Point-counterpoint: should heading be restricted in youth football? Yes, heading should be restricted in youth football

ABSTRACTThere is probably no issue in sports that is more divisive than head injury. The first report of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in a retired National Football League player12 showed us a reason for the memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, suicidality, Parkinsonism, and eventually progressive dementia described by the families of (mostly) retired contact or collision sport athletes. Hardly a week goes by without some media outlet asking whether a child or adolescent is going to develop CTE after a concussive injury in sports. Parents of children interested in playing sports are left to choose between prohibiting their children from playing some sports or moving them to sports they believe is safer.