Football risks outweigh benefits for children: Your Say

NFL Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders advised parents to know the risks before letting children play football (“Should you let your kids play football?”). Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

From the piece: “The gridiron may be the world’s best classroom for teaching teamwork, communication, hard work and goal-setting.”

There are other, safer ways to get those very same benefits. Beyond its popularity and cool factor, there’s nothing special about football that makes it any better at teaching those lessons.

As far as organized sports for youths are concerned, there are a great many things that limit child development, such as parents, coaches and sponsors who take all of the real leadership roles away from the kids.

— Mark Doiron

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Barry Sanders is definitely one of the greatest and still doing great things! Kudos to him and continued success in his mission to bring light and information to the issue of player health and brain injury.

— Mark Smith

Sanders’ column is a good public service announcement. I didn’t know about the neurological condition called pseudobulbar affect, which can be a lasting effect from repeated concussions. I suspect I am not alone. Hopefully, the awareness Sanders is bringing to PBA will help a lot of people.

— Dagerow Nu