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The Lifelong Risks Of Youth Football

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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is seen at Heads Up Football skills clinic for youth football players from the Northeast Ohio Pop Warner Leagues in Berea, Ohio, back in 2013. Two mothers of deceased former youth football players have filed a lawsuit against Pop Warner and the NFL's youth football program. (Tom E. Puskar/AP for NFL Network)
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is seen at Heads Up Football skills clinic for youth football players from the Northeast Ohio Pop Warner Leagues in Berea, Ohio, back in 2013. Two mothers of deceased former youth football players have filed a lawsuit against Pop Warner and the NFL's youth football program. (Tom E. Puskar/AP for NFL Network)

Dr. Robert Stern is the director of clinical research at Boston University's Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center. He studies how brains get damaged by repeated impacts to the head, specifically in football players. He's studied the brains of NFL, college and high school athletes. And the news just gets worse and worse.

Stern is out with a new study on what happens to the brains of people who played tackle football before they're 12 years old. He looked at things like cognitive function and emotional regulation, including depression. This is his second study looking at the effects of youth head impacts and after hearing what Stern has to say, no matter how much you love tackle football, you're going to have to ask yourself whether it's time for your kid to stop playing.

Guests

Dr. Robert Stern, director of clinical research at Boston University's Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center.

Shira Springer, WBUR Sports and Society Reporter. She tweets @shiraspringer.

This segment aired on September 19, 2017.

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