Pop Warner alters rules to reduce concussions,

Head-to-head hits are out now, and practice time is limited

In an attempt to cut down on concussion-related injuries, Pop Warner football announced Tuesday that it was banning head-to-head hits and limiting contact in practice to 40 minutes a day. But already there is debate among coaches about whether the measures go too far or not far enough.

Pop Warner has more than 400,000 children ages 5-14 participating in 43 states and overseas. When practice begins in August — first with 10 hours a week and then six hours after Labor Day — coaches will be required to follow new rules.

“I’m not as much concerned about my kid who has played for three years, but I am concerned about the kid who has never played before,” said John Jackson, who is a coach in the Los Angeles suburb of Redondo Beach and was a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears from 1990 to 1996.

“I question if 40 minutes of contact drills is enough time for me to teach the kid the technique properly, because we got limited practice time anyway,” said Jackson, who has a 12-yearold son in the league.

Edward Marshall, the father of three sons, is the co-founder of the Central Oklahoma Pop Warner League, and his concerns include policing the rule changes among 7,500 coaches.

“I don’t know if it’s enough changes right now. That’s probably something I will find out when practice starts,” Marshall said. “It might not be enough, because it’s hard to monitor every coach to make sure that they’re doing that in practice.”

Pop Warner executive director Jon Butler said the new regulations could be just a start as more information becomes available. “Football, in terms of sports, is very capable of evolv- ing and changing appropriately,” Butler said. “If new research comes out, we will continue to change our rules to keep our kids as safe as we can.

“The other thing that gets very interesting is that Pop Warner gets very self-policing, because nobody wants another program to get an advantage.”

The policies come after studies detailing the risks of concussions in football as well as lawsuits filed by more than 2,000 retired players against the NFL alleging the league did not protect them.

At an advisory board meeting Tuesday in Chicago, the nation’s largest and oldest youth football, cheer and dance organization also announced that no fullspeed head-on blocking and no tackling drills that involve players lining up more than 3 yards apart would be allowed.

“The impact of head-to-head contact causes the most severe concussions, so we felt it was imperative that Pop Warner take a proactive approach and limit contact in practices,” said Julian Bailes, chairman of the Pop Warner medical advisory board. “We’re trying to take away all at once the head-tohead contact in practice.”

The rules also state that only two linemen in stances immediately across from each other will be permitted and coaches are allowed to have full-speed drills in which players approach each other at an angle but not straight ahead into each other.

Marshall and other coaches support the changes and longstanding rules as well as Pop Warner’s attempts to make the game safer for kids.

“I love that there’s a weight limit, because I have a son that’s 7 years old but he’s only approximately 40 pounds — maybe 45 pounds at the most — and I just don’t feel comfortable putting him against a kid that’s 125 pounds, even though they’re the same age and in the same grade,” Marshall said.

Mike Webb, executive commissioner of Los Angeles County Pop Warner, said the new rules were a good compromise and a balanced ratio. “You want to have the appropriate balance between instruction,” he said, “but also make certain that safety always comes first.”