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Dr. Wilkoff gives all the good reasons for NOT allowing one’s son to play football in his Letters From Maine column entitled “Your son and football” in the December 2014 issue of Pediatric News, and then rationalizes the opposite. As society evolves from gladiators killing their defeated opponents to abolishing boxing as a college sport, so too should we encourage our children to engage in safer sports. Soccer without head-butting and hockey without fighting and body checking would be a good start. There’s no way to make football safe. It just gets more dangerous, as 350-pound gorillas run smack-dab into each other. But humans evolve slowly. We have not been down very long from the trees in evolutionary terms, when the “accepted” way to get a female mate was to club her senseless and carry her off (as the chroniclers of primitive societies have repeatedly shown). Nor do we tolerate dueling, or drawing and quartering or torture any longer. Watching the development of MMA (mixed marital arts) and female boxing just goes to show how primitive and inconsistent we can still be. So, just like Dr. Wilkoff, I confess to being inconsistent, and addicted to watching the genius play of the Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Mannings of football. Maybe we just need a few more centuries to evolve into a civilized society, a bit of help from female leadership to encourage alternative sports to develop. This retired pediatrician, who also was a team football physician, and who also was nonchalant about concussions, now comes down solidly against allowing any of our sons to play football in light of the new scientific evidence. Guess I’m not too old to learn.
Michael L. McCann, M.D.
Duluth, Minn.
Dr. Wilkoff responds: Thanks for your great e-mail. Obviously, we are both conflicted in our own ways. I guess I should have ended my column with the unrealistic wish that football could remain as a sport for young kids so they could play rough and still be protected by their equipment. Then, eliminate it as a division one and professional activity. Obviously, it’s not going to happen because otherwise what would all those folks on their couches do on Saturday and Sunday afternoons?
A benefit of football
Dr. Wilkoff, thank you for being a sane man in a sea of fear and ill thought out conclusions. As a pediatrician for over 40 years and as a postcollegiate football player, I do appreciate the sincere fear of major injuries to any child. However, eliminating a sport because it has some inherent potential for serious damage is not the right answer. All these years I have been preaching both to my patients and to younger physicians the balance of risk versus benefit in all decision making. Now you may or may not agree with me, but the benefits of football experience are tremendous, whether it stops at the high school or the collegiate level. I noticed that you listed many of these benefits of football in your article, but the major one I did not see is the understanding that one’s input into a project, whether football competition or treating a complicated patient, often determines the outcome of the project. Call it “cause and effect” if you like. Certainly one begins learning these lessons in a home in which personal responsibility is stressed, but I wholeheartedly believe that this specific lesson was reinforced time and again during my football upbringing, and I tend to credit a successful career in pediatrics with that education. Just to be as direct as possible, I too played other high school sports, but football was a unique experience in my mind, and I have encouraged my son and grandsons to participate, mainly because the sport and most of the men that gathered around our youth in this area are teachers. They teach hard work, they teach desire for success, and they teach personal responsibility for actions. Yes, we have all viewed those screaming poor sports who occasionally don a coach’s uniform, but they are far less frequent that the good guys who give their time to our children. Thanks again for a well thought out article. Your articles are consistently written well and thoughtful.
Stuart J. Yoffe, M.D.
Brenham, Texas
Dr Wilkoff responds: Thanks for your kind and thoughtful comments. It is hard to get many people to understand the kind of formative experiences that you and I shared playing football. My wife still doesn’t get it.
Each week’s game was a project that involved planning, preparation, cooperation, and commitment to execute.
No to football
Would I let my son play football? No.
A few years ago I had a patient who won a full ride football scholarship to a division 3 college. He wasn’t National Football League material and knew it. He was a brilliant student who majored in engineering and wanted a free education. After a big time concussion in practice his freshman year, he’s had to drop out of college. He can’t do the work anymore.
I’ve been at pediatrics for 35 years and when I ask kids (in front of their parents) why they want to change from soccer to American football, they say it’s because they like the 49ers or Raiders (I practice in the periphery of the San Francisco Bay Area). When I ask them alone, the answer is different –“because I want to hit someone.”
