Nation's Largest Youth Football League to Change Rules

The nation's largest youth football league, Pop Warner, is changing its rules for player contact in an attempt to reduce head injuries, according to 11 Alive news.

Specifically, the league's rules will make it illegal for players lined up three yards apart to have helmet-to-helmet contact, while also discouraging helmet-to-helmet contact in general, and reducing the amount of practice time youth spend in full-contact drills, according to the report.

Pop Warner's changes won't have a direct impact on Atlanta youth sports - the Pop Warner league is only active in Augusta and Albany the station reports - but the league's changes could be a bellwether for other leagues. 

Do you think that youth football is dangerous? Do these rule changes sound like they are reasonable measures? Would you like to see similar measures adopted in your kid's league? Leave us a comment below the story. Join the conversation on Facebook.

Pop Warner's pending changes are some of the first since a nationwide discussion about the dangers of football was sparked by the suicide of former National Football League star Junior Seau. A class-action lawsuit of former players has also happened since then.

While these high profile news events have brought the issue to the forefront, there's plenty of research to suggest that the hazards of football through head injuries - potentially long term damage - is not just reserved for pro players, but has become a major concern for high school athletes as well.

The Centers for Disease Controls estimate that there are between 1.6 million and 3.8 million sports-related concussions every year, and the centers conclude that they are at an "epidemic level."

On top of that, studies suggest for scholastic athletes, football creates the most potentially harmful hits to the head, and concussions in high-school football go vastly under reported.

Much of the research up until now has focused on concussions. Studies show that athletes with two or more traumatic brain injuries in their high school career demonstrate statistically significant lower grade-point averages.

Some of the new research on the study of brain injuries at Purdue University indicates that repeated blows to the head of much less force than a concussion can also create an impairment.