Should we end under age-18 tackle football because of brain

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because of long-term brain damage?

And I think the answer is clearly yes. And don’t just water it down because people will hate it.

Instead, for high school—

Go with 2 seasons of basketball, Fall and Spring, as well as 2 seasons of baseball. Also go with 2 seasons of girls’ basketball and 2 seasons of girls’ softball.

Your ideas please.

Schools need to be focused on teaching kids marketable job skills. Kids should NOT be risking brain damage in order for them to excel to celeb like status within an extremely niche industry with very high physical requirements & a very high risk of injury. Getting head & other injuries in school will cause kids to become disabled adults who require gov &/or family assistance.

But generally, not until they’re in their 40’s or 50’s and maybe older. And therein lies the rub.

Personally, I think "we" should eliminate school-sponsored athletics entirely, and focus solely on STEM-based academics.

No more bullying jocks and no more artsy-fartsy whiners.

And double the pay of all STEM-based teachers!!

^ Yeah, I would agree with that.

I think that tackle football is a bad idea for people under the age of 18. I think it's a bad idea for people over the age of 18, too.

Different sport but in the UK the FA (Football Association) is trying to eliminate heading the football for under 12's due to research showing a possible link to neurodegenerative disease. I think it's a good idea, especially as I've had a football kicked at my head very hard and it made the sky green and the grass blue for a few seconds.

My kids knew a high school rugby player who died on the field from a hit.

I tried to avoid heading the ball when I was a teenager, when playing football ('soccer' for the yanks).

I instinctively knew it was a bad idea, even before knowing about its possible brain effects.

I take very strong exception to your crack on artsy-fartsy whiners.

I made the mistake of almost abandoning music completely for 40 yesrs in IT, primarily as a support dweeb, first at a major library automation firm, and later as a support dweeb for everyone’s favorite computer fruit company, with stints in US DoD as a librarian, and an analyst in configuration management. I even turned down singing with the Chicago Symphony Chorus when I lived outside the Second City working in Library Automation. To this day, I’m still kicking myself for turning down that opportunity, due to the long hours I was putting in.

Besides, as my choral conducting professor always taught, the process of teaching kids on how to read music is the same as teaching language. Why? What is language? Language is a series of symbols arranged in such a manner that it conveys a cohesive thought. Then, What is music? See my definition of language.

My point? If it were’t for us artsy-fartsy types, there wouldn’t be no STEM, as we would be all Neanderthals!

Your "evidence" is not applicable to your premise, which itself is unproven.

Besides, you are not an artsy-fartsy type; you are a quant -- the epitome of a STEM worker.

I never thought I would be defending sports but... Athletics can potentially be very beneficial for kids. Sports help develop better motor skills & coordination, keeps people more active which has obvious health benefits, & can potentially teach kids about teamwork & dedication/commitment. Not everyone is capable of being good in STEM based academics(I'm not) & it would be better for some to learn other types of skills instead. Sports can help the body be better suited for more physically demanding jobs like firemen & other 1st responders, working in construction, or menial labor jobs like custodial/janitorial(the 3 jobs I had were related to this).

That said, the current sports system needs be be overhauled. Lots of sports need to be redesigned with safety as their 1st priority, especially for kids. Sports should also not be a major focus in people's lives.

I do agree that STEM teachers need to be paid more but most all teachers do. Schools should focus on teaching STEM academics to the students who have potential; lots of STEM jobs are getting outsourced partly due to the American education system failing students. However schools should also focus on teaching some students alternative types of skills based on their strengths or weaknesses & thier abilities or disabilities.

Bullsh!t!

Then why in the hell did I burn out and was fired for being what you call a quant? I’ll tell you why! Support has essentially became a rip and read operation, and don’t you dare deviate from the script! After reading scripts verbatim all day long, you get tired of hearing your voice drone on in that damn monotone. It got to the point that I got disgusted with the position, and with IT in general. Now that I’m retired, I can worry more about my health, especially after the blowup with the Urologist at UPMC hospital. I decided to go back to what was more important to me when I was a lot younger. I don’t have much longer to live, no thanks to Chronic Kidney disease stage 3, so why not go back to doing something I love?

Sure, if those kids are of the more-brawn-than-brain types whose brain damage might go unnoticed for a few decades.

For the rest of us -- the ones for whom STEM courses capture and hold our interest for the rest of out lives -- sports are of no benefit, but are only sources of humiliation, pain, and terror when we are forced to participate. And I am VERY happy to have not ever played any sport well enough to endure a head injury that would have attenuated my ability to observe and understand the universe.

Hey, chill out! Don't blame me for the choices you made, and don't blame me for your failures.

Some people say it's better to do what you love for your hobby instead of your career choice because if you do it as your job five days a week you can quickly become burnt-out & start resenting it like you did in tech. Then you have to find a new hobby to enjoy. It's not like that for everyone of coarse & different careers & employers can be very different & have different demands & criteria. I'm sorry about your health but I like your philosophy on trying to do what you love now. My probably crummy advice is to focus on taking care yourself, the people you love & care about, & having fun how you can.

Is the brain damage necessarily immediate from heading a ball for example? I thought it just increased the risk, statistically, of neurodegenerative diseases like dementia or Alzheimer's?

If that were the case, the damage wouldn't be noticed, because it would only manifest at a later point?