I have a couple of Dads who are coaches and both suggested the answer is to eliminate helmets and protective padding. They think it would make the kids more careful. I worry more about steroids. When you were playing, how many 300 plus pounds opponents did you face? I think the high schools need to do random drug testing.
Some of the local Pop Warner leagues are having trouble getting liability insurance. I suspect that’ll spread to the schools soon as well. In a state such as California, I suspect that schools will drop football as well for insurance reasons soon.
It’s too bad; I’ve enjoyed watching football. But then, when younger, I used to watch and root for Mohammad Ali. Look what’s happened to him. I don’t believe it’s all Parkinson’s disease.
Steve Jacobs M.D.
Modesto, Calif.
Dr. Wilkoff responds: There weren’t any 300 pounders when I played because they couldn’t make the team. There are some pretty hefty guys on our high school team here in Brunswick, but they are more like Pillsbury Doughboys and aren’t going to do much harm. I agree that eliminating helmets and pads makes a lot of sense. Which would make it rugby, a much more interesting game that requires more conditioning.
The bulk of the e-mails I have received about the column have supported football. As I think more about, I think a solution – but not one that will fly – is to eliminate football beyond high school or maybe even middle school when it begins to get ugly and dangerous. Young boys do like to hit, tussle, and knock each other around, and seldom do much harm, with or without equipment.
No to football – again
Nearly everyone in our University of California, Los Angeles, pediatric faculty won’t allow their child to play Pop Warner football. It is just too dangerous.
I fortunately was too thin to play football, but agree completely that athletics were a good influence growing up in a fatherless home in Madison, Wisc. I played tennis and basketball instead.
The American Academy of Pediatrics should take a stand. No kids should play football.
As someone said, everyone in 1936 knew who the heavy weight boxing champion was – now no one knows. My alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, gave up boxing after someone died after a blow to the head.
How many cord transections, concussions, and sudden deaths can we tolerate?
Richard Stiehm, M.D.
Distinguished Research Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Wilkoff responds: I agree that very few people know the names of professional fighters today, but many people (none of them with whom you and I are likely on a first name basis) know the names of successful mixed-martial arts/cage fighters. Now that is a brutal sport. The fact that it is popular should remind us that the desire to watch and participate in those activities runs pretty deep in us – which of course doesn’t make it right.
In response to your question of how many cord transections, concussions, and sudden deaths will we tolerate, I would be interested in your response. If the number is zero, then we have to broaden the discussion to a consideration of what activities we should allow children (particularly boys) to pursue to be physically active and receive the enjoyment that (for lack of a better term) rough housing provides. Zero tolerance can be a double-edged sword.
[Dr. Stiehm responds: Yes to soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, where the object is not to hurt the opponent – unlike boxing and tackle football.
Dr. Wilkoff replies: My perspective is colored by being here in Maine, where football is small time and even smaller in our community. One solution, but of course one that wouldn’t fly, is to make football a sport that ends at or just after middle school. It would allow young children to rough house in the context of a fun game protected by equipment before the g-forces that come with puberty create the serious dangers. Well coached and refereed football needn’t be a sport where one of the goals is to injure.]
An honest column
I want to thank you for your column entitled “Your son and football.” I am a pediatric primary care sports physician who runs a sports medicine clinic and a concussion clinic through Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin. I am happy that you wrote about pro football and youth sports honestly – the perceived lack of moral character of many professional athletes and the craziness / win at all costs attitude of some youth coaches (and parents). And the fact that most kids will not become professional athletes. I believe treating kids just like a “collegiate or pro athlete” is a disservice to the child, as they are not at that level of emotional or physical maturity. I like the benefits of football and other contact sports – when taught and coached well, played well, and done under the realistic vision that this is for fun, and you learn life’s lessons and how to compete, win, and lose – not just done to win and earn a scholarship.
Kevin D. Walter, M.D.
