Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

This is a very good series that really makes us sit back and think how much is too much in regards to youth football. I havn't watched season 2 yet but just got finished watching season 1. Tykes deals with one of the more competitive youth leagues in America named Tyfa. In the first season the series showcased the 8-9 year old division. They get much more competitive than most all youth leagues do. They have playoffs and a state champion.

Now there is nothing wrong with having kids that age play competitively in my opinion. However you really have to shake your head at some of these coaches and wonder if these guys need to be doing anything with football other than just sitting at home on their couch playing Madden. There is a whole lot of cussing at the kids and telling them to basically go out there and outright hurt the other team. They basically treat 8 and 9 year olds how you would expect highschool kids to be treated.

In my opinion if leagues want to have kids this young play this competitively than they really need to pay close attention to who the coaches are. Get coaches who know how to work with kids. I would almost say have the local highschool coaches do the hiring of these youth league coaches as they would have a good idea of the type of people needed for these positions.

Anyways have any of you guys seen this series? Believe season 3 is being shown now on tv and the first two seasons are on dvd.

Eight year olds, dude.

When I was sports editor in the little town of Celina, Ohio, the owner-publisher of the paper thought it would be a good idea for me to get involved in the community by coaching Little League baseball and football. Baseball was fine; but football was both depressing and enlightening.

These kids were 9 to 11. I decided to use a kind of single wing/shotgun formation on offense and I had three really good athletes in my group. (Players were assigned to teams, not chosen.) I put one of those kids at quarterback/tailback, another at right end, and the third, the biggest of them, at right guard, because I wanted a right guard who could pull, and he was athletic enough to be able to do it.

We played in the championship game and the junior high football coach was there. After the game, he told me that he really liked my right guard and couldn't wait to have him the following season. "It'll be great to have a kid his size who can pull and lead interference," he said.

I had a vision that night. I saw that kid playing right guard in junior high and high school, playing well enough to get a scholarship (perhaps at Ohio State) and being named all-Big Ten, perhaps even All-American ... getting drafted by an NFL team and having a good solid career of 10 years or so.

And then he would retire, having played football for 21 years--WITHOUT EVER TOUCHING THE BALL! And all because I decided to put him at right guard.

I continued to coach baseball for my remaining two years in Celina, but I quit as a football coach.

The show sounds disgusting. I wouldn't support/watch a program where adults are swearing at kids.