That was COLD, CMD. "Antarctica cold", in fact.
It's football. They know what they're getting into from Jump.
When I was about 12, I got sliced nicely with the blade of hockey skates. I do mean, "nicely" too. There was blood... (and THEN some).
I didn't give up playing the game until I was 17 years old. That decision had
everything to do with a particularly attractive blond girl, with perky blue eyes (among other things), and absolutely
nothing to do with the massive stitch-job I had received five years earlier.
I'd have been playing in the next game if my parents and coach would have let me.
Play the game, whatever the game may be. Make it "Flag" if they must, but do
something so it's not 3.5 hours of play-stopping whistles. It's painful (for me), so I choose to just check scores instead. No whistles that way.