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee
Sports role models
It is too bad Maine, where Dr. Wilkoff lives, does not have a professional sports team; Peyton Manning, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos, is one of the most “admirable role models in the ranks of high-profile athletes.” He is well respected and loved both here and still in the Indianapolis area and in Tennessee, where he played college football. Missy Franklin, a high profile athlete, just finished a day visiting patients at Children’s Hospital of Colorado. It was on the news last night. She is beloved here in Colorado for her smile, enthusiasm, professionalism, kindness, and overall just for being a wonderful person and amazing athlete. Although the high-profile headlines dominate, the acts of kindness and compassion by many athletes at many levels are not covered to the same degree.
It has been shown that high school and college athletes do better than their counterparts in school. My daughter was a swimmer in high school and thus avoided the drug crowd for which her class was known locally. I hope Dr. Wilkoff’s son learns the same lessons so many athletes learn in competition: teamwork, hard work, meeting and exceeding goals, and learning to deal with disappointment and victory – lessons that are hard to learn in the classroom. He will be a better person for that.
Stephen Fries, M.D.
Boulder, Colo.
Dr. Wilkoff responds: I agree there are still some shining stars in pro sports, but it seems to me that they are badly overshadowed by the bad apples. That may simply be a function of media exposure, but that’s what the kids see. My son was and still is at age 39 a hockey player and a fine young man in some part because of his athletic past.
Dr. Wilkoff gives all the good reasons for NOT allowing one’s son to play football in his Letters From Maine column entitled “Your son and football” in the December 2014 issue of Pediatric News, and then rationalizes the opposite. As society evolves from gladiators killing their defeated opponents to abolishing boxing as a college sport, so too should we encourage our children to engage in safer sports. Soccer without head-butting and hockey without fighting and body checking would be a good start. There’s no way to make football safe. It just gets more dangerous, as 350-pound gorillas run smack-dab into each other. But humans evolve slowly. We have not been down very long from the trees in evolutionary terms, when the “accepted” way to get a female mate was to club her senseless and carry her off (as the chroniclers of primitive societies have repeatedly shown). Nor do we tolerate dueling, or drawing and quartering or torture any longer. Watching the development of MMA (mixed marital arts) and female boxing just goes to show how primitive and inconsistent we can still be. So, just like Dr. Wilkoff, I confess to being inconsistent, and addicted to watching the genius play of the Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Mannings of football. Maybe we just need a few more centuries to evolve into a civilized society, a bit of help from female leadership to encourage alternative sports to develop. This retired pediatrician, who also was a team football physician, and who also was nonchalant about concussions, now comes down solidly against allowing any of our sons to play football in light of the new scientific evidence. Guess I’m not too old to learn.
Michael L. McCann, M.D.
Duluth, Minn.
Dr. Wilkoff responds: Thanks for your great e-mail. Obviously, we are both conflicted in our own ways. I guess I should have ended my column with the unrealistic wish that football could remain as a sport for young kids so they could play rough and still be protected by their equipment. Then, eliminate it as a division one and professional activity. Obviously, it’s not going to happen because otherwise what would all those folks on their couches do on Saturday and Sunday afternoons?
A benefit of football
Dr. Wilkoff, thank you for being a sane man in a sea of fear and ill thought out conclusions. As a pediatrician for over 40 years and as a postcollegiate football player, I do appreciate the sincere fear of major injuries to any child. However, eliminating a sport because it has some inherent potential for serious damage is not the right answer. All these years I have been preaching both to my patients and to younger physicians the balance of risk versus benefit in all decision making. Now you may or may not agree with me, but the benefits of football experience are tremendous, whether it stops at the high school or the collegiate level. I noticed that you listed many of these benefits of football in your article, but the major one I did not see is the understanding that one’s input into a project, whether football competition or treating a complicated patient, often determines the outcome of the project. Call it “cause and effect” if you like. Certainly one begins learning these lessons in a home in which personal responsibility is stressed, but I wholeheartedly believe that this specific lesson was reinforced time and again during my football upbringing, and I tend to credit a successful career in pediatrics with that education. Just to be as direct as possible, I too played other high school sports, but football was a unique experience in my mind, and I have encouraged my son and grandsons to participate, mainly because the sport and most of the men that gathered around our youth in this area are teachers. They teach hard work, they teach desire for success, and they teach personal responsibility for actions. Yes, we have all viewed those screaming poor sports who occasionally don a coach’s uniform, but they are far less frequent that the good guys who give their time to our children. Thanks again for a well thought out article. Your articles are consistently written well and thoughtful.
