By Ken Reed
Flag football is the fastest growing sport in the United States, according to a recent survey conducted by USA Football. From 2014 to 2015, flag football participation grew by 8.7%, for children ages six to 14. One youth sports organization, i9 Sports has seen a 46% growth in participation for its flag […]
Continue Reading →: Youth and High School Flag Football Growing in Popularity
By Ken Reed
A University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health study has found that high school athletes that specialize in one sport sustain lower-extremity injuries at a significantly higher rate than athletes who don’t specialize in a single sport.
“While we have long believed that sport specialization by high school athletes […]
Continue Reading →: The Case Builds Against Youth Sports Specialization
By Ralph Nader, Kenneth Reed
Chicago Tribune
November 8, 2016
According to the Brain Injury Research Institute, 20 percent of this country’s high school football players suffer brain injuries in any given season.
That number should be unacceptable to all of us.
And it’s not just diagnosed brain injuries we need to […]
Continue Reading →: Commentary: The X’s and O’s of brain injury and youth football
By Ken Reed
Kevin Turner, a veteran NFL player, died from the most advanced stage of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease linked to repetitive head trauma.
He was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in 2010 and died earlier this year — from CTE not ALS.
“The severity of Mr. Turner’s CTE was […]
Continue Reading →: Former NFL Player Kevin Turner Died From CTE not ALS
By Ken Reed
New York State Supreme Court judge Jeffrey K. Oing issued an order Monday that could help determine whether or not the National Football League knew about the dangers of concussions for years before those dangers became widely known and deliberately concealed facts about brain trauma from its own players.
The NFL […]
Continue Reading →: Judge Tells NFL to Reveal Concussion Secrets
By Ken Reed
A new study concludes that heading in soccer can cause brain damage.
The United Kingdom study, published by EBioMedicine, is the first to detect neurological changes caused by sub-concussive impacts such as heading. Changes in motor response and memory were observed in the study participants, ages 19 to 25.
“For the […]
Continue Reading →: The Case Against Heading in Soccer Builds
By Ken Reed
The Huffington Post
October 25, 2016
Ego-based thinking, attitudes and behaviors are at the root of the win-at-all-costs (WAAC) mentality that warps sport at its best.
Let’s start with a look at the WAAC approach to sports.
The WAAC mentality sees sport as a metaphor for war, in which […]
By Ken Reed
The common belief is that the United States is a sports-mad country. That’s not true. We’re a sports-spectator-mad country. We’re couch potatoes who much prefer watching sporting events — live or on TV — to actually participating in them.
Sadly, that’s also true for our children.
In a new study […]
Continue Reading →: American Kids Rank 47th Out of 50 Countries in Fitness
By Ken Reed
The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin recently wrote a compelling short piece about a First Amendment case heard by the Supreme Court in 1946. The case, West Virginia State Board v. Barnette, provides a great defense of the freedom of expression. It’s also a case that’s relevant to today’s debate about Colin […]
Continue Reading →: Former Supreme Court Justice’s Opinion Fits Today’s Kaepernick Situation
By Ken Reed
Earlier this week, the Nevada state senate approved giving Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis $750 million towards a new Las Vegas sports palace for his team to play in. If the state assembly also votes to approve the deal, it would be the largest public subsidy ever for an American stadium […]
Continue Reading →: Vegas Politicians Close To Handing NFL Billionaire Owner $750 Million