Should girls be allowed to play Football?

[KONGO]

I don't think kids at 10 are going to be outweighing anybody by 100 pounds, Quom. General Jizz is talking about adult games.

[Quom]

Well then they are women and not girls :/

[Plubby]

If she can play, she can play. Who cares how much shes outweighed by if they can barely touch her?

[Summers]

Er, no. No ball games in the kitchen.

[DMN in the House]

Women should be allowed to play at any level that they can find a team that will take them. If they're good enough, and tough enough, to play, then they can play. I don't see why it should be any different than a guy. Not every male has what it takes to play tackle football either, whether that means size, skill, or toughness. Hell, I knew a girl in high school, who was on our wrestling team, who was tougher than most of the guys I played football or wrestled with.

[Benjamin]

Er, no. No ball games in the kitchen.

I've had a few ball games in my kitchen

[DoubleX]

Er, no. No ball games in the kitchen.

I've had a few ball games in my kitchen

Something something your cousin.

Also girls play rugby, so I don't see why not grid iron.

[KONGO]

Well then they are women and not girls :/

He was making an analogy.

[Lint]

My niece is 12 and played in a flag rugby league this year. Next year she'll be old enough to play in the full contact league in her town, and she's already begging my sister and brother in law to let her do it. Are they, and myself, afraid she'll get hurt? Of course..but my niece is also someone who puts a goal in front of her and won't stop til she gets it

[Baddar]

Wait...a tackle football league at the age of 8/9? That seems a little young, no?

Do you think they should play Sarcastaball instead?

[Lint]

Wait...a tackle football league at the age of 8/9? That seems a little young, no?

Do you think they should play Sarcastaball instead?

OH Yea Baddar! Thats such a GREAT idea..

[Baddar]

Absolutely.

[Quom]

Well then they are women and not girls :/

He was making an analogy.

So he was neither talking about women or girls now and instead something far more abstract? Okay?

But if he was talking about women then that's an entirely different discussion to 'should pre-pubescent children be split into sports teams based on gender' since puberty is the spark that causes the most major changes to physiology in both men and women. I'd use basketball as the prime example as it's a physical sport in which has a high level of competition in both male and female leagues. A traditional male centre will be around 7 foot and weigh in excess of 250 pounds, women playing a similar position will be 6'5-6'9 and also weigh significantly less. This is seen through all the positions. Point being that even in a sport reliant on a 'freak' blend of genetics (since being extraordinarily tall is well outside the means of 'normal' let alone having the co-ordination and athleticism to go with it) there is a clear difference between the male and female versions of the sport. So it isn't 'oh she should just bulk up' the point is that a 6'5-8 woman will move like a 7 foot man due to the physiological differences. It's why the 'average' woman is 5'5" foot tall and the 'average' man 5'10".

I believe that even a player as skilled as Lauren Jackson would be unable to compete in an all male league well below her current status. This is due to males being larger (both height and weight) as well as quicker (as shown through athletics where women are slower across the board) and stronger. I'm not arguing that she isn't a good player. Whilst there are plenty of examples of slow male players, or smaller, or weaker, finding success, I don't believe someone with all of these natural deficiencies could still remain successful.

Having said that, if she was given the opportunity and was talented enough I would have no issue with any woman playing against men. I would be opposed to it if it was for publicity, but I feel that the gender divide is more to support women into having an avenue to compete, since they would be unable to do so in a mixed league (at an elite level), due to the physiological differences between men and women.

However having said that in a sport like American football I would be worried about the size discrepancy since there are so many hard collisions, but if she was a punter, kicker or some other position much more unlikely to sustain hard physical contact regularly, or by some amazing freak, unheard of occurrence was identical to the men she was running into, then I would be far less concerned about it.

[KONGO]

His point is that, if it was two guys and one weighed 100 lbs. more than the other, it wouldn't be viewed as wrong to hit the smaller dude. Therefore, you shouldn't feel bad about tackling or hitting a girl in the confines of a sport. The size argument is meaningless. Unless there is some other reason to feel bad about it, which I personally don't see.

[=BK=]

girls yes, women no. I assume there's a woman's league she can play in, if not there should be. but the idea of a woman playing a contact sport with men is worrying. 1) she's going to get hurt by people much bigger than her sooner our later. 2) it's going to be uncomfortable for men that then have to tackle a woman. I wouldn't be comfortable doing that.

What if she is built like Awesome Kong or Nicole Bass?

[Quom]

His point is that, if it was two guys and one weighed 100 lbs. more than the other, it wouldn't be viewed as wrong to hit the smaller dude. Therefore, you shouldn't feel bad about tackling or hitting a girl in the confines of a sport. The size argument is meaningless. Unless there is some other reason to feel bad about it, which I personally don't see.

Find me a male player in an elite sport 100 pounds lighter than the people they regularly play against. Play on the same court/field as sure, but not in the same position. It just doesn't happen in contact sports. Rugby might be the closest as whilst there are defined positions it is a case of kill the dude with the ball so you do see guys who weigh like 200 pounds get steam rolled by guys that weigh 300, and no I don't like it and would discourage my child to play it if they were little (or big for that matter )

[KONGO]

His point is that, if it was two guys and one weighed 100 lbs. more than the other, it wouldn't be viewed as wrong to hit the smaller dude. Therefore, you shouldn't feel bad about tackling or hitting a girl in the confines of a sport. The size argument is meaningless. Unless there is some other reason to feel bad about it, which I personally don't see.

Find me a male player in an elite sport 100 pounds lighter than the people they regularly play against. Play on the same court/field as sure, but not in the same position. It just doesn't happen in contact sports. Rugby might be the closest as whilst there are defined positions it is a case of kill the dude with the ball so you do see guys who weigh like 200 pounds get steam rolled by guys that weigh 300, and no I don't like it and would discourage my child to play it if they were little (or big for that matter )

But it wouldn't be viewed as wrong if, say playing a pickup game, a 200 pound guy mows over a 100 pound guy. Unfortunate maybe, but both guys knew what the game was and they both agreed to play. The way I read a lot of these arguments, they're saying "women shouldn't be allowed to play these sports because they are generally smaller than men." That shouldn't be the case. If a woman can play at the same level as a man, she should be allowed to, and no one should feel bad about performing in a contact sport against a woman just because of her gender. Obviously, most women might not be able to play football because they don't have enough size to withstand hits properly. But if a woman can stand up to the pressure and play alongside the boys, nobody should get squeamish about her being in the game, she knows what she's doing.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I don't think boys OR girls should play full tackle American football at that age. It's setting up for physical problems later on in life surely.

[Quom]

I dunno, bones are soft and squishy and kids in my experience don't seem to go in for the kill or don't build up enough momentum for their mass to do that much damage. I'm far from an expert but have had plenty of family or friends play football as kids and they didn't seem to hurt one another until they were 13-14+. Playing basketball all of the broken bones I saw (two arms and an ankle) were from kids falling awkwardly rather than being hit. Although a kid did die after another kid landed on top of him (he died a few days later, the contact bruised his heart or something, he got up and was fine and kept playing, then progressively got worse and died) from memory that would have been under 14s though. I also broke a couple of kids noses with my elbows.

I wouldn't have wanted to play against the girls, they play bloody rough, like incredibly so. It was like watching a different sport.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

More worried about concussions and brain development issues. Kids have amazingly-mendable bones.