I'm lucky, I guess. I don't have to make the choice.
My boys, ages 13 and 10, are recreational football players and serious soccer players. The oldest played two years with helmets and pads, the youngest one year of flag. They both love the game, but I don't have to worry about them getting hurt, much, when they get involved in pickup games over at the grade school field.
But thousands of parents do have to worry about their sons getting through the weekend games, every weekend.
Yes, it is an occupational hazard, parent of a football player. And while there are dangers inherent in any sport, or activity for that matter, football is a special concern.
Today on The Score radio station out of Chicago, Dan McNeil, the long-time host of sports talk in Chicago for two stations, revealed that he is pleased as punch his sons have chosen not to play football. It was a significant relevation, coming from an avowed football fan and former player, at the high school and junior college level.
But the danger factor was simply too much to make McNeil feel comfortable about pushing them into the game. And when they chose golf and soccer, McNeil admitted to being pleased.
This was not a reflection on the death of the Chicago player who died last weekend when a windpipe got clogged. This was a discussion, that went on for some time, about the concerns of concussions on a teenage boy.
Nobody is going to try to eliminate football anywhere in the United States, and the concerns of parents will always be there. Equipment manufacturers spend millions trying to develop safer helmets and pads.
Is it a topic among football parents? Or do they not discuss it, trying to avoid calling forth the fortunes and fates that cause injuries to occur?
Here is hoping the injuries this season are the kind that can be repaired, and that no one suffers an injury that seriously affects their lives or the lives of others.
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