Is Football Harmful to Kids' Character?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses how football can damage student character if programs aren't careful about the culture they create.
Key Takeaways
- Sports culture needs intentional management - Without deliberate effort, football programs can promote aggression and entitlement
- Character development isn't automatic - The claim that sports 'build character' only holds true when coaches prioritize it
- Mitigate the risks - Just as we address physical safety concerns, we need to address the character risks of competitive sports
Transcript
If football is harmful to kids, we just shouldn't have it.
And I firmly believe that sports are good for kids, that football is good for kids.
But as adults, we have to approach it in very specific ways to make sure that it is not harmful.
And we've recognized that physically, right?
There are a lot of protocols in place now for concussions and for injuries and like for tackling in ways that minimize injury, lightning, heat, you know, all of the physical dangers we're working very hard to mitigate.
And there is still a cost.
There is still a risk.
But I think a lot of people would agree that those risks are worth it.
What I want to talk about today, though, is the character risk.
Because if we do not approach sports, and in particular football, where feelings get elevated, where people get really into it, if we don't approach that in a thoughtful way, the net effect on character can be negative.
And we were at a junior high game the other day, and a player from another team, a private school player, punched one of our kids in the stomach after he was already on the ground after the play was over.
And I'm not sure anybody saw it.
The officials didn't see it.
I don't know if anybody on the coaching staff of the other team saw it.
But that just made me stop and think, what are we doing here to form character through sports and yet have a situation where a kid at a private school sucker punches another kid in the stomach while he's down?
Are we missing the point that badly?
that anyone would think that's okay that that kid would think this is the right thing for me to do in the moment and that's not to say that like kids aren't going to make mistakes you know making mistakes and learning from them is part of the point right that is part of the point that you learn how to deal with your feelings that you learn how to deal with your aggression and channel it in appropriate ways so i'm not saying you know that needs to be the end of the road for that kid i think it's a learning experience for that kid but it should be something that makes us step back and say whoa what are we doing here this needs to be a character forming experience in the right direction And if it's not, we've got to really evaluate what we're doing, just as we do for physical safety.
Let me know what you think.