Football Canada making safety No. 1 priority
Move comes as registrations continue to drop in Canadian amateur football leagues
TORONTO — He has played Canadian university football and coached the game, but Todd Smith is waiting before he lets his two sons get on the field.
“I’m not in a rush to put my kids into football just knowing what I know,” said Smith, a father of 12- and eight-year-old boys. “What I’ve told my boys, and they’re probably going to do it because they’re going to be bigger boys, is not to do it until high school.
“I think you let your body develop as much as you can, then go from there.”
It’s not an unpopular belief. Last month, Massachusetts lawmakers introduced a bill banning tackle football until the eighth grade. Smith comes by his caution honestly. He’s a partner and commercial manager with W.N. Atkinson Insurance in Mississauga, Ont., and handles the firm’s sports book. The organization provides insurance for athletic groups and Smith is familiar with the issue of concussions in football and research that links the sport to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition caused by repeated hits to the head.
Surprisingly, Smith — who played at Concordia University in Montreal — said football insurance rates have remained steady.
“I’d say it’s been pretty static over the last 10 years,” he said. “I think what’s happened within football is coaching has improved and you’re seeing less and less issues like you see in the U.S. The old way of doing things is gone.”
Shannon Donovan, Football Canada’s executive director, said the country’s governing body for the sport has seen a decline in tackle registration the past two or three years but couldn’t provide exact figures. However she added the overall numbers have stayed consistent due to the growth of the non-contact game (flag and touch football).
“Yes, I think there’s some concern (with declining numbers),” Donovan said. “But at the same time we’re hoping some of the other programs that still introduce the sport to participants will help grow and keep tackle football a part of the sporting community in Canada.
“We do see the increase is on the non-contact side and hope that introduction to the sport will lead some players to move on to the tackle side.”
A big part of Football Canada’s national coaching certification program (NCCP) is teaching young players safe tackling techniques that emphasize making contact with the chest and front shoulder and not the head.
The Safe Contact training became mandatory for amateur coaches in 2015.
Many organizations have also incorporated more non-contact practices and Football Canada has ruled players can’t play two games within a 72-hour period. Also, many provinces now have flag and/or touch football programs. Football Canada mandated non-contact programs last year for players eight and under.
“We think non-contact really is that pathway to start in the game of football and then move on to tackle at a later age,” she said. “If those (concussion) studies are correct that it does start at an early age, that’s one of the reasons. Another is development-wise, they should be starting later.”
Last year, a study by Boston University’s suggested children who played tackle football before age 12 had cognitive and behavioural issues an average of 13 years earlier than those who began playing at 12 or older. An earlier BU study found playing youth football could double the risk of behavioural problems and triple the potential for depression.
Many Canadian football officials are also keeping an eye on a U.S. lawsuit. Two California mothers are suing Pop Warner — an American youth football program — after their sons committed suicide and were later diagnosed with CTE.
The two men, aged 25 and 24 at the times of their death, both played football growing up.
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