A new public service announcement compares the potential dangers of playing tackle football to smoking.
“Tackle football is like smoking,” a youthful voice-over says as a smiling, motherly type lights a cigarette for one of the pre-teen players. “The younger I start, the longer I’m exposed to danger.”
The PSA is called \"Tackle Can Wait\" and is part of a campaign by the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
“Tackle football is really a man’s game, and it’s incredibly dangerous to the developing brain,” CLF co-founder Chris Nowinski says in a video accompanying the ad .
“We now have the data that show that playing youth tackle football and developing CTE is correlated in a very similar way to smoking, and developing lung cancer,” Nowinski said. “We’re trying to help parents visualize that those two things are equally bad: Letting your kid smoke and letting your kid play tackle football are both bad ideas.”
