MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is seeing a major shift in its football signups. So much so, it doesn't have its own youth tackle football league anymore.
That has longtime sportscaster and former professional football player, Larry Fitzgerald Sr., concerned. He enrolled his sons in tackle football as soon as they could play.
"We just went up to King Park, signed them up," Fitzgerald said. "That's when I learned firsthand that my son, Larry, was special. I knew at 10 years of age that he could do things that - he didn't have a fear."
Larry Fitzgerald Jr. grew up to play 17 seasons for the Arizona Cardinals and was recently inducted into the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame.
This fall, Minneapolis parks are offering tackle football for ages 8 to 14 and flag football for ages 9 to 18.
A park board spokesperson sent KARE 11 data showing, just four years ago, enrollments for both games were about the same. In 2019, there were enough participants to make 21 flag football teams and 18 tackle football teams.
Today though, of 680 youth enrolled, 85% are playing flag football while just 15% are playing tackle football.
The board says there are 100 tackle participants, which is enough for four teams but is not enough for a league.
"Instead of just turning kids away who want to play tackle football, we found an outside league for them to play in," communications director Dawn Sommers said.
Ultimately, parents are making the choice. While national awareness over the long-term impacts of youth football concussions has grown in recent years, people in the north Minneapolis youth tackle football community tell KARE 11 many families left the parks around seven years ago - not because of physical safety concerns or lack of interest - but because of challenging Park Board restrictions. They say the Park Board did not budge on requests to change standards like weight limits so that taller or heavier young boys from the north side could play.
Many coaches went on to make their owns teams and leagues, many of them traveling. Back in July, the Minnesota Jays won the D1 Nation Spring 2023 National Championship in Rantoul, Illinois.
Families also say North Community High School's coach and athletics director previously attempted to create a pipeline for all sports by working with kids at Farview Park. They say around 80 kids expressed interest in tackle football but that their efforts to restart it at the park were cut short because the Park Board didn't allow it, directing participants to North Commons Park instead.
The Park Board says it doesn't collect information about why families choose to enroll or not enroll youth into any particular sport.
Fitzgerald says he wants to ensure opportunities for inner city youth remain.
"I just don't like it and I think it hurts young people's chances to be able to get to the next level, which is high school. You look at the high school teams around town, they're not doing too good. I mean because they don't have that feeder system anymore. The kids aren't there," he said. "Yeah, we know about the concussions and injuries and the fear factor in playing tackle football because it's a violent game. Kids can get hurt."
Fitzgerald recalled his son, Marcus, once broke his leg playing football growing up but still made it to a professional level.
"The point is to not have that opportunity in a city like this that had it before. It worked for my son," he said, this time talking about Fitzgerald Jr.
The Park Board says the shift in enrollment is not unique to Minneapolis. In fact, right now, St. Paul Parks and Recreation isn't offering tackle football, according to its website, just flag.
However, spokesperson Clare Cloyd says there is a youth tackle football program at Jimmy Lee Rec Center this fall, describing it as "a program with a lot of history and a dedicated group of partners that have been working hard to continue offering tackle football to Saint Paul youth at this location."
Cloyd says the goal is to bring back youth tackle leagues to the parks in some capacity.
"I guess you could say we hit the pause button and look forward to hitting play again soon," she said.
Fitzgerald runs the National Programming Network and has covered 43 Super Bowls so far. He can be heard weekdays at 8:25 a.m. on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM and Mondays and Fridays at 9:10 a.m. on WDGY-AM 740.
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