Seven young football players ranging in age from 13 to 16 years old died in August, sounding alarm bells for parents everywhere.
The underlying causes of these deaths ranged from heatstroke to head injuries.
“The way I advise parents on youth sports is, we absolutely want our kids playing sports and team sports. They do wonderful things for their physical and neurological and mental development. But what we don’t need and what we have, what we should get rid of is our children getting hit in the head hundreds of times a year,” Chris Nowinski, a neuroscientist, author, and retired professional wrestler, who has extensively researched concussions in American football, told PBS News.
“What I would recommend parents do before they get into equipment is have a conversation with their child’s football coach about how they practice. The conversation that we’re not having at any level outside of the NFL is, we can change practice and get rid of probably half the head impacts, half the risk if we just make a commitment to teaching kids how to play football successfully without them getting hit in the head every day.”
Fox 4 KDFW reports on the tragic events and what’s being done to protect other children. Here’s the start of the story:
The football-related deaths of seven middle and high school students in August alone is prompting warnings from parents and others to take sport safety measures more seriously.
The seven deceased include 13-year-old Cohen Craddock of West Virginia, 16-year-old Caden Tellier of Alabama, 15-year-old Jayvion Taylor of Virginia, 14-year-old Semaj Wilkins of Alabama, 15-year-old Robert James Gillon III of Florida, 16-year-old Leslie Noble of Maryland and 15-year-old Ovet Gomez-Regalado of Kansas.
The circumstances of their deaths range from heatstroke to chest pains to head injuries.
“I refer to him as Mr. Personality, great kid, wanted everybody to like him. He just wanted to be happy,” Cohen’s father, Robert Craddock, told Fox News Digital of his son. “Loved sports, hunting, fishing, he was a very social person, very big into church. Just a great, great kid, I couldn’t be more proud of him as a father.”
Robert Craddock said Cohen was going on his second year of football when he sustained a deadly head injury at practice on Aug. 23.