Here's my take: Bouncing a ball off your head repeatedly isn't good for it. The chances my (or the majority of youth soccer players) are good enough to dribble a ball on their head isn't great. There's a much better chance of someone's kid hurting themselves in a car wreck than from soccer balls off their head repeatedly even of the kid is a world class soccer player. I have two sons. I don't want them to get concussions. I also realize they have a better chance of falling of the monkey bars or swing and concussing themselves than they do playing an organized sport. On my list of things that I worry about harming my kids, organized sports are way down the list.
The worst impacts from heading soccer balls generally are from other guys' heads and elbows, not the ball itself
I don't think it's that terrible an argument. Maybe it's a more necessary risk, but it's a lot more deadly than soccer or football or women's tennis
Why can't he argument be as simple as "some activities are dangerous and carry some inherent risks, but they're fun, so we're willing to accept the potential downside that comes with them". The hysteria over concussions has effectively ruined American football for me in just 8-10 years. For the love of God, don't let it ruin soccer too. As for Wambach's comments, the US is already at a big enough disadvantage in international soccer without piling on an additional degree of difficulty of wanting only "pure" Americans. None of the big soccer powers have that stupid ass mindset. I think the rules are that you can play for any country where one of your grandparents were born. That's why you end up with many/most of the European players who end up being eligible to play for 3-4 different countries.
It's a more necessary risk, which makes it a terrible argument. The alternative of never getting in a car is never leaving your house. The alternative to not playing football, is playing something else instead.
