The simplistic and barbaric nature of the game of football has drawn many to criticize the sport. Critics do not see the value in a game where injuries could lead to long-lasting damage to the body. Many parents these days simply don’t allow their children to play the sport. Even President Obama has stated, publicly, that if he had any male children, he would discourage them from playing America’s game. As a former football player, I must urge the critics to look past the dangers for just one moment. In this article, I wish to lay out how football helps to develop and strengthen children more than you may realize.

Growing up, I knew many kids who were told not to play football for fearing their safety. Ironically, many of their parents did allow them to play lacrosse. Because God forbid, their children were a lot safer running around, hitting each other with metal sticks. Fortunately for me, my parents allowed me to play both football and lacrosse.

Now, I’m all for safety here, people. We need to be teaching our children how to properly tackle each other so that it doesn’t lead to head trauma or other injuries. But to simply ban your children from pursuing football due to the violence associated with it? That is downright outrageous.

I hate to break it to you people, but life is a violent game. Outside your little white fences of American suburbia, lie places in this world that are dangerous by nature. Even the most overly-protective parents cannot stay with their children forever, and one day, they may encounter dangerous situations on their own. It is wrong to tell children that this world is full of unicorns and rainbows and that everything will come easily to you in this world.

In order to have success in this world, you must have character. Football is a character building game. When you get knocked down on a play, what do you do? Do you just sit there and accept defeat? Or do you get back up and keep on playing? When a large kid lines up against you, what do you do? Do you hope that he will be kind to you, and not hurt you? Or do you give it all you got to beat him on the next down? It's questions like these that will show the type of character a person has, and what is needed to strengthen their character.

Playing football was the first time, as a kid, I realized that everything wasn’t supposed to be handed to me. Growing up, I was always one of the biggest kids in my grade. That is why I was surprised when, at my first practice in middle school, I was told I wasn’t already guaranteed a starting position on the football team. My coach told me that I would need to work hard and perform every day at practice in order to play, and even then, I was not guaranteed anything. Throughout middle and high school, many of my coaches each instilled this same type of philosophy into me.

During the worst heat and humidity waves that Maryland is proudly famous for, most school kids were inside, playing “Call of Duty” on the PlayStation. Meanwhile, the rest of the football players and I were trying to not pass out while running sprints in the scorching heat. It was hard to stay motivated to fight on. But fight on we did. That was just the type of character that was being molded into us through the trials of pain and adversity.

That sort of preparation we did before each season taught me what it meant to work hard with a specific goal in mind. That goal was simple. We wished to be the best team we could be, and to possibly win a championship in the process. But football isn’t about celebrating the victories. It’s about how to handle the losses and adversity, and how to move on and grow stronger from them.

Throughout my high school football career, I have faced much adversity. I’ve had four different head coaches within the four years of my high school career. Each of them brought different coaching styles and playbooks to the team, but each time, we adjusted. I’ve been plagued with injuries throughout my time in high school. From passing out from heat exhaustion on a hot summer day to tearing nearly all the ligaments in the thumb of my snapping hand. And still, I carried on.

The greatest challenge I faced, however, was a lingering back injury that plagued me throughout high school. I will probably write a future article on the subject, but essentially, the back injury kept me out of most of the end of my senior year of football. However, I fought to get back onto the field. While many kids in my position would have quit football for good, I decided to give one last game on the battlefield.

Had you’d asked me four years prior if I could play the last game in the condition I was in, I would have told you that you were insane. It was the character that I had acquired over the years of playing football that gave me the courage to fight on. I credit the excellent coaching (Baird, Best, Suplee, Erxleben, and Petitbon to just name a few), parenting, and teaching for helping to develop my character to where it is today.

Football certainly has had a positive impact on my life. To all those who still doubt the value football can have in developing young people, please feel free to reach out to me. Because, even with the dangers associated with the game, I would do it all again in a heartbeat if I could.