Youth Football Coach Certification
The proper way of tackling starts in a football player’s early years. Depending on the age they start playing tackle football, the players could have sustained multiple concussions before reaching the NFL.
“It’s right to assume that all those hits every week from youth football to high school to college to the pros, they all add up,” Steve Mariucci, a member of the NFL’s player’s safety advisory panel and former NFL coach, said. “To teach the game and keep the head out of the game where guys aren’t leading with their head when they block and tackle, we have instituted a youth football certification for youth football coaches to learn how to teach fundamental drills of tackling and blocking without the use of the head.”
Mariucci says parents, but especially mothers, like this idea of teaching the proper way to tackle to their children because of the concern of concussions within the sport.
“We’re starting to get more kids back in the sport of football,” Mariucci said. “But for awhile there, we lost about a quarter of a million in football players after the big lawsuit came out with the NF.”
In 2013, the NFL faced a $765 million settlement for 18,000 former NFL players who had concussion-related brain injuries. These retired football players accused the league of hiding the consequences of concussions. The settlement was set to pay for medical exams, research and compensation for the athlete’s hardships they endured or will endure. Some suffer from dementia, depression or Alzheimer’s, and others are worried it may happen in the future.
“So we lost a lot of players, but they’re coming back because the game appears to be safer,” Mariucci said. “There is discussion right now about if we recommend pushing the age of full-padded participation. Some youth football, Pop Warner leagues are playing with seven and eight-year-old kids in tackle football. And we have a concern about that right now, so our panel is in the process of discussing if we recommend flag football first. And then should they be allowed to play at age 12 or age whatever.”
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Mariucci says the NFL is the example of playing the sport of football for all levels below the professionals. Rules that the league creates for their 32 teams “trickle down” to colleges and high schools.
Mariucci, himself, didn’t allow his three sons to play tackle football until they got into high school. He said this has part to do with the fact that they participated in many other sports. But he does not want his grandson, who is in his early elementary years, to play tackle football.
“Flag football has become bigger and bigger. And I think that’s the way to start,” Mariucci said. “Maybe junior high if the coaches are good.”
Many states, such as Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois and California, have or are attempting to ban tackle football until a certain age. This is an effort to eliminate the hits to the head a person will receive in their lifetime of playing football, but some are against it. Some say it is un-American and full padded practices can be reduced.
Dr. Michael Alosco, a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University’s Alzheimer Disease and CTE Center, says there is not enough research to know the relationship between youth tackle football and CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). But the research he and his team have conducted on former NFL players proves neurological damage nonetheless.
“However, our research has shown that younger age of first exposure to tackle football is associated with worse long-term neurobehavioral outcomes in samples of living former tackle football players,” Alasco said. “Youth tackle football play is played during a time of peak neurodevelopment and thus it intuitively makes sense that youth should not be exposed to repetitive head impacts during this time.”
Gregg Guenther, former NFL tight end for the Tennessee Titans and Cincinnati Bengals from 2005-2006, says it is beneficial to teach children to tackle properly. Teaching them to tackle without leading with the crown of their helmet is vital.
“But at the same time, I do understand being a child you’re still developing. Because football is a very violent sport and sometimes you just can’t control what’s going to happen or how the hits are going to take place,” Guenther said.
Joey Blake, the Los Angeles Rams team dietician, said a big topic in the NFL is the fact that some football players may have never been diagnosed with a concussion in the NFL, but they have sustained multiple concussions since middle school. He agrees with Guenther by saying the brain is still developing when they’re adolescents.
Mariucci said there isn’t enough data in youth football yet, which makes it hard to know the number of concussions the average kid has received. In the future, it is possible tackle football could be banned until a child reaches middle school or high school. But he says the league is covering their bases and trying to make football safer for kids on up to the professionals.
“I know guys who started tackle football in college and they’re elite-level NFL tight ends. Jimmy Graham didn’t play until he was in college and he’s one of the highest paid tight ends,” said Baltimore Ravens long snapper, Morgan Cox. “There is value in flag football.”
