New York considers ban on youth tackle football

ALBANY, N.Y. – Lawmakers held a hearing this week in New York City on legislation that would prohibit children under 12 from playing tackle football in New York.

Similar proposals have languished in the state Legislature for years, but Tuesday’s hearing comes as criticism of the sport’s safety grows after several high-profile studies linking the sport to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

A study released by the Boston University School of Medicine this month found the longer a person plays tackle football, the more likely they are to feel the effects of the neurodegenerative disease.

“The research has discovered that the single best factor that best drove whether or not they developed CTE is how many years they played tackle football,” said Christopher Nowinski, co-founder of The Concussion Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to raise awareness of the dangers of head injuries.

Nowinski was among officials on both side of the debate who testified at the legislative hearing as lawmakers consider the bill to ban youth football under 12 when they return to the state Capitol in January.

Nowinski said the study found 223 out of 266 former football players had CTE, which has been linked to depression and other cognitive disorders. A player’s risk for developing the disease increased by 30% for each year they played the sport, the study found.

But youth football advocates say the science is inconclusive and argued that such a ban is unfair because new protocols and rules have made the sport safer in recent years. They also pointed how there is no legislation seeking to regulate other sports that carry the risk of concussions.