SHOULD KIDS PLAY (AMERICAN) FOOTBALL?

In recent years, Pop Warner, the world's largest youth football organization, has seen its numbers decline. This decline is due to concerns about new research establishing a link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a debilitating neurodegenerative disease. Hundreds of thousands of parents are now struggling with a difficult ethical issue: should kids play football? Since parents have an obligation to help children develop the capacities required for autonomous choice, the risks posed by football establish a strong presumption against allowing kids to play the game. I consider whether this presumption can be defeated by the arguments for allowing kids to play dangerous sports offered by John Russell in his papers 'The Value of Dangerous Sport' and Children and Dangerous Sport and Recreation'. While Russell does not argue that kids should be permitted to play football, and agrees that some sports may be too risky for children, he argues that kids should often be allowed to participate in extraordinarily risky sports. I contend that the reasons given in support of this position fail to defeat the presumption against allowing kids to play football. Thus, in the absence of further argument, or radical changes to the game, children should not play football.