Tackle Football Program Suspended For Kids In North Suburb
(CBS) Football season is over before it even began for kids in one northern suburb.
CBS 2's Sandra Torres reports from Highland Park at one of the spots where the kids used to practice. The Little Giants Tackle Football Program was for children from fifth to eighth grade but has now been suspended.
The news came as a surprise -- but also as a relief -- for many parents like Chad Gasdin.
"At my kids' age -- they're 11 and 9 -- I think it's a little young to be playing tackle football," he says.
His kids play flag football, a program that's now surging in Highland Park, especially now that the local park district has decided to cancel its tackle football program.
The concern about concussion-related brain injuries has caused a decline in enrollment for the tackle football program this fall, the park district says. Numbers went from 55 participants in 2015 to 11 kids registered this year, said Liza McElroy, the park district's executive director.
At its peak, the program had 150 kids registered. Some wonder if it's the beginning of the end of this American tradition.
