Growing up I played tackle football all the time in my neighborhood without pads or helmets. I also played in a league for a year in middle school. Concussions were honestly very rare. When you are that little it's much harder to get seriously hurt because everyone is running at a much slower speed and is smaller. But it definitely does happen. I knew just as many kids growing up get concussions from Hockey, Lacrosse, and Soccer. Everything has a risk. I'm probably not going to go out of my way to sign my future kid up for football but if he wants to play I'll let him play. But I agree, boys will be boys and are going to do physical shit where they might get hurt regardless.