Anaheim Assemblymember Avelino Valencia is a former tight end for Cal State San José who tried out for the NFL. Before entering politics, he was a community college football coach.

“The benefit that football has had in particular to my life, I cannot put a monetary amount on it,” he told his colleagues on the Assembly Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism Committee.[pullquote size="medium" align="right" citation="Anaheim Assemblymember Avelino Valencia"]‘It’s because it is a very dangerous and violent sport. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about that.’[/pullquote]So it was painful for Valencia to throw his support behind a bill headed for the Assembly floor that would make California the first state to set a minimum age for tackle football — banning the sport for children under 12. But he said the evidence that the repeated brain trauma football players endure game after game is too clear.

“It’s because it is a very dangerous and violent sport,” he said, his broad shoulders filling his suit jacket like a set of football pads. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about that.”

The committee’s 5–2 party-line vote from Valencia and his fellow Democrats last week to advance the bill set in motion what’s likely to be one of the more emotionally charged issues California lawmakers will consider in 2024 as they wade into yet another contentious debate over parental rights.

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This time, instead of vaccine requirements or LGBTQ policies at public schools, they’re debating the future of the country’s most popular sport, one that has a documented history of its players getting debilitating brain disease from repeated blows to the head.

Several high-profile examples of former players — most notably the suicide of legendary NFL linebacker Junior Seau, who suffered from a degenerative brain disease — have prompted the NFL down to youth leagues to try to make tackling safer.

Researchers say tackle football is still dangerous despite the changes to the game. For instance, Boston University published research last year finding that players who’ve spent more than 11 years in the sport have an increased likelihood of brain trauma, leading to poor impulse control and thinking problems.

But there’s no guarantee Sacramento Democratic Assemblymember Kevin McCarty’s bill will advance beyond the Assembly, even in a Legislature that’s not shy about citing medical research to make decisions that outrage parental-rights groups and become “nanny state” fodder for national conservative media.[aside label='More Stories on California Law' tag='california-law']Assembly Bill 734 would phase in a ban, first prohibiting children under 6 from playing tackle football starting in 2025 and working up to bar those younger than 12 by 2029. It must pass on the Assembly floor by the end of the month if it will eventually make its way through the state Senate to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. Newsom hasn’t indicated whether he’d sign the bill.

A handful of other state legislatures have debated similar youth tackle football bans. None have passed. A similar version of the bill in 2018 failed in California to even get out of committee. The bill still has a long way to go in the state Legislature.

Dozens of young athletes and their parents lined up in football jerseys to oppose the bill at a hearing last Wednesday. Groups, including the California Coalition of Save Youth Football, whose private Facebook group has nearly 7,000 members, have promised to keep up the pressure.

Sacramento Sheriff and former State Assemblymember, Jim Cooper, testified in opposition to the bill and pointed out that the sport keeps kids off the street, out of gangs and offers immeasurable life lessons.

“For some adolescents, youth tackle football serves as their sole source of structure, offering positive role models and guiding them toward a positive and productive path,” Cooper said. “… I understand the pivotal role youth activities play in keeping children away from the streets and from gangs.”

Already, the issue has taken on a partisan tone. A representative for Moms for Liberty, an influential group among conservatives known for seeking to ban textbooks that reference gender identity and academic discussions about systemic racism, was among those who testified in opposition last week.

“Huddle up California. Protect your parental rights. Stand up to Big Government,” the California Youth Football Alliance wrote on its Facebook page earlier this month, urging followers to contact McCarty’s office.

Youth tackle football fans cite race, community ties

But youth tackle football is different from other parental rights debates that are more easily framed as a Republican-Democrat dichotomy.

As they weigh the bill, liberal lawmakers will consider more arguments from the likes of Sheriff Cooper, a Black former Democratic Assemblymember from Elk Grove, who worries that banning youth tackle football would take away an outlet for young children in Black communities who might otherwise find their way into trouble.[pullquote size="medium" align="right" citation="Assemblymember Tom Lackey"]‘If we ban this sport, we take away the opportunity and many opportunities from children to grow – not only as an athlete — but as a self-actualized adult who knows when they have the capabilities to overcome an obstacle and achieve success further.’[/pullquote]“Notably, Black male children engage in youth tackle football at higher rates than any other race,” Cooper told the committee last week in his sheriff’s uniform. “To my knowledge, there’s been no pressure to limit participation in lacrosse, soccer or ice hockey, which all have concussion rates similar to youth tackle football but are prevalent in more affluent and exclusive communities.”

Lawmakers, he said, have already passed legislation he authored in 2019 that limited full-contact youth football practices to no more than 30 minutes per day, two days a week. That bill had support from the California Youth Football Alliance.

Lawmakers also will have to weigh their own experiences with the sport. Assemblymember Tom Lackey, one of the Republicans on the sports and tourism committee, told his colleagues last week that he’s “participated in flag football and … participated in tackle football. They’re different.”

“If we ban this sport, we take away the opportunity and many opportunities from children to grow – not only as an athlete — but as a self-actualized adult who knows when they have the capabilities to overcome an obstacle and achieve success further,” said Lackey, a former California Highway Patrol sergeant from Palmdale. “We take away a lifelong passion for the love of the game.”

Experts warn of dangers of tackling

McCarty, the bill’s author and a former Pop Warner youth football player himself said wanting to restrict young kids from tackling each other won’t negate their love for football, a sport that he said has been part of his family for as long as he can remember.

“I’m not anti-football. I love football,” McCarty said. “Two things can be true. You can love football and love our kids and try to protect our kids at the same time.”

The experts McCarty brought in to testify in support of his bill included pediatric neurologist Dr. Stella Legarda, president of the California Neurology Society, which sponsored the bill. The group spent $17,983 on lobbying last year on this bill and others, according to the latest reports filed with the California Secretary of State.

She pointed out that the NFL has been having its players shed their pads and helmets to play flag football in its signature exhibition game, the Pro Bowl. [pullquote size="medium" align="right" citation="Assemblymember Kevin McCarty"]‘I’m not anti-football. I love football. Two things can be true. You can love football and love our kids and try to protect our kids at the same time.’[/pullquote]“When the NFL takes measures to protect its players by playing flag football in the Pro Bowl, it is not just safeguarding its multimillion investments,” Legarda told the committee. “It delivers the clear message that impact injuries and cumulative head trauma are perilous and should be minimized.”

Assemblymember Valencia, the former football player, told CalMatters in an interview that the bill and the concerns about the health of California’s youth football players were very much on his mind last year as he stood on the sidelines of his alma mater, San José State, during its game with its rival, Cal State Fresno.

He said he was struck by “how violent and damaging” the sport he played is. He couldn’t imagine taking those sorts of hits at the speeds the players were moving, now, as a 35-year-old man.

Valencia said young kids can play flag football and still learn the skills they’ll need to play tackle football when they’re older — without risking brain damage.

“Drills, becoming more athletic, agility, speed, that makes you a better football player,” he said. “But tackling? That comes secondhand. You can figure that out in a very short period of time.”

KQED’s April Dembosky contributed reporting to this story.

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