A recently proposed California State Assembly bill that would ban tackle football for children under 12 by 2026 is under fire by North County parents’ rights activists.
“California legislators are having a hearing on Wednesday at 9 a.m. regarding banning youth football for 12 and under,” Templeton parent and school board member Jennifer Grinager said in a Facebook post on Jan. 5. “If they are successful with this, they will likely do the same with other sports.”
The bill—proposed by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) and passed out of the Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism Committee on a 5-2 vote on Jan. 10—is rooted in studies that show high concussion rates in youth tackle football players were detrimental to brain development.
Grinager called the bill government overreach that violated parental rights.
The bill also received attention from the far-right group Moms For Liberty. Grinager founded SLO County’s chapter of the national organization.
“Parents! The state is trying to ban youth tackle football. This is another attack on parental rights,” a Jan. 6 Facebook post from the organization read. “If anyone is available to attend the hearing [in Sacramento] to oppose, we need bodies in seats.”
Grinager—who’s also a Templeton Unified School District board member but spoke to New Times in her capacity as a parent—said that the choice of whether to allow a child to play tackle football should remain up to parents.
“We do not need the government telling us what we can and cannot do as parents,” she said. “Parents should be the final say, especially when we can do the research on our own and come to our conclusions.”
She added that it wasn’t always clear whether tackle football was appropriate for her kids, but that changed with her son.
“Once he started growing it seemed natural that tackling and being active was something that he wanted to do,” she said. “So, I started going to games and doing research on the impressive improvements that were made on helmet tech and realized it wasn’t as scary as I thought.”
Her son has ADHD and high-functioning autism, which she said tackle football helps him deal with day to day.
“He has so much social anxiety,” she said. “So for him to be able to play and work with a team while also having the physical activity—it’s just so important.”
Rugby player Erik Madsen replied to Grinager’s post saying that the bill specifically targets tackle football because of the concerns related to head trauma but other forms of the sport would be unaffected.
“Flag football would still be fine. I doubt that they’d come for other sports, [and are] more than likely to modify rules for player safety if anything,” Madsen said in his reply. “I think this is in regards to all the research coming out regarding CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] and the long-term effects of contact sports over a lifetime of impacts.” Δ
This article appears in Volunteers 2024.
Has Madsen read the research? The studies of 20 cte patients, 2 of which had played football, but only 1 played as a youth? Then they say 10percent as if it were a large amount and do not take into account if tha person had adhd, fell out of trees or rough housed with older brothers. That’s how some of these studies read. Seriously. The research isnt conclusive to tackle football. Maybe Rugby or cheer is good for your athlete and not tackle football. This a family choice, an athletes choice. Not a legislators decision.
These woke, liberal politicians in California are coming for your childhood brain trauma. It’s just a matter of time before they try to take your family’s leaded gasoline and decide that you can’t sell your children into labor at the lumber mill. Do your own research folks. And by that I mean, ignore the research that contradicts your own personal feelings.
It’s still OK for your jr. or high schooler to play. And no, they aren’t coming after the other sports, except maybe rugby, which really isn’t even a thing at U12. The only slippery slope I see this stemming from is cycle helmet laws and vehicle baby seats. And the problem with those is…? Laws like those, and this, are due to parental negligence of ensuring child safety and therefore saving countless lives. It’s unfortunate that we need to enact these to force a no-brainer on parents. (Pun intended)