Favre Not Sure He’d Let Son Play Football
By Ken Reed
Brett Favre has become the latest former NFL player to say he wouldn’t encourage his son to play football.
“I would be real leery of him playing football,” said Favre on a “Today” show segment with host Matt Lauer.
Favre revealed that he now suffers from memory loss and that he couldn’t remember that his daughter played youth soccer.
Terry Bradshaw also recently said he wouldn’t let his son play football.
“If I had a son today, and I would say this to all our audience and our viewers out there, I would not let him play football,” Bradshaw told Jay Leno while a guest on NBC’s Tonight Show.
“There will be a time in the next decade where we will not see football as it is, I believe,” said the former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback.
Favre and Bradshaw join other high profile quarterbacks, including Troy Aikman and Kurt Warner saying they’d have a hard time encouraging their sons to play football.
Many American parents are starting to feel the same way.
Pop Warner, the nation’s largest youth football organization, saw its participation levels drop 9.5 percent between 2010-12. The organization’s chief medical officer, Dr. Julian Bailes, says the decline is due to the amount of negative attention the NFL has received due to head injuries.
The decline in youth football participation numbers will undoubtedly continue in the coming years.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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