I fear the day my five-year-old son asks me permission to play football.
He has been involved in soccer, taekwondo, swimming and now basketball. Of course these activities come with their own risks, but I am comfortable allowing him to participate.
However, I have not, and do not, plan to ever propose the idea of playing football.
I have never been the type of mother to hold my son back. I would allow him to play while making sure he is aware of the dangers of the sport. I would also make sure he has the proper equipment to be safe while playing. I am a firm believer that any sport or extra-curricular activity builds character, structure and paves the way for future opportunities. But those benefits do not outweigh the risk of brain damage, ligament tears and broken bones.
My goal is to keep an open mind, to an extent.
My father, Christopher Boardman Sr., was the assistant football coach at my high school. He once told me a story about one of his players suffering from temporary memory loss from a hard hit.
The player was hit in the head during an intense play right before half-time. When the team gathered together in a huddle, he began laughing out of control while repeatedly talking about how angry his girlfriend was going to be with him.
“I was very concerned. He looked fine, he did not lose consciousness but he could not remember anything he was saying and kept repeating himself,” my father said. “I asked him if he knew where he was and he told me somewhere completely different.”
The player was monitored on the sidelines for the rest of the game and was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion.
“He could not remember what team we were playing against or what day it was. He thought it was a Saturday afternoon…it was a Friday night.”
Concussions can have a significant impact on someone’s life whether it is short or long-term damage. A person who has experienced a concussion can become affected by memory loss, short attention span, difficulty performing daily tasks and trouble processing a lot of information. Many former football players now suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease caused by to the head trauma, that can cause mood swings, impulsive behavior, depression, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts.
No mother wants to think any of these things could happen to their child, but is it a greater harm to my child if I shelter and deny him something that interests him? Will he resent me? Will he learn to refrain from things because they hold small risks?
I want my son to have the courage to take risks, but I do not want him to be reckless.
While football may provide valuable life lessons, those lessons are wasted if my son is unable to remember them later in life. The possible repercussions far outweigh the benefits and I do not intend to put my son in position to find out the hard way.
