Bone-jarring tackles are a common sight in the National Football League on Sunday afternoons. These crunching hits often make highlight reels in the days that follow, and fans are treated to the sight of players getting crushed over and over again. Children will often see this behavior and attempt to emulate it in their own football games.

There is a large national debate being conducted right now among physicians, football coaches, and concerned parents, all related to the idea of tackle football. New evidence about the danger of severe brain damage from concussions, evidence that suggests anything from Lou Gehrig's Disease to Alzheimer's may be caused or at least related to multiple concussions, has many people up in arms about tackling in youth football. There are some that say that a child's brain is too young to deal with the bruising hits found in a traditional game of tackle football. Others claim that the danger is being overhyped, and that children ought to be allowed to play tackle football, so that they can learn to play the game the right way and will not miss out on critical skills needed for success at higher levels of competition.

The fear of concussions has led some youth football leagues to switch from tackle football to "touch" football, where a player is down once he is touched by a player from the opposing team, or flag football, where players where belts with flags on them, and a "tackle" is achieved when one player rips off the flag from another player's belt. These forms of football are played without pads of any kind, and there is supposed to be limited, if any, physical contact.

Among the many facets of this debate is when, if ever, children should be allowed to play tackle football. Some youth football programs refuse to quit playing tackle football, believing that this course of action will denigrate the skills of their players and have a negative long-term effect for the high school programs that those kids will eventually play in. Some doctors believe that a child's brain develops enough by the time that they turn thirteen or fourteen that the risk for permanent brain damage from a concussion is minimal. Other doctors believe that no child should ever be allowed to play tackle football, for fear that the potential for concussions and brain damage cannot be mitigated. Many parents are simply concerned for their child's well-being.

At the end of the day, the issue boils down to a balancing act between protecting children from a potential injury and allowing those same kids to play football just like it is played in the college and professional ranks. Both camps believe that they are right, but debate and research on the issue continues to be ongoing. Modern medicine is constantly providing new ways to look at long-term brain damage and how it relates to concussions. Football equipment suppliers tout new helmet designs that supposedly decrease the risk of concussions. Expect this debate to go on for quite some time.