Opinion: Coaches Scarier than Concussions

As much as I love football − and I was a high school head coach before founding the National Alliance for Youth Sports in 1981  I wouldn’t risk my kids playing today with all the information out there about the long-term effects of concussions. But the concussion issue and all the talk it has generated is minor compared with the real issue that I have seen damaging young lives for more than 30 years now: the people who are coaching kids. The guy you trust with your child who is out there for a few hours a week, out of your sight, pretending that they know how to coach children.

Before everyone gets upset at me for branding all youth football coaches as monsters: I’m not. There are many decent coaches who “get it” and try to do their best for kids. But I can also tell you that after many years of working closely with recreation agencies nationwide, youth football has some of the worst individuals you could find on the field with kids: the macho, kick-ass kind who never made it in football and who couldn’t care less about the safety of the kids. They are about winning at whatever cost. They are damaging kids physically, emotionally and psychologically by taking them and making them pawns in their little game of “Hey, I’m a big-time football coach.” They’re the guy sitting next to you screaming obscenities at high school, college and pro games like they know more than the coaches on the field.

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