Yes, yes, & yes. Football has been my life for about 31 of my 41 years. Despite no knees & back issues, I can't imagine my life without it. I wouldn't want to find out either.
I'll add that, in my case, I got more beat up and have more nagging problems as an adult that arose out of baseball than football. I doubt football helped with any of them, but it wasn't where they started.
One caveat - I, however, will not let him play for crappy youth league coaches who don't know what they are doing at all.
Never went past 8th grade, but since I moved every 3 years, I'm not sure if I would have ever had the opportunity to do so, anyway. If my son wants to play, in, let's say, 15 years, then by all means. But I'm not going to push it on him. Or her. Pink shoes place kicker. Yea.
There are pretty competent coaches around here, especially where he will play if he does. I'm not overly concerned about that. Doubt I have time to coach football.
1. Still playing. 2. Yes. 3. Yes. People don't understand the spike in risk that takes place when transitioning from high school to college and then the NFL. It's just common sense. The force of hits in div 1 and the NFL is obviously going to be exponentially higher because everyone is huge and everyone is fast. The risks at the high school level are not nearly as high, and that's where most people's football careers end.
I'm sure concussions don't help suicidal people, but losing the structure and family like atmosphere of a team probably do a lot more harm
You're going from being the center of attention your whole life to quite often nothing at that level. It's not like the average player is known to leave the game in the best of finical positions either.
I'm not so sure that at least some of the former player depression/suicides doesn't come from going from a situation of being in the spotlight to an average Joe. That's a huge adjustment for anyone to make.
Hell I had it at the college level. Can't imagine it at their level. Those guys are treated like pampered kings.
My dad was pissed because I didn't rate a baseball scholly and refused to help with my college. I joined the Army. Talk about a funk.
Honestly, by the end, I was so ready for it to be over I didn't care. We made the playoffs, we knew we weren't going anywhere, and I was tired of it.
Yes, yes, and yes. I played sports my entire childhood and throughout high school. Never suffered a concussion or serious injury. Granted, the sideline was a pretty safe place to be.
