As news has emerged about the devastating, lifelong effects of concussions, football has lost some its standing as the great all-American sport. With parents more wary than ever about letting their kids play, the Seattle Seahawks are inviting mothers to come down to the field and learn how the sport should be taught.
Paul Johns was the starting wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks in 1984. A neck injury during a game in the Kingdome changed that in an instant.
“My career ended and I never played another down. I had to go and as they say, find your life’s work,” said Johns.
Safety on the field became his life work. He now runs youth football for the Seattle Seahawks, including a clinic just for moms – supported in part by the NFL. Besides learning about concussions from a sports-medicine doctor, moms will run drills with tackle dummies so they can keep an eye on their kid — and their coach.
“And they can see, oh that’s not being taught right, because we went through that and that’s not the way, you know, it should be taught,” said Johns. “So it gives them more information and they can make an educated decision on whether they want to let their child play football.”
Johns says there’s no denying football’s a contact sport, but kids are being taught to use their shoulders and arms to block tackles, rather than their head now. Those techniques, which were borrowed from rugby, aren’t really new. Johns says that’s how football was originally played.
