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. It recommended that USA Football, Pop Warner, and other youth football organizations focus on flag football before age 14.

I agree with that recommendation. I’ve talked to a long line of successful college and professional football players who support the notion that playing youth tackle football amounts to an unnecessary risk. I’m not limiting the potential damage to concussion or CTE findings either. Ask your local orthopedic or general practitioner about the stuff they’re seeing in the clinic on a regular basis. Then, ask them if they’d allow their own children to play tackle football.

Dr. Rambod Rouhbakhsh is a friend of mine. He lives in Missisippi and is a huge college football fan. He roots for Ole’ Miss and the Oregon Ducks. Not necessarily in that order. But those are his teams. Also, he has two young sons with bright futures. I took note of what he said to me when I asked him whether his kids were playing youth tackle football.

They’re not. No way. In fact, the good doctor sounded like he had conflicted feelings about the sport in general.

“What we’ve learned about the damage to the brain has caused me to re-think my relationship with football,” Dr. Rouhbakhsh told me this summer.

Flag football, yes. 7-on-7 leagues, sure. But given the stakes I don’t think subjecting young, maturing bodies to tackling and being tackled serves much use other than to jeopardize their well being. Still, I tweeted in support of the Wall Street Journal piece this morning, wondering why parents would take the risk given what we know and I was met by a chorus of debate.

One person tweeted: “Coached youth football and children played from 6 years through college. Never had 1 concussion. How many concussions from Red Rover, Dodge ball, or just screwing around with your friends. Country is going softer and softer.”

Another added: “Ut Oh. Traditional sports meet San Francisco values. Banning youth football may decrease concussions and CTE in our youth, but it will surely push football away from the West Coast to the South, where they already have a strangle hold on it. Is this what UO and Ore St fans want?”

Yet another just tweeted: “Soooooft”

Look. They’re your kids. Enroll them in the sports you see fit to suit them. Let them play if that’s your family’s choice. But as you do so ask yourself one simple logical question — why are they playing?

Because if it’s because you believe it will better prepare them for a potential NFL career, ask Brady or Rice, two self-made players, whether they wish they’d taken more risks as a kid. And if you believe it will help make them a starter as a freshman on their high school team, ask yourself whether it might also make them unable to play at all.

Red Rover? Dodgeball? Don’t know why those are bring brought up as examples. The alternative here isn’t to ban activities but to look for ways (i.e. flag football) to teach basic concepts, schemes, and also give kids a team-oriented football experience without risking life-altering injuries.

The studies on sub-concussive episodes, the small impacts, are game-changing. They indicate that there’s a negative cumulative effect from contact, especially at a young age. The brain literally changes. And I think someday we’ll look back at youth tackle football the way we now look back at smoking. Would you let your kid do it at age 10? Hey, I’m sure there are lots of other things that generate serious health issues at a young age, but we can start by avoiding an obvious one, right?

Not sure that Oregon State and Oregon fans should be worried about falling behind the SEC here. I think they should mostly be in the business of taking care of their children. Strahan, Larry Allen, Munoz didn’t seem to fall behind despite not playing until high school.

Those guys weren’t soooooft. They were gifted, developed terrific fundamentals and their bodies weren’t beat up and broken down by the time they got to college.

I’m not anti-football. Heavens no. I couldn’t exist as a sports columnist who covers college and NFL games if I loathed the sport. I love football. But I love kids more.

You?