman some help with medical advice and injury care?  Don’t they have a job to do of coaching a team/individual?

Here is a TEDx Talk with Kevin Guskiewicz It is about time someone took a proactive step in football.  The sport is not the sacred cow everyone thinks it is; football is touchable by the courts and deep pockets, it is “when” not “if” when it comes to disruption of the sport.  However Pop Warner football actually took a very bright and forward step in limiting contact for its players;

Pop Warner is limiting contact in practice as part of an effort to reduce players’ risk of concussion. Pop Warner’s medical advisory board made the announcement this week.

Under the new regulations, coaches must limit contact to no more than one-third of their practice time. It also is banning full-speed, head-on blocking or tackling drills in which players line up more than three yards apart. Coaches can have full-speed drills in which players approach each other at an angle but “not straight ahead into each other.” There also should be no head-to-head contact.

HOWEVER!!!  (Always seems to be that or a ‘but’ with me)…  There still can be contact 