The Super Bowl may not be until next year, but the drama of football is already surfacing in California, as a “Judge OKs trial for brain-injury suit against Pop Warner.”  Specifically, the mothers claim their sons, who were 22 and 25 years old on their deaths, died as a result of the brain damage caused to them from participation in the Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. {PWLS) football league.  (They say that Pop Warner misrepresents its concern for safety when it says, “Pop Warner is the ONLY youth football program (local, regional and national) that sets and enforces a strict AGE & WEIGHT MATRIX that reduces the risk and reality of injuries.”)

In the past few years, the relationship between sports and brain injury has been extensively studied, primarily on the professional level.  However, studies have also been done on youth football players with results that are equally, if not more, troubling considering their still-developing brains.  “In the past 3 years, 47 children have died playing football in the United States.  Others found [that]… 21 out of 66 brains with clear evidence of CTE in males who played contact football when young.”

As terrible as the news about the relationship between youth sports and TBI may be, the solution is not clear.  A Google search shows that many schools are cancelling their football season, both for safety reasons and for fear of lawsuits.  However, a recent article reported parents’ dilemma:  “[We} talked about all of the risks involved with playing football, most notably the risk of concussions and head injuries that carry long-term health concerns. But we also talked about the risks of not letting our son play football. Not only did I not want to be a “dream killer” (no parent does), but I was also hesitant to waiver from a personal parenting philosophy to enthusiastically encourage controlled risk-taking.”