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BY NICK ADAMS
ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN
Hitting is just part of the game right? Well - maybe not anymore. One proposal would take the “contact” out of “contact sports” until players are at least 14 years old.
HOST: “Dr. Robert Cantu is the neurosurgeon who is proposing this idea, the banning of contact sports before the age of 14.”
CANTU: “I’m not asking for the sport to be banned, I’m asking that the head contact part of the sports be banned so the rules need to be changed. I think below the age of 14, it’s just too dangerous to allow our youth be banging heads.”
But it’s not just concussions kids need to be worried about. Dr. Cantu says there’s also the fear of early chronic traumatic encephalopathy. WCVB reports it causes...
“...personality changes, memory loss, depression, even dementia.”
And if someone had it, he or she wouldn’t be able to diagnose themselves because...
“Currently, people living with CTE have no way of knowing it. Diagnosis most often is possible only after death.”
Dustin Fink, a blogger for TheConcussionBlog.com, says he agrees with Dr. Cantu’s proposal but worries the popularity of collision sports means things aren’t likely to change. But he does say...
“...I think everyone that has kids in sports, or soon will, should take a risk-assessment approach.”
And one risk-management approach parenting expert Angela Ardolino is trying to get across... deals with the equipment. Here she is on Tampa ABC-affiliate WFTS.
“It is and it’s not good to go with the cheapest versions of safety equipment even though some of it can be very costly... so make sure it’s really good, it does what it’s suppose to do and that your children understand how to put it on and why they’re wearing it.”
