Dr. Wilkoff gives all the good reasons for NOT allowing one’s son to play football in his Letters From Maine column entitled “Your son and football” in the December 2014 issue of Pediatric News, and then rationalizes the opposite. As society evolves from gladiators killing their defeated opponents to abolishing boxing as a college sport, so too should we encourage our children to engage in safer sports. Soccer without head-butting and hockey without fighting and body checking would be a good start. There’s no way to make football safe. It just gets more dangerous, as 350-pound gorillas run smack-dab into each other. But humans evolve slowly. We have not been down very long from the trees in evolutionary terms, when the “accepted” way to get a female mate was to club her senseless and carry her off (as the chroniclers of primitive societies have repeatedly shown). Nor do we tolerate dueling, or drawing and quartering or torture any longer. Watching the development of MMA (mixed marital arts) and female boxing just goes to show how primitive and inconsistent we can still be. So, just like Dr. Wilkoff, I confess to being inconsistent, and addicted to watching the genius play of the Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Mannings of football. Maybe we just need a few more centuries to evolve into a civilized society, a bit of help from female leadership to encourage alternative sports to develop. This retired pediatrician, who also was a team football physician, and who also was nonchalant about concussions, now comes down solidly against allowing any of our sons to play football in light of the new scientific evidence. Guess I’m not too old to learn.
Michael L. McCann, M.D.
Duluth, Minn.
Dr. William G. Wilkoff
Dr. Wilkoff responds: Thanks for your great e-mail. Obviously, we are both conflicted in our own ways. I guess I should have ended my column with the unrealistic wish that football could remain as a sport for young kids so they could play rough and still be protected by their equipment. Then, eliminate it as a division one and professional activity. Obviously, it’s not going to happen because otherwise what would all those folks on their couches do on Saturday and Sunday afternoons?
A benefit of football
Dr. Wilkoff, thank you for being a sane man in a sea of fear and ill thought out conclusions. As a pediatrician for over 40 years and as a postcollegiate football player, I do appreciate the sincere fear of major injuries to any child. However, eliminating a sport because it has some inherent potential for serious damage is not the right answer. All these years I have been preaching both to my patients and to younger physicians the balance of risk versus benefit in all decision making. Now you may or may not agree with me, but the benefits of football experience are tremendous, whether it stops at the high school or the collegiate level. I noticed that you listed many of these benefits of football in your article, but the major one I did not see is the understanding that one’s input into a project, whether football competition or treating a complicated patient, often determines the outcome of the project. Call it “cause and effect” if you like. Certainly one begins learning these lessons in a home in which personal responsibility is stressed, but I wholeheartedly believe that this specific lesson was reinforced time and again during my football upbringing, and I tend to credit a successful career in pediatrics with that education. Just to be as direct as possible, I too played other high school sports, but football was a unique experience in my mind, and I have encouraged my son and grandsons to participate, mainly because the sport and most of the men that gathered around our youth in this area are teachers. They teach hard work, they teach desire for success, and they teach personal responsibility for actions. Yes, we have all viewed those screaming poor sports who occasionally don a coach’s uniform, but they are far less frequent that the good guys who give their time to our children. Thanks again for a well thought out article. Your articles are consistently written well and thoughtful.
Stuart J. Yoffe, M.D.
Brenham, Texas
Dr Wilkoff responds: Thanks for your kind and thoughtful comments. It is hard to get many people to understand the kind of formative experiences that you and I shared playing football. My wife still doesn’t get it.