Originally Posted by
argos1873
Which is silly, because, correct me if I'm wrong, most of the concussion issues are at the pro or college level when you are up against 250+lbs behemoths running at very quick speeds. Hockey is plenty dangerous too, but everyone thinks their little Johnny is going to be a star in the NHL and make millions, so to hell with the risks.
It's not just football. Eleven years ago, my oldest son played minor hockey the same year a CBC Fifth Estate show reported on how the head of Toronto Minor Hockey had commissioned a study to show that hitting was safe in hockey for 11 year olds (it had been banned until 14 for over a decade). Lo and behold the study stated hitting caused no increase in injuries. However, the three members of the Canadian Minor Hockey Safety Committee resigned in protest, including a doctor who had been on the committee for 25 years. Being suspicious, the Fifth Estate investigated and confronted the statistician who wrote the report with an analysis of the same data from another statistician. They forced the report writer to admit that his own statistics actually showed a fourfold increase in injuries and then presented the evidence to the Toronto and Canadian Minor Hockey Association, which said they had already made a decision to implement hitting for 11 year olds and went ahead and did so.
The assistant coach of my son's team went on to show Don Cherry's Greatest Hits to my son's 10 year old team to prepare them for 11 year old hitting next year.
That was it for me. I took my son out of hockey and put him in swimming (the best thing I ever did sport wise - he went on win an $18,000 NCAA swimming scholarship, became a lifeguard, swim coach and personal fitness instructor).
I showed the Fifth Estate video on the hitting statistics scandal to other parents on the team but all except one basically denied the evidence in front of their eyes. Even the one who admitted there was a major problem decided in the end to let his son keep playing.
Incidentally, that same year, Lanny McDonald, no shrinking violet during his career, pulled a team of 15-16 year olds out of hockey because too many players were being injured by brutal tactics and he felt he had a responsibility to protect their health.
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