Mine doesn’t play football or hockey - he does skateboard (and refuses to wear a helmet or pads), snowboard (helmet), and baseball (properly geared). Part of it is the violence in football and hockey - the hits. But you fall a lot on the skateboard (although, honestly, he doesn’t hit his head - his elbows and shins have gone through the meat grinder). It isn’t just the hits - its that YOU are hitting and potentially causing permanent injury, to someone else.
Part of it is also the commitment. When the boys were really little we missed the football meeting, but one of the other moms told me that the football coach has told them that practice was mandatory and more important than homework - we didn’t pursue football because football is NOT more important than math. And hockey, hockey takes parental dedication…
A few years ago Sam joined the boys’ baseball team. Sam was a really big kid - tall and broad, who’d played football for years. Until he shows up on the baseball team having not played since 2nd grade. “Football was getting too scary.” (Turns out Sam is a really bright kid - math team sort of bright - and was actually concerned about low level brain injury - some kids can weigh these risks at eleven and twelve.)
In my mind the risks of CET are additive to a long list of cons for football as a sport.