Bronx Legislator To Try To Tackle Youth Football

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Published on January 12, 2014, 9:18 am
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A Bronx assemblyman’s bill to ban tackle football for younger children is gaining support in Albany but is sending ripples of concern through the ranks of youth-football-league coaches.

The law would make it illegal for children in the state under the age of 14 to play tackle football. The statute would be the first of its kind in the United States.

The bill’s author, Democratic Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, cites research from a doctor at Boston University who found that even lower-impact hits to the head can cause damage to still-developing brains over time.

“Kids at a younger age can play touch or flag football and then ease into tackle,” said Mr. Benedetto. The assemblyman said he has at least a half-dozen co-sponsors for the legislation in the Assembly but does not yet have a sponsor in the Senate.

The proposed law has sparked outrage among youth-football-league coaches, who call it a “ridiculous overreaction.”

 

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Jonas Bronck is the pseudonym under which we publish and manage the content and operations of The Bronx Daily.™ | Bronx.com - the largest daily news publication in the borough of "the" Bronx with over 1.5 million annual readers. Publishing under the alias Jonas Bronck is our humble way of paying tribute to the person, whose name lives on in the name of our beloved borough.