On Wednesday, politicians in California will talk about whether or not kids younger than 12 should not be able to play tackle football.
There is still a long way to go before the bill is passed. Its first public meeting is coming up soon. The bill needs to be passed by Wednesday and by the end of January for it to become law this year. The bill won’t become law until 2026, though, if it passes.
This bill comes right after flag football became famous, mostly among young girls, thanks to social media. A lot of study has also been done on the effects of tackle football, which is another reason for the change. It has been shown that tackle football can hurt your brain, and the damage gets worse the longer you play. To be more exact, it can lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, which kills brain cells.
Chris Nowinski, CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, said, “I don’t mind when NFL players risk CTE because they are adults, know the risk, and are paid for it.” I cannot picture a world where kids do this for fun and put their brains at risk because they don’t understand the danger.
A number of states have tried to pass rules like this, but none of them have failed. It is already against the law for high school and youth football teams in California to practice with full contact. During the normal season and preseason, teams can only have two practices per week.
A group called Save Youth Football California is led by Steve Famiano. He said that kids younger than 12 shouldn’t have to play only flag football. “Flag football is geared toward leaner, faster kids, and some of the kids we see in tackle football may not have fully developed physically yet; they may be a little overweight or taller, and they might not be the fastest kid on the team,” he said.
“They would be great on a youth football team.” On offense and defense, they get to play line. If you take that away from those kids, where will they go?” Famiano said it.
High school tackle football involvement in California had been going down before the bill was even talked about.