Stuart J. Yoffe, M.D.
Brenham, Texas
Dr Wilkoff responds: Thanks for your kind and thoughtful comments. It is hard to get many people to understand the kind of formative experiences that you and I shared playing football. My wife still doesn’t get it.
Each week’s game was a project that involved planning, preparation, cooperation, and commitment to execute.
No to football
Would I let my son play football? No.
A few years ago I had a patient who won a full ride football scholarship to a division 3 college. He wasn’t National Football League material and knew it. He was a brilliant student who majored in engineering and wanted a free education. After a big time concussion in practice his freshman year, he’s had to drop out of college. He can’t do the work anymore.
I’ve been at pediatrics for 35 years and when I ask kids (in front of their parents) why they want to change from soccer to American football, they say it’s because they like the 49ers or Raiders (I practice in the periphery of the San Francisco Bay Area). When I ask them alone, the answer is different –“because I want to hit someone.”
I have a couple of Dads who are coaches and both suggested the answer is to eliminate helmets and protective padding. They think it would make the kids more careful. I worry more about steroids. When you were playing, how many 300 plus pounds opponents did you face? I think the high schools need to do random drug testing.
Some of the local Pop Warner leagues are having trouble getting liability insurance. I suspect that’ll spread to the schools soon as well. In a state such as California, I suspect that schools will drop football as well for insurance reasons soon.
It’s too bad; I’ve enjoyed watching football. But then, when younger, I used to watch and root for Mohammad Ali. Look what’s happened to him. I don’t believe it’s all Parkinson’s disease.
Steve Jacobs M.D.
Modesto, Calif.
Dr. Wilkoff responds: There weren’t any 300 pounders when I played because they couldn’t make the team. There are some pretty hefty guys on our high school team here in Brunswick, but they are more like Pillsbury Doughboys and aren’t going to do much harm. I agree that eliminating helmets and pads makes a lot of sense. Which would make it rugby, a much more interesting game that requires more conditioning.
The bulk of the e-mails I have received about the column have supported football. As I think more about, I think a solution – but not one that will fly – is to eliminate football beyond high school or maybe even middle school when it begins to get ugly and dangerous. Young boys do like to hit, tussle, and knock each other around, and seldom do much harm, with or without equipment.
No to football – again
Nearly everyone in our University of California, Los Angeles, pediatric faculty won’t allow their child to play Pop Warner football. It is just too dangerous.
I fortunately was too thin to play football, but agree completely that athletics were a good influence growing up in a fatherless home in Madison, Wisc. I played tennis and basketball instead.
The American Academy of Pediatrics should take a stand. No kids should play football.
As someone said, everyone in 1936 knew who the heavy weight boxing champion was – now no one knows. My alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, gave up boxing after someone died after a blow to the head.
How many cord transections, concussions, and sudden deaths can we tolerate?
Richard Stiehm, M.D.
Distinguished Research Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Wilkoff responds: I agree that very few people know the names of professional fighters today, but many people (none of them with whom you and I are likely on a first name basis) know the names of successful mixed-martial arts/cage fighters. Now that is a brutal sport. The fact that it is popular should remind us that the desire to watch and participate in those activities runs pretty deep in us – which of course doesn’t make it right.
In response to your question of how many cord transections, concussions, and sudden deaths will we tolerate, I would be interested in your response. If the number is zero, then we have to broaden the discussion to a consideration of what activities we should allow children (particularly boys) to pursue to be physically active and receive the enjoyment that (for lack of a better term) rough housing provides. Zero tolerance can be a double-edged sword.
