Children’s sports provide exercise, learning to work together, and developing physical skills, but a hidden, previously unknown specter may lie in wait, and it must be taken seriously.

Note: The seriousness of children's related sports brain injuries cannot be ignored, and additional evidence is reinforcing the need for both changes in sports activities and parental education. With these thoughts in mind, I am updating a previous article I wrote in November 2023 in BeingWell.

Kids between the ages of 5 and 12 were more likely to get a concussion from recreation and other non-sport activities, but doctors did not see these injuries for days. In contrast, sports-related concussions in the same age group were seen right away.

From 2000 to 2019, about 6.2 million children went to the emergency room with serious brain injuries caused by consumer products. Traumatic brain injuries linked to consumer products rose from 4.5% of all visits to emergency rooms for consumer products in 2000 to 12.3% in 2019. They happened more often to men than to women.

From 2000 to 2019, the number of traumatic brain injuries in school-aged children rose, peaked in 2012, and then went down for boys but not for girls. The most damage evidence to date is unsuspected brain insults in childhood: CTE.

What Is CTE?

CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a disease that gets worse over time and affects people who have had multiple concussions or traumatic brain injuries. This can happen to players and other people who have been exposed to repeated concussions and head impacts. One idea about what causes CTE is that brain injuries that happen repeatedly cause an abnormal form of the tau protein to build up, which affects the way neurons work.

A study of the brains of 152 individuals who died before they turned 30 and had been diagnosed with CTE indicated they were probably injured during youth sports activities. The players had been in amateur sports like American football, ice hockey, soccer, rugby, and wrestling. One woman with CTE played college soccer. How many young girl soccer players are, at this very moment, being exposed to pre-CTE activities in sports?

If we know that high-impact sports, especially at an early age, can cause later, devastating brain disorders, what would be the reason to not only permit but to encourage children to engage in these sports? It seems indefensible, regardless of the equipment designed to protect them.

Helmets are a feeble attempt to inhibit the head and undeveloped neck, and the brain is unprotected from impact. The brain inside the skull can still sustain a traumatic injury as it is swung back and forth because of external trauma. To my mind, there is nothing that can prevent the brain from moving in this manner and, therefore, result in serious damage, especially in a child.

People who are against keeping kids from playing high-impact sports say that boys are naturally violent and that playing these types of sports helps them learn how to control their feelings. When coaches are overheard telling young boys at football practice that they must "push through" their opponent or "tear their heads off," how is that teaching them to control their feelings? It would appear that they are encouraged to be even more aggressive.

And what about basketball? When commentators proffer that basketball is a physical sport, what do they mean? They mean there's a lot of pushing and high impact in it.

Some people say that boys need to be active because they need room and learn best when moving. However, studies have not shown that boys need to be hurt in the head to become responsible men.

Studies have indicated that brain damage probably starts earlier than we ever knew and are pointing toward children's athletics as one factor. The dangers of high-impact sports to children would seem clear; however, attempts at state levels to ban these types of sports for children have met with resistance.

We have to wonder what would stop a state legislature from imposing a ban on something that is damaging to children. Should we say that's child abuse? We also have to wonder who is behind the defeat of these bills and who is funding these activities.

Once we know kids are being permanently damaged and will probably end their lives either early or, perhaps, by suicide later in life, how do we stand helpless in the face of opposition? How does anyone support the continuation of these activities, as children pay such a high price? Certainly, children have no voice in this and are most probably enthusiastic about continuing to play as their parents wish them to do so.

I knew a man who had unsuccessfully tried for a football scholarship to go to college. He didn't get the scholarship and decided not to go to college. Later in life, he encouraged his sons to join elementary and high school football teams. One son decided on football, while the other chose track and field and other activities. The boys married and had children.

The son who chose football received head trauma and had three concussions. A neurologist told his parents that he should discontinue his football activities because of the danger to his brain. Still, the man encouraged his grandchildren, both boys and girls, to play soccer and football.

The results of the son who played football appeared later in life as unexpected rage attacks. He had to be involuntarily psychiatrically hospitalized for a time. He has, however, been successfully treated with psychotropic medications to control his rages.

Unfortunately, some families see excellence in certain athletics as a way for their child to succeed in a sports activity, such as football, and have a successful career in that activity. Would anyone wish to have their child "succeed" only to develop all the highly disturbing symptoms of CTE and death later in life? What are the disturbing symptoms?

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) can cause depression, lack of judgment, rages, memory loss, and eventually dementia. Plus, these signs do not show up immediately and can be evident up to 10 years after a person stops playing football. No parent wants to sentence their child to dementia, but that may be what they are doing the moment they sign them up for a high-impact sports activity.