Football and soccer are both great sports, in their own way. Obviously I'm a huge soccer fan (wouldn't be on here otherwise), but it isn't my favorite sport--football, both NFL and college, is. Millions of kids all over the country play tackle football from a young age and turn out alright. Propping up one sport by bashing another makes you look just as bad as the soccer-bashers.
I don't think Albany58 was bashing kids football at all. Yes, most kids survive it just fine, but there is little doubt that the game itself is much more violent than soccer. At the pro level, football is a downright mean game....it's about incapacitating the opponent.
I agree 100% with sj_o. I played high school football, and it gave me a lifetime of memories (mostly very good). But if I had a kid I would absolutely discourage him from football. It a destructive sport in which you are rewarded for maiming people and destroying your body with steroids. I see 350 lb high schoolers today. No way this is healthy. So I see problems with (1) the sport itself, appealing as it is for spectators and (2) with the leagues and programs that promote winning at all costs, including players maiming opponents and destroying their own bodies. You can argue with this. But you'd lose.
My nephew has been playing the tackle pointy ball since he was about 9 years old. He's 16 in a few days. It's HUGE in his high school in Michigan- they are very highly ranked. I was in MI several weeks ago. Football practices/workouts had already been in progress for several weeks. This soon to be 16 year old got up at 7 am to go bust his ass for 2 hours and then come home and eat and take a nap. He would have to go back at 5 pm and workout until 8 or 9 pm. This was every single day of the week. They had scrimmages on the weekends or Friday nights. His day off was Sunday and God forbid he miss even one practice or workout session. He's barely 16! He's an average size kid with a lot of strength. He's in beautiful shape. He would tell me about how hard he worked - that is, he vomited on several occasions. This is in MI where temperatures soar into the 90's with 90%+ humidity. How could that possibly be good? This sport destroys young bodies.
Actually, I was pretty close to your position on that until the Quakes were stolen away. Then after a miserable season of not watching my favorite sport, I adopted the Reading FC in the EPL and have been following it for the past two years. So now my wife has to put up with soccer year round, Reading FC and the Quakes, 12 months!
I admittedly do not know much about how a sport like American football is organized for kids, but my impression is that there isn't really much going on for kids who do not have good skills. In youth soccer, regardless of a kid's skill level, or even interest level, there is a place to play. The kids with good skills AND a competitive mind find their way to teams that fill their needs. Kids with few skills and who are not overly competitive also find their way to teams (or programs that do not have league teams) that fill their needs. I don't think the same is true of American football, which means that there is likely some tremendous pressure on kids if they want to play football. You are either better than "average" (whatever that is) or you do not play. I did see someone mention flag football, and if that is something that kids are doing, it's a great thing. I played 8 man flagball in high school (we had an "intermural" league, which meant that all of the teams were kids from the same school) and I had a lot of fun.
Gary's latest Metro article with, with a paragraph on soccer and the Quakes. He takes a shot at the soccer-hating american sports writer and AEG. http://www.metroactive.com/metro/12.05.07/alleys-0749.html
Gary is San Jose and I love reading his stuff, regardless of the topic. Gary is to San Jose what Herb Caen was to San Francisco. He simply gets it, he feels it, he even loves it and what it stands for. He is like the City and the City is a lot like him. He cares, while other don't even want to know. Screw them Gary, tell them what they don't want to know. There is a whole bunch of people who love to hear you speak.