The Dennis M. and Lois A. Doyle Family Foundation runs Flag Football for Kids, a digital resource for young athletes and their parents. They have discovered that parents are many times misinformed about the causes of the brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
The common misconception is that people obtain CTE from tackle sports as adults. But a Doyle Foundation review of scientific research found that risk of CTE is most closely correlated with years of play, meaning that even for a professional football player, the risk of developing CTE will depend on how many years of head blows they received playing youth tackle football. A 2019 study from researchers at Boston University published in Annals of Neurology found that any future high school, college or NFL player who starts tackle football at age five will have 10 times the odds of developing CTE than if he had started at age 14.
That is why we are highlighting Youth Flag football as a healthy gateway to eventually playing tackle football and avoiding CTE.
“Our mission is to protect children’s long-term health and prevent head blows at a time their brains are undergoing rapid development,” said Doyle Foundation President Denny Doyle. "By playing Flag Football, children can gain all of the competitive advantages and discipline required to later play contact football without potential long-term damage to their health."
Dennis M. and Lois A. Doyle Family Foundation is an organization that is championing the cause of using Flag Football for Kids to protect children from falling prey to CTE later in life.
