On an individual basis, boxing/MMA is arguably worse. Football's horrible for the sheer volume of it. Literally hundreds of thousands of young people getting chewed up and spit out, so we can confidentially tell ourselves Tom Brady is empirically the best ball-throwing guy in the country.
The number of helicopter parents trying to force their crying kid back onto wrestling mats I’ve seen has really soured my experience with these sports
I did a few Tae-Kwon-Do tournaments growing up, and the nicest thing my mother every did was tell me "I'm not signing you up for that again." Didn't suffer anything worse than getting run off the mat, and I was horribly ashamed of myself, but she didn't bat an eye or give a shit. Just insisted its not worth my health and pointed me towards soccer instead.
On an individual basis, boxing/MMA is arguably worse. Football's horrible for the sheer volume of it. Literally hundreds of thousands of young people getting chewed up and spit out, so we can confidentially tell ourselves Tom Brady is empirically the best ball-throwing guy in the country.
I did a few Tae-Kwon-Do tournaments growing up, and the nicest thing my mother every did was tell me "I'm not signing you up for that again." Didn't suffer anything worse than getting run off the mat, and I was horribly ashamed of myself, but she didn't bat an eye or give a shit. Just insisted its not worth my health and pointed me towards soccer instead.