Tom Brady didn't play tackle football until his freshman year of high school. Neither did Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Tim Brown, Warren Sapp, Michael Strahan, Julius Peppers, Lawrence Taylor, Mike Haynes, Anthony Munoz and lot of other stars.
None of them needed it to become a Hall of Fame caliber player.
I bring this up today because my former Oregonian colleague Rachel Bachman wrote an interesting piece for The Wall Street Journal. The piece revealed a study that recommended kids shouldn't play youth tackle football.
Regarding the finding by the Aspen Institute, Bachman wrote:
Scientists believe children are particularly vulnerable to brain injury in collision sports like football in part because of their still-developing brains, according to a 27-page report on the future of football by the nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank.