Football, not for my boy!

RECENTLY, football has become a hot topic among some of my mom friends. Many can't wait to sign up their 5- and 6-year-old sons to play the game.

Much to everyone's surprise, when I was asked about when my son, Darius, would start playing football, I responded with an emphatic, "No, nada, nope. Not happening. Not on my watch."

"What, Miss Fitness?" someone said, with a tinge of sarcasm. "And just why don't you want your son to play football?"

Well, for starters, I parried back: "Why in the world would I consciously encourage my son to participate in the most violent sport in the world, which, by the way, also has a high probability of leaving him broke, broken and brain damaged?"

"Brain damaged?" another friend chimed in.

"Yeah," I said. "Where have you been? Haven't you seen the laundry list of NFL players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy [CTE]? Not to mention, the unprecedented number of youth concussions and rash of youth deaths due to football."

With all that we know now, there's no denying that football can have a devastating effect on players, no matter their age. Which raises the question: Why is anybody signing her kid up for this? Just in case you forgot, here's a short list of some of the recent youth-football casualties:

Remember in Illinois, the 2002 death of a 10-year-old girl, Taylor Davison, who died after suffering a head injury during a football practice?

What about 15-year-old Quadaar White, who died in 2010 at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia after he suffered a head injury at a football practice?

Just last year, 12-year-old Jeremiah "Lil J" Pierce collapsed on the field during football practice in South Jersey. And three more youths suffered brain injuries and lost their lives: Isaiah Langston, 17, of North Carolina; Charles Henderson, 17, of Alabama; and Tom Cutinella, 16, of Long Island.

These incidents speak to a larger issue: We are in denial and putting many lives at unnecessary risk for a game.

But don't take my word for it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, there are an estimated 300,000 sports-related brain injuries every year. Sports-related injuries send 2.6 million children and young adults to emergency rooms each year, according to the CDC.

It should come as no surprise that the numbers and rates are highest for youth football. Although kids can get injured in almost any sport, football is rooted in collision. Football bruises, strains, sprains, pulls and tears, breaks bones, ruptures internal organs, breaks backs and shreds ligaments, and causes concussions and brain damage.

And it also has a cumulative effect. There are now countless NFL horror stories of steroid and drug abuse, suicides, brain bleeds, CTE, dementia, Alzheimer's, endless debt, lawsuits and broken lives.

I was reduced to tears when I saw a 2004 ESPN documentary on the great running back Earl Campbell. In 2004, Campbell was 49 at the time and the segment showed how the years of repeated abuse had left Campbell with severe arthritis in his knees and back pain so severe that it took him nearly 30 minutes to walk up the stairs in his home.

Then there's the Washington Post survey of more than 500 NFL retirees that found that fewer than half would recommend that children play football. I think that speaks volumes. And if football is so great, why aren't the owners' kids out there on the field playing and learning all of those valuable life lessons being part of a team?

"OK, Kimberly, well what about scholarships?" chimed in another mom. "Sports scholarships are a great way for our boys to get a good education."

"Yeah, you think?" I replied. Get real. According to collegesolutions.com, only about 2 percent of high-school seniors receive any sports scholarships to college, and most football and basketball players on scholarship spend about 85 percent of their time on the field, not in the classroom. Too many college athletes leave either with a worthless degree or with no degree at all.

As for making it all the way to the pros? The odds are pretty bleak.

So, trust your common sense that the fears about the dangers of football are justified. Do we really need more research to know that repeated blows to the head will have permanent effects? Let's keep it real!