New PSA warns against youth tackle football, compares it to smoking
That's the premise for a new PSA from the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which wants parents to consider the long-term damage youth tackle football could inflict on their kids. The goal is for parents to keep kids out of tackle football until they're 14 to lessen their risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Plus, children's bodies aren't built to withstand the head-bobbling hits of tackle football, he told CNN. "They can choose not to play tackle football at all," he said. Bailes called the comparison between smoking and tackle football "misleading and inaccurate."
Concussion PSA compares youth football dangers to smoking
"Tackle football is like smoking," a youthful voice-over says as a smiling, motherly type lights a cigarette for one of the pre-teen players. "We now have the data that show that playing youth tackle football and developing CTE is correlated in a very similar way to smoking, and developing lung cancer," Nowinski said. "We're trying to help parents visualize that those two things are equally bad: Letting your kid smoke and letting your kid play tackle football are both bad ideas." Some states, including California, New York and Illinois, have discussed banning tackle football for children under 12. We can retool the game where they can still glean the benefits, enjoy themselves, get exercise and delay tackle football until junior high or high school."