I loved playing growing up and absolutely LOVE the sport, but all we see and hear about today makes me a bit nervous to have them start hitting at this age. Definite advances in equipment (their helmets are light years better than what I wore in the 90s) and new hitting rules/coaching techniques will hopefully help keep the damaging hits to a minimum, but it's football and you will get your bell rung.

I did read an article the other day that a study of high school football players showed that those who played through high school had no higher instances of visible brain issues (dementia, depression, and other symptoms guys with CTE show) than the general population, but like this study it is too small to be conclusive, just good food for thought.