Searching a computer for “Football players and brain damage” shows the staggering damage done by playing football. Countless concussions reduce the intellectual ability of players to the point that many are successfully suing their former teams for the damage done to their brains.
A similar search for “Heading soccer balls and brain damage” helps us understand that millions of brains are permanently damaged by that hurtful activity, as well.
Twenty years ago, there were rumors about football and soccer causing brain damage. Now, those rumors are confirmed. The effects of repeated mini-concussions have the worst, longest-term effects on the youngest players.
All agree that child molesters should be jailed. Isn’t it also wrong to encourage a child to play football or soccer and lose intellectual ability for a lifetime from permanent brain damage caused by mini-concussions?
Enthusiasts hide from the truth that brain-damaging sports cause poorer decisions for an entire lifetime. Frankly, one has to ask, are these coaches unable to realize what they are doing?
Are their own minds working too poorly to understand that, no matter how successful former athletes may be, they would have done even better if more of their delicate neural connections had not been broken by countless mini-concussions?
Or, are such thoughts, involving analysis of cause and effect, beyond them? In the final analysis, such coaching jobs involve convincing parents and grandparents that children will be better off with damaged brains. Often, grandparents understand the effects of lowered intellectual ability on lives, families, and careers. They should be striving to protect their grandchildren from having their intellectual abilities reduced for the sake of some silly game or some coach’s job.
Paid professionals pretend there is no problem. “I played those sports and there’s nothing wrong with my brain!” they insist, thinking that denying the clear, scientific evidence is on a par with recognizing it.