[Dr. Stiehm responds: Yes to soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, where the object is not to hurt the opponent – unlike boxing and tackle football.
Dr. Wilkoff replies: My perspective is colored by being here in Maine, where football is small time and even smaller in our community. One solution, but of course one that wouldn’t fly, is to make football a sport that ends at or just after middle school. It would allow young children to rough house in the context of a fun game protected by equipment before the g-forces that come with puberty create the serious dangers. Well coached and refereed football needn’t be a sport where one of the goals is to injure.]
An honest column
I want to thank you for your column entitled “Your son and football.” I am a pediatric primary care sports physician who runs a sports medicine clinic and a concussion clinic through Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin. I am happy that you wrote about pro football and youth sports honestly – the perceived lack of moral character of many professional athletes and the craziness / win at all costs attitude of some youth coaches (and parents). And the fact that most kids will not become professional athletes. I believe treating kids just like a “collegiate or pro athlete” is a disservice to the child, as they are not at that level of emotional or physical maturity. I like the benefits of football and other contact sports – when taught and coached well, played well, and done under the realistic vision that this is for fun, and you learn life’s lessons and how to compete, win, and lose – not just done to win and earn a scholarship.
Kevin D. Walter, M.D.
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee
Sports role models
It is too bad Maine, where Dr. Wilkoff lives, does not have a professional sports team; Peyton Manning, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos, is one of the most “admirable role models in the ranks of high-profile athletes.” He is well respected and loved both here and still in the Indianapolis area and in Tennessee, where he played college football. Missy Franklin, a high profile athlete, just finished a day visiting patients at Children’s Hospital of Colorado. It was on the news last night. She is beloved here in Colorado for her smile, enthusiasm, professionalism, kindness, and overall just for being a wonderful person and amazing athlete. Although the high-profile headlines dominate, the acts of kindness and compassion by many athletes at many levels are not covered to the same degree.
It has been shown that high school and college athletes do better than their counterparts in school. My daughter was a swimmer in high school and thus avoided the drug crowd for which her class was known locally. I hope Dr. Wilkoff’s son learns the same lessons so many athletes learn in competition: teamwork, hard work, meeting and exceeding goals, and learning to deal with disappointment and victory – lessons that are hard to learn in the classroom. He will be a better person for that.
Stephen Fries, M.D.
Boulder, Colo.
Dr. Wilkoff responds: I agree there are still some shining stars in pro sports, but it seems to me that they are badly overshadowed by the bad apples. That may simply be a function of media exposure, but that’s what the kids see. My son was and still is at age 39 a hockey player and a fine young man in some part because of his athletic past.
Dr. Wilkoff gives all the good reasons for NOT allowing one’s son to play football in his Letters From Maine column entitled “Your son and football” in the December 2014 issue of Pediatric News, and then rationalizes the opposite. As society evolves from gladiators killing their defeated opponents to abolishing boxing as a college sport, so too should we encourage our children to engage in safer sports. Soccer without head-butting and hockey without fighting and body checking would be a good start. There’s no way to make football safe. It just gets more dangerous, as 350-pound gorillas run smack-dab into each other. But humans evolve slowly. We have not been down very long from the trees in evolutionary terms, when the “accepted” way to get a female mate was to club her senseless and carry her off (as the chroniclers of primitive societies have repeatedly shown). Nor do we tolerate dueling, or drawing and quartering or torture any longer. Watching the development of MMA (mixed marital arts) and female boxing just goes to show how primitive and inconsistent we can still be. So, just like Dr. Wilkoff, I confess to being inconsistent, and addicted to watching the genius play of the Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Mannings of football. Maybe we just need a few more centuries to evolve into a civilized society, a bit of help from female leadership to encourage alternative sports to develop. This retired pediatrician, who also was a team football physician, and who also was nonchalant about concussions, now comes down solidly against allowing any of our sons to play football in light of the new scientific evidence. Guess I’m not too old to learn.
Michael L. McCann, M.D.
