Study Cites Youth Football for Issues

ESPN Outside the Lines

Robert Stern, PhD, neurology, neurosurgery, CTE Center; Robert Cantu, MD, neurosurgery

Former NFL players who played tackle football as young children were more likely to have thinking and memory problems as adults, a Boston University study published Wednesday in a medical journal found.
 

Expert quote:

Robert Stern, PhD:

“We have findings from former NFL players, so it can’t be generalizable to the rest of the football-playing public,” Stern said. “But it does suggest something that I think makes logical sense. The logic is you shouldn’t hurt your brain over and over and over again as a child.”

Robert Cantu, MD:

Cantu, who is a senior medical adviser to the NFL, said that the new study’s findings buttress his recommendation about playing flag football instead of youth tackle football.

“To allow your child to be subjecting themselves to repetitive head injury at a very early age when they could be doing the sport a different way and minimizing their chances [of brain injury], to me, is just insane,” he said. “It’s wrong. We should not be allowing this to happen.

“Tom Brady didn’t play football until high school. He picked up the game pretty quickly.”

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