FOOTBALL SAFETY FACTS & INFORMATION:

In Pop Warner Football, there is "an absence of catastrophic head and neck injuries and disruptive joint injuries found at higher levels."

The injury rate in Pop Warner Football is:

• less than one-third the injury rate in high school football

• less than one-fifth the injury rate in college football

• less than one-ninth the injury rate in professional football

• Pop Warner's age-weight schematic protects younger, lighter players, who do not have higher injury rates.

• Organized football among 5 - 15 year-olds has 12 percent fewer injuries per capita than organized soccer in the same age range

• Organized football among 5 - 15 year-olds has 50 percent fewer injuries per capita than bicycle riding in the same age range.

• Organized football among 5 - 15 year-olds has 74 percent fewer injuries per capita than skateboarding in the same age group.

• Injuries in youth football are normally mild, and older players have a higher injury rate than younger players.

• The Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma in New York completed a Pop Warner injury survey in 71 towns covering over 5,000 players in 1998. The injury experience of 5,128 boys (8 to 15 years of age, weight 22.5 to 67.5 kg [50 to 150 lb]) participating in youth football revealed an overall rate of significant injury of 5%, with 61% classified as moderate and 38.9% as major injuries. That's about 1.33 per team per year. No catastrophic injuries occurred, and it was rare for a permanent disability to result from any injury.