Why is tackle football for 5-year-olds a good idea?

As of several years ago, Pop Warner Football sponsors a tackle division for five- and six-year-olds. I have a hard time understanding why.

Five-year-olds are not demanding tackle football. The five-year-olds I know demand 10 more minutes at the playground or chocolate milk with their peanut butter sandwich, not tackle football.

For those kids who are charged up about the sport, there's always flag football. Kids run around just as much and it's far less violent. Why put a helmet on these kids and tell them to run over each other?

Is tackle football safe for five-year-olds?

I've been critical of Pop Warner Football for its sluggish response to the sports concussion controversy. So only fair to note that last week the kids' league took a positive step, announcing the forming of a "Pop Warner Medical Advisory Board."

The board - composed of four physicians - will advise Pop Warner officials on a range of health matters, not just concussions.

First question for the panel: Is tackle football safe for five-year-olds?

Is football too violent for kids? If it is, then what?

The scrutiny over youth sports concussion seems to get more intense by the day. Last week the New York Times ran four articles - pieces on concussions in youth basketball (we also blogged on this), a suspected link between the suicide of a college football player and years of head trauma, a NFL middle linebacker who was permitted to wobble back into a game despite having taken a major blow to the noggin and renewed speculation that head trauma occurs routinely (and is under-diagnosed routinely) in youth sports.

Over the weekend the Philadelphia Inquirer's deputy editorial page editor asked whether football is just too darn dangerous for kids.

Youth football organizations need to be taking the lead in sharing accurate information and encouraging frank discussion of this issue. On my last visit to the Pop Warner Web site, I couldn't find either. The lead articles were "Enter the 2010 Pop Warner Photo Contest" and "Vote for Pop Warner National Championships."

This is not Pop Warner's responsibility alone. But as the largest organized kids' football league in the country, it should be speaking loudly about this issue. And speaking out in every possible forum, including its Web site. So should countless other youth football leagues around the country.

Meanwhile, I recommend Stop Sports Injuries as an excellent source of information about concussions and many other common injuries in youth sports.

Is football too violent for kids? And if it is, then what?

The top 10 salaries in youth sports, unofficially

The other day, I set out to answer the seldom (perhaps, never-before) asked question: Who are the highest-paid adults in youth sports?

I fired up my laptop, pointed my browser at Guidestar, the repository on the Web for all things pertaining to non-profit organizations, and started searching. After a few hours reviewing tax filings and disclosure forms, these are the 10 highest paid executives I found in youth sports organizations.

Caveats:

This isn't close to a definitive survey. Please write if you know of others who should make the list.

It doesn't include benefits and deferred compensation. (In the case of Little League's Keener, more than $30,000 in the year I reviewed).

Most important, I'm looking only at non-profits. Add for-profit companies and of course the list would be wall-to-wall executives squeezing dollars out of youth sports for Nike, Adidas, ESPN and the other kids and sports corporate behemoths.

With those qualifications, here's the top 10. The salary figures are from the organizations' most recent available tax filings - sometimes two to three years ago.

1. Stephen A. Hamblin, American Junior Golf Association executive director, $328,941.

2. Stephen Keener, Little League Baseball president and CEO, $197,700.

3. Bobby Dodd, Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) president, $190,196

4. Steven Tellefson, Babe Ruth League Baseball, president and CEO $150,242

5. Peter Ripa, American Junior Golf Association, assistant executive director, $137,677.

6. Rosemary Schoellkopf, Babe Ruth League CFO, $133,159.

7. Dave Houseknecht, Little League Baseball CFO, $125,000

8. Joseph Smiegocki, Babe Ruth League Baseball vice president, $120,017

9. Michael Killpack, AAU director of sports, $119,502

10. Robert Faherty, Babe Ruth League Baseball communications, $116,312


The highest-paid youth sports coach I found - again, looking only at non-profits - John Hackworth, United States Soccer Federation youth national team coach, who earned $109,080.

Not everyone is pulling down a six-figure income, to be sure. These modestly paid people were the top earners in their respective youth sports organizations, according to the tax filings.

Hammid Wadood, Snoop Youth Football Foundation administrator, $60,000

Anthony C. DeLus, International Soap Box Derby, executive director, $46,736.

Jon Butler, Pop Warner Football executive director, $28,846.