THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
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SHE SAYS Why take a chance on football or ice hockey? By P. Amy MacKinnon, 2/25/2001
This is the second ''She Says/He Says,'' paired columns that will run occasionally on issues known to divide (or even enrage) couples - particularly married ones.This week's topic: Whether safety-conscious parents should let young children play football or ice hockey. 'm confused. From the moment I saw pink on that home pregnancy test, I've been under the impression that it's my job to keep my son safe. Now that he's reached a certain age - 5 - family and friends think it's time he try his hand at football.
As I told them - Are you kidding me? If the sport requires pads, forget about it.
What is the message we are sending to our children when we encourage them to join such rough sports? I've spent years explaining to my son (and myself) why he shouldn't hit that bully on the playground. Hurting others out of spite, anger, or for the pure fun of it is wrong. Simply because we pad our children or send them to ''checking clinics'' to teach them the proper way to hit in hockey, doesn't make it right.
The National Football League high school Web site has an entire section devoted to safety and health. One widespread injury known as ''The Stinger'' refers to nerve damage sustained when players are tackled - a pretty common occurrence in football.
The NFL Web site also offers this tidbit: ''Mouth guards ... can absorb shocks from blows to the jaw or head and reduce the severity of these blows.'' Why don't we eliminate blows to the head by signing our boys up for tennis instead?
For the record, I'm not completely opposed to contact sports. I played ''powderpuff'' football in high school and intramural football in college - without pads. There's a certain joy in rubbing your friend's face in the mud and shaking hands afterward. But I didn't know then that the risk of concussion and other brain injury in high school football is 20 percent of players per season, according to the Brain Injury Association.
I know that other, less combative sports like basketball and soccer are also plagued with injuries. But in those sports, injury means a sprained ankle, maybe a broken finger. Football is all about knocking around the other kid while the parents yell ''kill 'em!'' from the sidelines, according to my friends in the Pee-Wee league.
Hockey has become no less than a combination of rugby and boxing, with a little professional wrestling thrown in. It's not about scoring goals; the real goal is for a player to see how many times he can check an opponent before being sent to the penalty box. One look at the 30 pounds of pads required to play hockey, and it's obvious this must be a dangerous game. Or look at the other standard equipment: caged masks, hooked sticks, and sharp blades. Sounds more like a scene out of ''Gladiator'' than a fun way for a child to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Face it guys, the real reason you want your sons to play he-man sports is so you can vicariously re-live your own glory days. Except that you can't because your knees are shot, and there's that issue of brain damage. Just ask your wife.
I have worked far too hard to keep my little guy healthy in body and spirit to send him off to battle with the sons of folks who would have felt just as comfortable at the coliseum as they do the rink. Imagine subjecting him to the outbursts of football parents ordering their kids to take out my son by hurtling their 50-pound bodies at him.
Sure I'm over-protective. That's my job as his mother. And I'm not the only one. A Marshfield mom I know has begun scheming to direct her boys to sports like soccer and swimming, even taking to the backyard to kick around the ball with them, hoping they will become passionate about a game that doesn't involve blood and brain matter.
Another friend whose oldest is only 4, after watching him play football with his cousins one afternoon, also quickly decided on some limits for the future.
''Track,'' she said. ''My kids can run track. But no hurdles.''
E-mail MacKinnon at [email protected]. Or continue this conversation online by going to www.boston.com/globe/she-he.
This story ran on page W02 of the Boston Globe on 2/25/2001.
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