Should We Take Tackling Out of Youth Football? A Hard Look at Safety, Tradition, and the Future of the Game

The Sobering Science Behind the Hits

A recent study published in the Annals of Neurology sheds new light and new concern on this issue. Researchers at Boston University examined the brains of 246 deceased football players, 211 of whom were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.

Their findings were startling: the younger a player started tackle football, the earlier they showed symptoms of CTE. For every year before age 12 that a player began, symptoms appeared an average of 2.5 years sooner.

Think about that. A child who begins to tackle football at six years old might experience memory loss, mood swings, or cognitive decline fifteen years earlier than someone who started in middle or high school.

Yes, the study had its limitations: there was no control group, and families of players with more severe symptoms may have been more likely to donate their brains for study. But the pattern still fits what we already know: repeated hits to the head even minor ones add up. When the injured body part is the brain, the consequences are far more permanent.

What If Football Looked Different?

It’s hard to imagine football without the crunch of pads or the echo of a big tackle. But maybe the essence of the sport has less to do with collisions and more to do with coordination, agility, and strategy.

After all, the beauty of football lies in precision and timing, not necessarily in brute force. What if youth leagues focused on speed, teamwork, and skill-building, saving full-contact play for when athletes are older and better able to understand and choose the risks?

In many ways, we already value this kind of evolution in other sports. Baseball players don’t face 90-mph fastballs at age 8. Gymnasts don’t start with double backflips. Why shouldn’t football adapt too?

The Broader Conversation: Concussions Beyond Football

Of course, concussions aren’t exclusive to the gridiron. Soccer players hit headers, lacrosse players collide, and even swimmers yes, swimmers can suffer head injuries. (One mother in the study shared that her daughter sustained two concussions in high school swimming from pool collisions.)

That’s why awareness matters. Parents, coaches, and schools across all sports need to be vigilant not just about big, dramatic hits, but about the subtle, repeated knocks that can accumulate over time.

Safety Isn’t the Enemy of Sport It’s the Foundation

Sports will always involve some risk. A scraped knee, a sprained ankle, a bruise or two they come with the territory. But when a risk is known to cause long-term neurological harm, it deserves a harder look.

Maybe it’s time we redefine what toughness means. True toughness might not be about how many hits a kid can take, but how well we as parents, coaches, and communities protect them while they grow.

When children are young, their safety isn’t negotiable; it’s our responsibility. Let them learn, compete, and fall in love with the game but let’s make sure they reach adulthood with their minds intact and their futures still wide open.

The Question That Won’t Go Away

So, knowing what we do now about brain trauma, about developing bodies, about how much kids trust us to keep them safe we have to ask ourselves honestly:

Can we, in good conscience, keep letting them tackle?