Here’s a piece from the NY Times about how Marshall ISD changed seventh-grade tackle football to flag-football.
Amid widespread and growing concerns about the physical dangers of the sport, the school board here approved plans in February to shut down the district’s entry-level, tackle-football program for seventh graders in favor of flag football. There was little objection.
“I’m surprised, in some ways, because you know how it is in a one high school town where football is everything,” said Marc Smith, the superintendent of the Marshall Independent School District. “I anticipated a little more resistance and concern. But the safety factor really resonated with our parents. They get it, and they see their little 11- or 12-year-olds getting slammed to the ground.”
No one here considers the decision the beginning of the end of scholastic football in Texas. The sport remains wildly popular, and recreational tackle leagues are open to 5-year-olds. But because it is happening in Texas, an otherwise small move to end a seventh-grade tackle program reflects how the issue of brain trauma has begun to affect the football landscape.