TAMPA, Fla. — Bruce Parkman has a lot of tattoos to remind him of his son, Mac.
This is the nightly prayer he read to his baby boy.
“I’ll like you forever. I’ll love you for always. As long as you are living my baby boy, you’ll be.”
Mac Parkman died in 2020 by suicide when he was just 17 years old.
Bruce has since spent time learning about the dangers of youth contact sports.
He said his son’s mental health issues were likely caused not by concussions but by what’s known as sub-concussive trauma from years of playing football, soccer, wrestling, and more.
Bruce created the Mac Parkman Foundation and is supporting the movement to keep kids from playing contact sports until they are at least 14 years old.
“This is not about anti-contact sports. I’m all about playing contact sports. I’m 60 years old. I still play rugby. But we have to wait until the brain is ready.”
The Mac Parkman Foundation has been able to meet with state and federal lawmakers and through the foundation donated a quarter-million dollars to Boston University to study and digitally map the brains of young athletes.
“When they look for CTE, they look for tau proteins and deposits, that type of damage. They don’t look at damage to the grey and white matter which is associated with mental illness They are now finding that damage. This is going to be huge.”
Several NFL stars, including Drew Brees, have spoken out against the dangers of kids playing tackle football.
“We are failing our most innocent population. Our children. And they are suffering.”
For more information, visit the Mac Parkman Foundation website.
