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EDITOR’S NOTE: Ninth grade students at Belwood-Antis were asked to read a recent article about a mother in Wisconsin suing a Pop Waner football league over the suicide of her son, which she claims was brought on by the head trauma he suffered while playing football.  They were then asked to write an opinion piece referencing the article and addressing the question: should hard contact sports like football be banned for young people.

Joseph Chernach committed suicide in 2012 from early dementia. His family claims he had post-concision syndrome due to football and  is suing Pop Warner football for their child committing suicide. His mother said she doesn’t want to see these contact sports being played by young kids. To clarify, she wants to ban these contact sports for students!

In my opinion I believe that there should be nothing changed about these sports for young children. Facts from Live Strong show that there are 5.5 million youth football players between the ages 5 and 14. Think about it: that’s a lot of kids playing football, which is a major contact sport. Do you think football should be banned for all these young people? In response, I strongly believe no.

First of all, contact sports activist may argue, “Well people get hurt playing these sports.” However, young children can get hurt by messing up daily actions like wrecking a bike or falling off a kitchen chair. Why does it matter if they get “hurt” doing something they love. Also, kids in younger leagues develop the skills to stay safe before they grow large and strong. To repeat what I’m saying, kids would develop football safety skills easier rather than a stronger and larger high schooler, which results in a safer football field in the future.

Secondly, I think that it should be a parent’s choice to put their kids into sports. Alternatively, if a parent doesn’t feel like the league or sport is safe they shouldn’t put their kid in it. To relate back to the article, Joseph Chernach wasn’t forced to play football; his mom signed him up. She blames the league for her son’s injury but she could have warned him about the risks. Mostly, it was her fault for her son’s injuries and not the Pop Warner football league.

Nowadays, leagues inform young people about the risk that accompanies playing the game. The woman’s son played football in 1997-2000 and that was a while ago when word about injuries might not have been spread. Also, you cannot forget about how much technology has changed to make these sports safer. For example, football helmets and pads have been getting so much safer since the early 2000’s and they keep on getting better. You cannot ban these sports because safety obviously has changed.

In short, I believe that sports shouldn’t be banned based on one freak story about a kid killing himself. Technology has been getting better which results in a safe contact sport. Also it’s the parent’s choice to put the child in the leagues. Finally, contact sports for young children help develop safety skills. Therefore, I believe that contact sports should in all cases not be banned.