Giants legend Harry Carson won't let grandson play football

Harry Carson has long been one of the most prominent former NFL players speaking out against the dangers of football, and that goes for his family as well as the general public.

The longtime New York Giants linebacker and member of the 2006 Pro Football Hall of Fame class has spent much of his post-football life raising awareness about head trauma in contact sports.

Earlier in May, he backed a potential New York state law that would ban tackle football until children reach their teenage years.

"I think that parents should think long and hard about what they're signing their kids up for," Carson said, according to Nathaniel Vinton of the New York Daily News. "There is definitely a correlation between head trauma and problems down the line, whether it's in older adults with dementia or young people with post-concussion syndrome. It affects their quality of life."

In stating his case before lawmakers, Carson indicated that his grandson wouldn't be playing football of any kind.

"I've sort of made the decision, as the dictator of my family, that my grandson was not going to play football," Carson said. "He understands where I'm coming from. He's not going to be playing football. I get him involved with other sports."

Carson dealt with the effects of concussions in the years that followed an NFL career spanning 13 seasons from 1976-88.

Though football organizations at all levels have been taking steps to improve player safety, the 62-year-old believes the concussion issue is impossible to control.

"When you're on the field, and bodies are moving, and you're sort of zeroing in to make a hit, and that guy's so fast that that shoulder's not going to get there, you hit your head," he said.

"You see stars and everything sort of fades to black and the damage is done."