Why You Should Let Your Kid Play Football

It’s Friday night. Many parents and friends gather around to watch us in our first game of the year. The lights slowly begin to light up the field as we approach the 50-yard line, we toss the coin and the game begins. Down by 7 in the 4th quarter, the wide receiver goes out for a game-winning pass but is hit, “BAM!” He drops to the ground in agonizing pain and cannot get back up.

For this reason, many parents around the world are hesitant to allow their children to play tackle football, but they should be signing them up because studies have shown that playing the sport can benefit young people in many ways.

It’s pretty obvious these days that football is a physical sport that is becoming more popular every year. So, now we have many professional players encouraging the youth to follow in their steps. This isn’t a bad idea, but many parents disagree with the idea of their child playing football because of the potential injuries that come with playing tackle football. But what these parents don’t realize is that enrolling your child to play football can come with a few benefits.

From signing your child up to play football, your child will build a strong work ethic that they can carry into their lives later on, like enjoying to work hard and getting by things done. Also, playing football can help your child with building many strong friendships among the many large amounts of kids that are on each team. Moreover, the most common is that because football is a physically demanding sport, it can improve your child’s speed, agility, strength, hand-eye coordination, and overall cardiovascular endurance (Hewitt, Hunter). Besides, playing football can improve your child’s academics. This is because exercise increases blood flow to the brain and helps the body build more connections between nerves, leading to increased concentration, enhanced memory, stimulated creativity, and better-developed problem-solving skills (Rochester Review: University of Rochester).

Even though playing football comes with many benefits, many parents are focused on the topic of possible injury. This is a big concern when determining if your child will play football this upcoming season, but football is becoming a safer sport as time goes on. With the improvement in hitting and blocking technique to the improvement in bodily protection like helmet and shoulder pads. So parents shouldn’t be as worried about their children when it comes to playing football.

So with the help of this article, hopefully, parents will understand that football is constantly evolving into a safe sport to play. Now you should be prepared when your child approaches you, wanting to play football with all of their friends.

Works Cited

1. “Benefits of Sports to Students.” Rochester Review:: University of Rochester, www.rochester.edu/team/benefits-of-sports-to-students/.
2. Hewitt, Hunter. “8 Benefits for Kids Who Play Football.” active kids, Active.com, 20 Apr. 2016, www.activekids.com/parenting-and-family/articles/8-benefits-for-kids-who-play-football.