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California Proposes to Ban Youth Tackle Football?
According to the Associated Press, a proposal in California to ban youth tackle football has cleared its first legislative hurdle. A heightened concern about concussions and the growing popularity of flag football was the rationale behind the ban. However, it is necessary to examine the reason separately in order to determine the true basis for the ban.
Concussion awareness has been increasing for nearly a decade.
In 2018, UM Medicine’s Sports Health and Safety Institute and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute discovered that concussion rates among football players aged 5 to 14 were higher than previously thought, with 5 out of every 100 youth football players suffering a football-related concussion each season.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Youth Football Act to decrease brain injuries in 2019. The legislation restricted full-contact practices to two days per week during the season and prohibited them during the offseason. The legislation also restricted full-contact sessions to 30 minutes per day.
Was there still a demand from Californians to ban tackling in youth football after this state-wide attempt to make the sport safer? No. Lawmakers drove this proposal, assuming flag football is a safer option.