Flag Football Under 14
You don't need to start tackle young to be a great football player.
Education & Advocacy
You don't need to start tackle young to be a great football player.
If you're a parent considering enrolling your child in football, the Concussion & CTE Foundation® strongly recommends you delay the tackle football experience until at least age 14. Research continues to reveal that repetitive brain trauma from tackle football greatly increases risk of the degenerative brain disease CTE.
Meanwhile, football experts - from coaches to Hall of Fame players - remind us that you don't need to start tackle football young to become a great player. Until tackle football is proven safe for the developing brain, we urgently recommend youth flag football and other non-tackle versions before age 14.
As parents, you deserve to make an informed decision about your child's future brain health. To support you in making that decision, we created the Flag Football Under 14 program to highlight the risks of tackle football vs flag football.
Our award-winning PSA, “Tackle Can Wait,” drives home the message that tackle football is unacceptably dangerous for children, and that flag football should be the only choice for children under 14. The PSA and campaign website reference data from a study led by Boston University researchers published in the Annals of Neurology.
This study concluded that the risk of developing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is not linked to the number of concussions but is instead linked to the number of years playing tackle football.
The study also found that the risk of CTE increases by 30% each year, meaning it doubles for every 2.6 years of football played. Any future high school, college, or NFL player who starts tackle football at age five may have 10 times the odds of developing CTE than if he had started at 14. In fact, the statistical link between tackle football and CTE may be as strong as the link between smoking and lung cancer.
You wouldn't let your child smoke. But when should they play tackle sports?
Boys' tackle football, boys' wrestling, and girls' basketball have the highest rates of concussion, according to the CDC. Their research shows tackle football players sustained a median of 378 impacts during the season, while flag football players sustained a median of just 8 impacts.
30%
The risk of CTE increases 30% each year of tackle football played
Waiting until high school to play tackle football didn’t hold back some of the greatest players in NFL history. We assembled the Flag Football Under 14 All-Time Greatest Team, composed entirely of players who didn’t start tackle football until high school, to illustrate that it’s better to wait.
See who joined NFL icons like ...
The list includes the top five players of all time and another 16 Hall of Famers. Additionally, every single NFL legend on the list was selected for at least three Pro Bowls.