Good Day World!
Football is the most popular sport in America.
Say what you will, the sound of helmets colliding is music to the ears of millions of fans of all ages. And genders.
There’s a growing movement for girls to play full tackle football.
Utah has the country's first known tackle football league for fifth and sixth grade girls.
Twelve-year-old Sam Gordon, a 4'6" running back who made headlines as a gridiron girl a few years back, helped get it started.
Three years ago, after her highlight reel went viral, Gordon graced the front of a Wheaties box.
The video showed Gordon breaking tackles and scoring touchdowns in a full-contact league for boys.
Meanwhile, concerns about football-related concussions have become a national dialogue. A controversy. Parents are reconsidering letting their children bang heads in the name of sport.
Another Football Player Quits Amid Concussion Concerns
NBA Basketball star, LeBron James, has publicly stated he isn’t going to let his son play football. Despite improvements made on helmets, and rule changes designed to discourage head-to-head collisions…concussions are still too common.For all ages. From the first days of peewee ball to the stadium lights of the high school field, it's abundantly clear that physical harm is a reality of football.
For years, it was just "the norm" for adolescents and young adults to break a bone or suffer a concussion here and there. If a young player was injured, odds were they had been playing their hardest out on the field, and that was glorified.
While I want to congratulate Sam Gordon and the other 5th – 6th grade girls for breaking stereotypes – I can’t help wonder if it’s really the kind of ground worth breaking!
Time for me to walk on down the road...
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