Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 2025
ISSN
0028-4823
Publisher
New England School of Law
Language
en-US
Abstract
Youth sport enjoys a favored status in American culture, encouraged by policymakers and local communities, pursued by parents, and remembered through rose-colored lenses by adults. Most lawyers are familiar with Justice Harry Blackmun’s ode to the magical qualities of baseball in Flood v. Kuhn, in which he took the liberty of running through his own memories of scores of baseball legends.1 Congress and presidents want children to continue in sport.2 Many in the health field argue that sport is important because exercise is important, and sport is treated as the natural manifestation of exercise.3 An enormous number—perhaps as many as half—of children participate in American youth sports every year.4 At the same time, children want to quit, and do quit, youth sports well before completing school or becoming adults. As many as 80% of children who participate in youth sports quit by the age of fifteen.5 Far too many children are injured before they quit, and many experience exhaustion and diminished interest. Making sense of this paradox is urgent for anyone who cares about the physical and emotional health of children. The clear-eyed look at youth sport we consider here is timely and urgently needed.
Recommended Citation
Katharine B. Silbaugh,
The Sports Parent's Predicament
,
60
New England Law Review
55
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/4280
Included in
Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, Juvenile Law Commons, Law and Society Commons
