How's it a necessity? Public transportation, flying, walking, riding a bike, are all more safe.

How many idiots kill themselves and others driving under the influence compared to those who die because of football? The answer is there's no comparison, and scared parenting aint gonna end football.

If you ask me, the league is not doing enough at all!

There are thousands of things that are potentially dangerous that are not a necessity. It's each parents right to say no to them, whether it be riding ATVs, boxing, MMA, soccer, or gymnastics. Football is the new whipping boy. MMA exploded in the last 10 years and you don't hear a peep about the safety of getting your head beat in with fists, elbows and knees.

Did you see the vid of the south african body builder who snapped his neck trying to do a backflip on a mat? He died. It sure was ugly.

In all fairness, only utter morons think MMA might not be extremely hazardous to your health.

The driving example is silly because you do not have your head knocked about every time you drive, whereas during a game of football, it is pretty much required. Who cares whether it is necessary.

It's not about parenting from a "scared" attitude. It's about being prudent about your kid's activities. You can't too much shelter kids from physical danger because then you run the risk of turning them into adults with dispositions more soft than is appropriate. But my response to Cody, to which he has no good response, is that there are many ways of exposing your kid to physical endurance that requires courage that does not involve the risk of repeated micro-head trauma.

There is nothing especially noble about football. So the risks associated with it outweigh the glory. I'd rather have my kid do, say, BMX racing, which is damn risky, takes balls, but involves less head trauma. Sure, break your arm, wrist, hand a few times en route to glory. But you won't end up possibly a vegetable. Or high school wrestling. I mean, it's not like football is the only option. Now if my kid wants to join the Marines, I won't like it, but now the nobility is real and makes the risk worth it, even beautiful. Football? Who gives a shit, really.

In short, the idea that one must allow his or her kid to engage in a sport that carries a real risk of head trauma in order to teach him endurance, courage, toughness, camaraderie or the idea that if one chooses not to let their child play football that it follows with any scintilla of necessity that they parent "scared" is risible, unimaginative, plodding, and fails even a cursory round of logical analysis.

Gymnastics carries as high a risk as football or MMA for head trauma? Really?

I think those of you taking the 'no football' stance will find it to be easier in theory than in practice. We'll see how you do when 11 year old Steeler fanatic Barry* comes home all fired up to register for 6th grade football with his friends.

* I assume many of you have a son named Barry

Unless you've been indoctrinated with Steve Sabol and NFL films.

I think women's soccer has the 2nd highest rate of concussions in any sport ( that is studied). My guess is that was for team sports since everyone seems to ignore boxing and MMA as a kind of a d'uh.

So far the studies have been with pro football players. Meaning people who have played football for 10+ years. The # of years is probably higher but we can call it 10+. Until their is some study on players at the pee-wee level and high school and then college you cannot know when you might have a danger point. So unless you think your kid is talented enough to make the cut from high school to college, I would not be too worried.

Saying that, you had better have coaches who can A) identify a concussion and B) care enough about the player to pul lthem right then and there.

I've tried to explain to my wife that the chances of our son being good enough to play into college, let alone the NFL are so small, that he is very unlikely to play long enough for brain trauma to be an issue. I mean, because he is the product of the two of us the chances are really, really small.

Does your son play any other sport besides diving? Like a team sport? My daughter plays soccer. She's in 11th grade and has played about 10 years. She was in the concussion protocol last year when she bumped heads with her own goalie, then played the last 20 minutes of the game and then the next day was told to see a doctor. The doctor didn't examine her at all, just wrote that she had a concussion and that they just say that to be safe. She missed two games and then was cleared. Soccer supposedly has a high concussion rate, but I figure she will play this year and next and that's it, she's good enough for her high school team, but I figure there's no way she's good enough for college ball. So she won't be playing another 4 years or going pro. I played high school football, but after senior year, never again did I play real football, so I feel like the problem likely stems from long term play, like 15-20 years? I guess some players get pretty banged up in high school too, but they are probably the exception. But where do you draw the line? Ban sports or any activity where you might get hurt? My daughter also does ballet and one of the girls in her dance class tore knee ligaments dancing. You can't ban everything. Although of all activities that I've tried, football is over the top brutal, it is something where you ALWAYS get hurt to some degree every season, even if it's not enough to put you out of action.