The California State Assembly Committee on sports voted this week to advance a tackle football bill for kids under 12. It comes over growing concerns about concussions and the rise in popularity of flag football as an alternative.
Opponents of the bill say youth players are at a disadvantage when transitioning from flag football to tackle football because they’re not taught the fundamentals of tackling.
“When those kids start coming into football when they're in seventh and eighth grade, sometimes ninth grade, they're so far behind and they don't understand your normal positions or what entails to get into a three-point stance and that's why the educational part of tackle football and youth football is so great for high school," former coach and youth football parent Randy Doty said.
The State of California currently bans full-contact practices for high school and youth football teams during the off season and limits contact practices to twice a week during preseason and the regular season.
“During practice it's not all bang, bang, bang," Doty emphasized." It's really wrapping up properly, tackling property, keeping your head out of the game. And that's really the big thing about football and the push with tackle football, especially USA football, is to keep the head out of the game.”
Chris Nowinski, CEO of Concussion Legacy Foundation and former Harvard Football Player, says research has shown tackle football can cause Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE, which kills nerve cells in the brain. But current San Luis Obispo Football Head Coach Pat Johnston argues he’s worried about the safety of his kids should they not know how to tackle properly.
“Over the years, whenever anybody would ask when should their youngster start playing football, my response is always when the family is comfortable with it because that's a family decision," Johnston expressed. "But from a football fundamental point of view, I do think it's really important for kids that want to play football eventually at the high school level to have some experience in a helmet and shoulder pads and learning some of those basic fundamentals while they're lighter, while they're smaller and the collisions are not as high impact.”
If passed, the ban would be gradually phased in, prohibiting children under six in 2025, under 10 in 2027, and those under 12 in 2029.
Johnston says helmet equipment is better than its ever been and rules are already in place to protect the head.
“I can speak to our football program. We've seen our number of head injuries diminish like crazy over the last ten years when," the former Mustang quarterback said. "The Seattle Seahawk's hawk tackle was first introduced by Coach Carroll and his staff up there. Once our players really bought into that, we saw a massive decrease in head injuries.”
The full assembly has until the end of January to approve the bill and send it to the Senate.
