Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Hockey was never really an option for us, but my wife and I actively decided against enrolling our youngest son in football this year as a result of the high risk. My oldest son played rugby and one of his teammates suffered a serious concussion that has had a permanent affect on his day-to-day life.
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Thanks for the response. My son was asked to play high school football this year (small school, few athletes) and we came to same conclusion as you, particularly because he plays hockey and we felt that was too much for his body. He has suffered concussion symptoms once from hockey, in peewee before checking was allowed resulting from a collision in practice. So accidents can happen without checking and contact too. Hockey is a fast game.
To me this question isn't about the NHL and what we as fans think, But the game itself. A game that most of us played, maybe continue to play, and for some of us, a game that our kids and family members play.
I just don't think I could be a serious fan of the game, and devote time and money to it, while at the same time believing it was not something I would want anyone I care about playing. Or maybe I could. Compartmentalizing is not that hard after all.
But really I believe the calls to remove body contact from the game are awfully premature. If we sat in a room, we could probably brainstorm a hundred potential ideas that could reduce the risk of head injuries. I am sure many wouldn't work but really very few things have been done to date. To jump to removing contact from the game doesn't seem too well thought out IMO.