Page 207 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade6_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 3.4
continued
Support the Sport? Creating Support with reasons and evidence
News article
High School Football:
concussion: injury to the brain caused by a hard blow
self-proclaimed: a title a person gives to oneself or a group to itself
diplomatic: sensitive to other positions or feelings
Would a Pop Warner
Ban Limit Concussions? by Tina Akouris
Word CoNNeCTIoNS
Cognates
The Spanish cognate for native is nativo.
1 When Marv Levy first started playing football, “concussions” was a word he heard about as often as “face mask.”
2 The South Side native and NFL coaching legend wore a leather helmet and precious little padding. Those were the days when the Chicago Cardinals coexisted with the Bears and there was a youth football program for kids 12 and under called the Junior Bears and the Junior Cardinals.
3 As Levy matriculated through South Shore High School and Iowa’s Coe College, the equipment and attitudes toward football’s health hazards evolved little.
4 “You would get dinged up and just shake it off,” said Levy, who coached the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls. “We wore leather helmets with no face guards. You were a sissy if you drank water during practice back then.”
5 Levy is 86 years old. Pop Warner football, the self-proclaimed “largest youth football, cheerleading and dance program in the world,” is 83.
6 But, when it comes to full-contact hitting in football practices—official workouts begin Wednesday for the Illinois high school season—they might not be the old-fashioned ones.
7 In June, Pop Warner instituted rule changes designed to limit players’ exposure to concussions. The most significant change—limiting full-speed hitting to one- third of total practice time, when in the past there were no restrictions on full- speed hitting—was heartily endorsed by Levy.
8 “You don’t need to play tackle football until you’re 13 or 14, because you can learn other things about the game,” Levy said. “Part of [more awareness], in my opinion, is how players are more closely monitored and there are more medical people around. They are more cautious. I think in youth football you shouldn’t overdo the contact.”
9 Yet, a Herald-News poll of area football coaches revealed 89 percent of respondents had no plans to change the amount of hitting they’d allow in practice compared with a year ago, and more than half say the contact allowed is unchanged over the last five years.
Hyper-awareness
10 Lincoln-Way Central football coach Brett Hefner didn’t necessarily disagree with Levy, but took a more diplomatic approach. Every kid, he said, is different.
11 “Some are ready to handle it and other kids are not,” Hefner said. “The benefits of playing at a younger age are that they understand the game more as they get older, how to position their bodies better when they tackle.”
my Notes
180 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 6
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