'Concussion' doctor in NYT op-ed: No high-impact sports until age 18

Dr. Bennet Omalu cites football, hockey, MMA and boxing. The headline says "Don't Let Kids Play Football."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/opinion/dont-let-kids-play-football.html?_r=3

The human brain becomes fully developed at about 18 to 25 years old. We should at least wait for our children to grow up, be provided with the information and education on the risk of play, and let them make their own decisions. No adult, not a parent or a coach, should be allowed to make this potentially life-altering decision for a child.

 

I don't see football dying anytime soon, but the overwhelming evidence of CTE in former football players might begin it's very slow shuffle to oblivion.

Maybe.

 

I don't know what's going to ultimately happen.

It's unfortunate that football is so awesome.

 

Has anyone actually started its trickle toward oblivion? Say, the odd high school dropping the sports for safety reasons?

 

Well, participation is down, though it's down in most youth sports. That's probably a result of increased specialization more than anything. I'm guessing that the kids not playing are the ones who would have sucked anyway.

 

This recent Bloomberg Business article about a prolific inventor (who's now working on the football-concussions thing) had some pretty interesting things to say:

How an F Student Became America’s Most Prolific Inventor

 

I don't think this at all. Quite the opposite actually. Decades ago, you'd have a very good basketball or baseball player who does football as a sidelight, relying solely on athletic ability to be pretty darn good. Nowadays you don't see that. It's partly because of specialization but also partly because when athletes have a choice, football loses.

 

Why isn't soccer on the list? I've seen/know of quite a few concussions occurring in high school soccer.

 

I thought it was quite fitting that last night after Collinsworth and Michaels talked about how there is still a stigma to players admitting they have a concussion, a promo for the concussion movie came on. They couldn't have scripted it to fit together any better.

 

Who were the players 10 to 12 years ago who wore those helmets with an extra inch or two added to the outside of the helmets? They looked a little goofy, but did they actually work?

 

He makes a good point, but if you actually waited until kids were 18 before they could play football or hockey, those sports would cease to exist.

You going to start playing tackle football in college after 13 years of flag football?

 

I thought it was Steve Tasker, but Google says it was Mark Kelso. Don't know if they did any conclusive studies.