Duluth, Minn.
Dr. Wilkoff responds: Thanks for your great e-mail. Obviously, we are both conflicted in our own ways. I guess I should have ended my column with the unrealistic wish that football could remain as a sport for young kids so they could play rough and still be protected by their equipment. Then, eliminate it as a division one and professional activity. Obviously, it’s not going to happen because otherwise what would all those folks on their couches do on Saturday and Sunday afternoons?
A benefit of football
Dr. Wilkoff, thank you for being a sane man in a sea of fear and ill thought out conclusions. As a pediatrician for over 40 years and as a postcollegiate football player, I do appreciate the sincere fear of major injuries to any child. However, eliminating a sport because it has some inherent potential for serious damage is not the right answer. All these years I have been preaching both to my patients and to younger physicians the balance of risk versus benefit in all decision making. Now you may or may not agree with me, but the benefits of football experience are tremendous, whether it stops at the high school or the collegiate level. I noticed that you listed many of these benefits of football in your article, but the major one I did not see is the understanding that one’s input into a project, whether football competition or treating a complicated patient, often determines the outcome of the project. Call it “cause and effect” if you like. Certainly one begins learning these lessons in a home in which personal responsibility is stressed, but I wholeheartedly believe that this specific lesson was reinforced time and again during my football upbringing, and I tend to credit a successful career in pediatrics with that education. Just to be as direct as possible, I too played other high school sports, but football was a unique experience in my mind, and I have encouraged my son and grandsons to participate, mainly because the sport and most of the men that gathered around our youth in this area are teachers. They teach hard work, they teach desire for success, and they teach personal responsibility for actions. Yes, we have all viewed those screaming poor sports who occasionally don a coach’s uniform, but they are far less frequent that the good guys who give their time to our children. Thanks again for a well thought out article. Your articles are consistently written well and thoughtful.
Stuart J. Yoffe, M.D.
Brenham, Texas
Dr Wilkoff responds: Thanks for your kind and thoughtful comments. It is hard to get many people to understand the kind of formative experiences that you and I shared playing football. My wife still doesn’t get it.
Each week’s game was a project that involved planning, preparation, cooperation, and commitment to execute.
No to football
Would I let my son play football? No.
A few years ago I had a patient who won a full ride football scholarship to a division 3 college. He wasn’t National Football League material and knew it. He was a brilliant student who majored in engineering and wanted a free education. After a big time concussion in practice his freshman year, he’s had to drop out of college. He can’t do the work anymore.
I’ve been at pediatrics for 35 years and when I ask kids (in front of their parents) why they want to change from soccer to American football, they say it’s because they like the 49ers or Raiders (I practice in the periphery of the San Francisco Bay Area). When I ask them alone, the answer is different –“because I want to hit someone.”
I have a couple of Dads who are coaches and both suggested the answer is to eliminate helmets and protective padding. They think it would make the kids more careful. I worry more about steroids. When you were playing, how many 300 plus pounds opponents did you face? I think the high schools need to do random drug testing.
Some of the local Pop Warner leagues are having trouble getting liability insurance. I suspect that’ll spread to the schools soon as well. In a state such as California, I suspect that schools will drop football as well for insurance reasons soon.
It’s too bad; I’ve enjoyed watching football. But then, when younger, I used to watch and root for Mohammad Ali. Look what’s happened to him. I don’t believe it’s all Parkinson’s disease.
Steve Jacobs M.D.
Modesto, Calif.
Dr. Wilkoff responds: There weren’t any 300 pounders when I played because they couldn’t make the team. There are some pretty hefty guys on our high school team here in Brunswick, but they are more like Pillsbury Doughboys and aren’t going to do much harm. I agree that eliminating helmets and pads makes a lot of sense. Which would make it rugby, a much more interesting game that requires more conditioning.
The bulk of the e-mails I have received about the column have supported football. As I think more about, I think a solution – but not one that will fly – is to eliminate football beyond high school or maybe even middle school when it begins to get ugly and dangerous. Young boys do like to hit, tussle, and knock each other around, and seldom do much harm, with or without equipment.
