Bruce Arians calls parents who won't let kids play football 'fools'

Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians has some strong thoughts about parents afraid to let their children play football.

"People who say, 'I won't let my son play (football)' are fools," Arians told Peter King of MMQB. "There are DNA tests now that I could give your kid and tell you the chances of your child having a concussion or should they play a contact sport of any kind.

"It's only 400 bucks. Go get one."

Arians believes there's a lot more to playing football than physical play and that his sport is being unfairly "crucified" compared to other sports.

"The No. 2 sport with concussions is womens' soccer, but no one says, 'We've got to stop playing soccer,'" said Arians. "You can find all the statistics you want, if you want to crucify something. Our game is great."

The two-time NFL coach of the year strongly feels that the life skills and experiences of football outweigh the physical risks involved.

"I think it teaches more values than any other game that you play," said Arians. "When you have things that happen in your life that aren't going to be good, if you play football, you know how to handle them."

These comments come two days after Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called the link between CTE and football "absurd" and hours after the New York Times reported the NFL downplayed concussions with flawed research.

It seems the NFL and its employees are far from settled on the verdict about football, concussions, or CTE.