Football · Mc, Pennsylvania · Aug 26, 2026 · Ages: 16U
# Youth tackle football in danger of extinction. Proposed legislation could ban youth tackle football until high school. Story by Scott Procter, Sports EditorFebruary 20, 20181 Comment. Amid worries of CTE, youth tackle football could be a thing of the past. Earlier this month, assembly members Kevin McCarty (D – Sacramento) and Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D – San Diego) proposed the “Safe Youth Football Act,” which will prevent children from playing tackle football until high school. The bill states children who wait until high school to play tackle football have a better chance of avoiding effects that come with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), including depression, memory loss and dementia. The proposed bill comes just a week after the family of a football player who committed suicide and was later found to have CTE sued the youth league Pop Warner. Chernach’s camp said Pop Warner “knew or should have known that tackle football was dangerous for children and exposed children to head injuries, including dementia,” according to the New York Times. McCarty urged California to use flag football as an alternative to the tackle version of the sport. Current NFL quarterback Drew Brees has even created a non-contact youth flag football league out of concerns for his own kids. In February of 2017, the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine published a study that concluded flag football is not a safer alternative to tackle football, in fact, it may even be more dangerous. Youth flag football has a higher injury rate than tackle football. A significantly different rate of severe injury or concussion between tackle and flag football was not identified,” according to the study. “The higher injury rate in flag football needs to be considered when determining the relative safety of flag football and tackle football.”. Youth tackle football has gotten much safer over the past decade with new equipment, technique and rules. The Spectator does not allow anonymous comments and
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