No to football – again
Nearly everyone in our University of California, Los Angeles, pediatric faculty won’t allow their child to play Pop Warner football. It is just too dangerous.
I fortunately was too thin to play football, but agree completely that athletics were a good influence growing up in a fatherless home in Madison, Wisc. I played tennis and basketball instead.
The American Academy of Pediatrics should take a stand. No kids should play football.
As someone said, everyone in 1936 knew who the heavy weight boxing champion was – now no one knows. My alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, gave up boxing after someone died after a blow to the head.
How many cord transections, concussions, and sudden deaths can we tolerate?
Richard Stiehm, M.D.
Distinguished Research Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Wilkoff responds: I agree that very few people know the names of professional fighters today, but many people (none of them with whom you and I are likely on a first name basis) know the names of successful mixed-martial arts/cage fighters. Now that is a brutal sport. The fact that it is popular should remind us that the desire to watch and participate in those activities runs pretty deep in us – which of course doesn’t make it right.
In response to your question of how many cord transections, concussions, and sudden deaths will we tolerate, I would be interested in your response. If the number is zero, then we have to broaden the discussion to a consideration of what activities we should allow children (particularly boys) to pursue to be physically active and receive the enjoyment that (for lack of a better term) rough housing provides. Zero tolerance can be a double-edged sword.
[Dr. Stiehm responds: Yes to soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, where the object is not to hurt the opponent – unlike boxing and tackle football.
Dr. Wilkoff replies: My perspective is colored by being here in Maine, where football is small time and even smaller in our community. One solution, but of course one that wouldn’t fly, is to make football a sport that ends at or just after middle school. It would allow young children to rough house in the context of a fun game protected by equipment before the g-forces that come with puberty create the serious dangers. Well coached and refereed football needn’t be a sport where one of the goals is to injure.]
An honest column
I want to thank you for your column entitled “Your son and football.” I am a pediatric primary care sports physician who runs a sports medicine clinic and a concussion clinic through Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin. I am happy that you wrote about pro football and youth sports honestly – the perceived lack of moral character of many professional athletes and the craziness / win at all costs attitude of some youth coaches (and parents). And the fact that most kids will not become professional athletes. I believe treating kids just like a “collegiate or pro athlete” is a disservice to the child, as they are not at that level of emotional or physical maturity. I like the benefits of football and other contact sports – when taught and coached well, played well, and done under the realistic vision that this is for fun, and you learn life’s lessons and how to compete, win, and lose – not just done to win and earn a scholarship.
Kevin D. Walter, M.D.
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee
Sports role models
It is too bad Maine, where Dr. Wilkoff lives, does not have a professional sports team; Peyton Manning, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos, is one of the most “admirable role models in the ranks of high-profile athletes.” He is well respected and loved both here and still in the Indianapolis area and in Tennessee, where he played college football. Missy Franklin, a high profile athlete, just finished a day visiting patients at Children’s Hospital of Colorado. It was on the news last night. She is beloved here in Colorado for her smile, enthusiasm, professionalism, kindness, and overall just for being a wonderful person and amazing athlete. Although the high-profile headlines dominate, the acts of kindness and compassion by many athletes at many levels are not covered to the same degree.
It has been shown that high school and college athletes do better than their counterparts in school. My daughter was a swimmer in high school and thus avoided the drug crowd for which her class was known locally. I hope Dr. Wilkoff’s son learns the same lessons so many athletes learn in competition: teamwork, hard work, meeting and exceeding goals, and learning to deal with disappointment and victory – lessons that are hard to learn in the classroom. He will be a better person for that.
Stephen Fries, M.D.
Boulder, Colo.
Dr. Wilkoff responds: I agree there are still some shining stars in pro sports, but it seems to me that they are badly overshadowed by the bad apples. That may simply be a function of media exposure, but that’s what the kids see. My son was and still is at age 39 a hockey player and a fine young man in some part because of his athletic past.
