“I would be very hesitant to let him play.” Brady Sr. said.
“Tommy did not play football until he was 14, because we didn’t think he was physically developed enough to play the sport. This head thing is frightening for little kids. There’s the physical part of it and the mental part — it’s becoming very clear there are very serious long-term ramifications.”
Last week, former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner, who suffered numerous concussions in his career, said he’d prefer his sons didn’t play football. Warner cited the current concussion crisis as one of the reasons.
Former NFL wide receiver Armani Toomer took offense at Warner’s remarks, telling NBC SportsTalk: “Everything that [Warner] has gotten in his life has come from playing football . . . For him to try and trash the game, it seems to me that it’s just a little disingenuous.”
The senior Brady disagrees.
“I think Kurt Warner is 100 percent correct,” Brady Sr. said. “He’s there to protect his children . . . All this stuff about, ‘He made his fame and fortune off of football,’ that’s true — but we didn’t know then what we know now. Apparently, they don’t take their own parenting responsibility very seriously, or they don’t value their children’s health as much as they should.”
Well said.
If more parents and youth coaches educate themselves about concussions and other head injuries now, they’ll be fewer lawsuits in the future.
Contact Tom Mahon at mahont@phillynews.com
