8-year-old dies during football practice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyday_Is_Like_Sunday

 

I live in Kentucky, which isn't a far cry away, and there are several doctors offices around here offering free sport physicals for kids.

And the idea of them allowing an 8-year-old to play tackle football is absolutely ridiculous. No kid is fully developed at that age. Most boys aren't at 12, but at least their bone structure is going to be better equipped to handle it than when they're in the third grade. Flag football is one thing, tackle is a completely different animal.

You start playing tackle at 12/13, you have two good years before you hit high school to get used to it.

And that practice schedule for an eight-year-old is INSANE. Good god. I have a question: how many of your teammates played all four years of high school ball? Because that kind of crap is just ASKING for those kids to be burned out on sports by the time they're 15-16.

Trust me, I've seen it. They are serious about the Little League around here, start getting kids into it super young and have All-Star tournaments and all kinds of pressure and shit. By the time they hit high school, maybe five or six of them is playing baseball. At that age, sports are supposed to be FUN. They aren't supposed to be about work ethic or playbooks or practicing five days a week for two hours. They're supposed to be about having a good time with your friends.

And I say to you: obviously, you've never played the piano. I started playing the piano when I was eight years old and I practiced for two hours a day, six days a week, without my parents having to get on me about it. My junior year of high school, I competed in the state piano competition with a Chopin waltz. I was in youth sports but I practiced more on my piano, clarinet and vocal than I ever did on sports.

Just because eight-year-olds aren't out there trying to be all macho and playing a sport that is too old for them doesn't mean they're the only ones with work ethic.

 

Just to echo what's said here...growing up in Nashville, I started in first grade and pretty much had this exact schedule from 4th grade on... the Green Hills Commodores were a hard-hitting bunch of football players, and we didn't have coaches in the huddle like they do now.

Mark Grace also had this schedule, as I used to play his Una Vols each year until we both joined our middle school teams in 7th grade.

By the time I graduated high school, I had played 12 years of tackle football. There are people in the NFL who can't say that. Gotta love the south!