Not even #CaptainAmerica is immune to sports related #concussion.

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Is Your Child’s Brain Safe Playing Contact Sports?

The Sports Techie community blog has reported about the dangers of concussions in most all sports since I launched our sports technology business four years ago, but the alarming audacity by sports leagues, associations and federations to cover up the facts when it comes to the concussion dangers present to youth in sport has gone on long enough for me not to stand up against this sad cover up.

The Risk Of Brain Injuries Shifts As Children Grow Up, via NPR.

Of course, children’s brains can be injured falling off a stair or playing in the yard as they transition through their childhood years, as NPR reports. My personal hope is that new sports tech products will help to reduce it not eliminate contact sports rated concussions. But we are not there yet as a society. So if a youngster falls off his motorcycle, bicycle or swing set and is not wearing a helmet, chances are that brain damage of some sort might happen, something my generation seems to feel tends to be overblown but I certainly do not having received my share of concussions over my youth and adulthood. Athletes today are bigger, faster and stronger than ever before in our history bringing more power, speed and force to hits.

David Epstein: Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?

Please imagine for a second the softness of any kids skull and brain tissue and then add in a contact sport. Now that you have those tender head parts visualized running around a play field or skating on an ice rink, understand that youth coaches around the world ask them to tackle and hit another boy or girl in football or hockey, or use their skull to perform a header in soccer, resulting in potentially serious injury to the brain anyone can understand even if you’re not a rocket scientist, every time it happens. These blows to the cranium can and do cause damage to the brain even if they are not classified as a concussion. Concussions do not happen with every hit or to every kid but when you add up all the blows multiplied by the amount of children who play sports worldwide, the chances are exponentially high that it happens more than we know but are numbers the NFL, NHL and FIFA, and even the NCAA and high school admins, know all to well which is scary to comprehend as the curator of our global online community.

Resulting traumatic brain injury (TBI) is something your child may not be able to communicate or understand has happened so it is up to parents, relatives and family friends to help put a stop to what I feel borders on child abuse. President Obama, I hope you read this because you are one of us too.

Pro, College, High School, And Youth Sports
The NFL is trying to get the NFLPA and their retired players to settle a lawsuit that results in a binding legal agreement that admits no further fault by the NFL owners when it comes to injuries like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and even dementia and mood disorders. The revealing documentary that NFL partner ESPN would not show, PBS Frontline: League of Denial, The NFL’s Concussion Crisis, can be watched here.

FIFA is being sued in a class-action lawsuit filed by a group of football players and parents in California over the handling of concussions. The American soccer organizations such as US Soccer and American Youth Soccer Organization are part of this lawsuit claiming that they have neglected to offer monitoring and treatment of head injuries. Does anyone actually feel otherwise since this sport is played by more people around the world than any other for centuries now. To look the other way is not acceptable any longer by anyone.

If you watched the World Cup Brazil, the lack of concussion protocol by FIFA was a serious issue that should have been taken care of yesterday much like GLT and other rules of the game are at the mercy of human error. It is hard to believe FIFA is truthful about much these days when the topic has anything to do with a potential lawsuit. Their internal investigation and the resulting findings into the potentially corrupt bid process for the World Cup 2018 Russia and 2022 Qatar is now being investigated by the FBI. This non-profit businesses lack of transparency is a major weakness, so I won’t believe anything they say about soccer related concussions until it is all played out by the medical Industry and a non-biased court of law

The NHL and NCAA are as much to blame as these others in my opinion. How long have the powers that be in hockey from the professional level down to junior leagues known about the dangers of head blows yet looked the other way? The same thoughts come to mind when I think about every NCAA college sports and all the athletic participants over the decades who might have made others decisions to play if all the facts were disclosed and on the table.

High school sports has 18 year old kids who are legally American adults deciding on their own whether they want to participate but it also ranges down to 14 or 15 years old who are unaware of the true risks. Is the teenage brain less susceptible to concussions than a kids? Probably, but knowing what damage a concussion can do long-term makes these institutions just a liable for the safety of our kids playing contact sports as it does when they play Pop Warner, lacrosse or Little League baseball.

The news yesterday that actor Robin Williams suffered from the beginnings of Parkinson’s disease coupled with Lewy Body Dementia brings it home how real brain damage issues are for even non-professional sports playing humans.

In fact, LeBron James, easily one of the best athletes on the planet, a true NBA mega-superstar and talented enough football player back in the day that he once dreamed of playing in the NFL, told the public yesterday that he and his wife decided not to allow their kids to play football because of health related issues.

Sports Techie, Our 17-month old toddler son will not be playing youth football either until he is at the age to make the decision on his own which will most likely be in his later teenage years. Flag football and other non-contact sports are super fun and all he needs to get some exercise, master core fundamentals like foot skills and a develop a teamwork mindset.

If FIFA does not solve the youth header issues that face them that may well be a red flag against playing soccer during his brains formative youth years.

I played lacrosse at Whittier College, and played and coached at Redmond high, so I have seen the evolution of concussions over 30 years as an adult and another 18 as a kid.

If the evidence is shared by the medical community such as the CDC here in Atlanta, that wearing a helmet is going to eliminate potential concussions, we will talk further, otherwise, he can rest assured that I and others have taken enough blows to the head to know better than to let his delicate brain do the same thing as a kid.

Remember this, not even (superhero) Captain America is immune to sports related concussion.

See y’all later in Seattle and here in Atlanta.

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