Personally I am not a fan of my kids playing football. If it were no sport or football, I probably would begrudgingly give into that. I did let them play through middle school. But wrestling was always both of my sons' sport of choice. If you want to be the best you can be at wrestling, football is no help. There was no way being on the football field was going to improve my son's wrestling this summer as much as being on the mat. I also feel two contact sports back to back is just too much. Also, aside from the concussion injuries, it's all the other ones ... knees, bone breaks, muscle tears, sprains, that football sends into the wrestling room that takes away from the wrestling team. I know there are football dad's, and they think it's da bomb. I get that. It's my favorite team sport to watch. But when I take into account whether football is actually likely to be good for my kids vs. bad, I feel it's the most likely one to be bad.
Also, choosing a sport is not up to my kids in the long run. It's up to me, and in the long run, whatever outcome from the sport is on me as well. Kids are, all in all, idiots if given half a chance to be. I follow that rule of thumb generally with just about every decision I make. It means saying no to what they want most of time. Saying no to football wasn't that hard for me. Had they played, this would have been my seventh season of HS football, and I am sure there are multiple doctors visits I have never made, and probably an emergency room trip or two as well. They would play football like they wrestle, all in, and I am sure they would have suffered something for it. Just the way I look at it.