Tri-state area coaches gather for football safety conference
Saturday June 1, 2013, 7:49 PM
BY JEFF ROBERTS
STAFF WRITER
Neighbor News (Montville Edition)
EAST RUTHERFORD — There were no helmets. No shoulder pads. No cleats.
The grown men instead wore shorts, T-shirts and sneakers.
But they still lined up inside the Giants’ Timex Performance Center on Saturday to perform fundamental tackle drills, not as the middle-age youth football coaches they are but as the players they once were.
And they did it to improve the safety of their young players — and the future of their game.
About 50 tri-state area coaches attended USA Football’s Heads Up safety clinic, which covered concussion protocols and proper tackling instruction amid heightened concerns about head injuries that are sweeping the sport from the NFL to Pop Warner.
“The first action towards dealing with an epidemic is educating people,” said Heads Up instructor Gabe Infante, a former Paramus Catholic head coach who also served at Bergen Catholic and Queen of Peace. The West New York native is now the head coach at a Philadelphia high school-power, St. Joseph’s Prep.
USA Football, a non-profit organization endowed in 2002 by the NFL and NFLPA, nationally rolled out the Heads Up program last month in part to counter the health and PR crisis vexing the sport.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/Tri-state_area_coaches_gather_for_football_safety_conference.html
This is excellent work it’s so important to keep our student athletes safe.
Like assault weapons, football is dangerous, and both should be made illegal.
“The first action towards dealing with an epidemic is educating people,”
epidemic
…a bit hysterical