Warren Sapp believes children should not play tackle football
By Mark Carman
Warren Sapp discusses social injustice, how the NFL and its players can come together and how to make the game safer.
NFL Hall of Fame defensive lineman Warren Sapp, when prompted, had a suggestion for Roger Goodell on how to get all the players to stand for the National Anthem.
“Go sit with the people who are having the conversation. Go sit with your players, go sit with the leadership and find out what it is going to take,” Sapp encouraged. “We all have to sit in this puddle. Why make it a puddle of doo-doo?”
NFL executives, owners and players are meetings in New York this week as scheduled doing exactly what Sapp suggested. For his part, Sapp liked to focus on football on game day.
“We can talk about social injustice after the game, on Monday, the rest of the week. I really value my profession and I love the thing that I did on Sunday, and waited all week to go and display it,” Sapp beamed. “When we are playing football in two minutes and six seconds after the national anthem, lets get it on. It sends chills down my spine just thinking about the anthem playing, because that means we are about to kick it off. That has always been my trigger. They play the music, they kick it off, somebody is going to get their butt kicked, so lets go.”
When It comes to the plight of Colin Kaepernick Sapp is sympathetic, but would not have put himself in Kaepernick’s position.
“Ain’t no way you are asking me to sacrifice my check and my platform. I won’t be able to talk about anything,” Sapp reasoned. “Colin Kaepernick, for all the wonderful things he did, has to understand that when your talent and the stuff you bring meet, you are gone. That’s the ultimate rule in any organization. There is always a better way to do it. He did it the way he did it. Now we are talking about it, so lets see if we can make it better.”
Sapp is very involved in raising CTE awareness and will donate his brain to research when he passes away. He does not believe children should play football until they are at least teenagers.
“Not until 14. We do the Bar Mitzvah, baptize them in the 7th grade,” Sapp reminded. “Anything under that, they are not ready. Make them understand the game, without the physicality of the game. I didn’t allow my son to play the game and Warren Sapp II is 6’1″ 220 pounds. I didn’t put him in a football uniform until he turned 14 and said he wanted to play.”
Sapp will be on a panel to discuss CTE Saturday October 21 at Chicago Ideas Week. He will be joined by retired Chicago Bears Linebacker Otis Wilson and neuropathologist Bennet Omalu.