New California bill to ban youth football

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State Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy (not to be confused with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy) has introduced a bill to ban football for children under the age of 12 in California.

McCarthy, a Democrat representing the 6th Assembly District, covering some of Sacramento’s eastern suburbs, proposed a similar bill in 2018. This bill, AB 2108, was withdrawn before it could reach committee hearings after meeting resistance from mass organizations.

McCarthy is the sole sponsor of AB 734 this year. It was co-sponsored in 2018 by Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, who became known across the state for introducing the controversial AB 5 labor rights bill, known as the Gig Worker Bill, in 2019. .

The 2018 football bill also lists four Bay Area representatives as co-sponsors: Rob Bonta, Kevin Mullin, Bill Quirk, and Philip Ting. Of these four, only Thing still serves in the state assembly.

“I think it’s worth talking about youth sports in general and how to make it as safe as possible, but banning under-12 football is not the best way out,” Riordan head football coach Adhir Ravipati said. “There are a lot of kids who play youth football to get away from a bad family life. Youth sports build character and teach you the value of teamwork.”

Ravipati is very familiar with concussions and neurology. He served as VP of Product at Protxx, where he helped develop a sensor that can be worn behind the ear to help detect concussions. His team at Menlo-Atherton wore these gauges in the 2018 season.

“Football is not the only youth sport where head injuries are feared,” said Ravipati. “It’s more stigmatized than in football or lacrosse. It may be more common in football, but other sports are not exempt from these problems.”

“The game has changed a lot even since I stopped playing,” said Ravipati, who spent his final season in collegiate ball in the Northeast in 2010. “One of the problems is that you still have a lot of old school trainers trying to teach fights the way they were taught instead of looking at new techniques.”

Much of the support for the 2018 bill is likely to be revived for AB 734, which advocated for kids to play flag football rather than ball football.

“Flag football has its value,” added Ravipati, who saw one of his players suffer a concussion in 2021 from an unnecessary strike about 30 yards from the game. “He teaches how to pass the ball and play in open spaces, while youth football is mostly played in tight formations with a lot of running. But both have value.”

The proposed bill could go into effect on January 1, 2026 if approved.

Assemblyman McCarthy was contacted for comment.

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