In all walks of life and just about any profession you can think of, it's safe to say that most fathers would be thrilled to have their sons follow in their footsteps.
But for New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott, he would absolutely hate for his seven-year-old son, B.J., to become a football player.
"I don't want my son to play football," Scott told the New York Daily News, in a report that was posted by myfoxny.com. "I play football so he won't have to. With what is going on, I don't know if it's really worth it. I don't want to have to deal with him getting a concussion and what it would be like later in life."
I understand where Scott is coming from, but I find this to be an alarming trend that may alter the landscape of the game in the years ahead.
Are we heading to the point where the sport of football loses out on most of the top young athletic talents in the country?
I believe that plenty of ordinary parents who are just everyday citizens and not NFL stars, take the same approach as Scott, swaying their children towards "safer" sports like baseball or soccer.
The end result is that elite youth level athletes may join other sports, which will weaken the talent pool at the high school and college levels. Ultimately, the best athletes in the world will become baseball, soccer and basketball players, instead of making their way to the NFL.
We are just now starting to learn about the effects of concussions and head injuries to NFL stars who played in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s, and startling facts have recently come to light since Junior Seau and Dave Duerson took their lives due to the horrendous tolls football took on their health.
According to an ESPN.com report, the average life expectancy of a retired NFL player is 53-39, or approximately 20 years less than the life expectancy of the average American male.
If I was a parent, I would likely take the same stance as Scott. Young kids shouldn't be allowed to decide for themselves about playing football.
A seven-year-old kid likely wouldn't care about the long-term consequences of concussions and head injuries, as they would just worry about the present time.
When you tell a teenager that they might get cancer if they start smoking, it doesn't quite sink in because they aren't worried about what happens to them 40 years down the road. It's the same concept for football, so parents need to take the matter into their own hands.
Perhaps the scariest thing about the recent information that has come out about NFL head injuries is that we don't know about the effects of concussions that occur at the youth level.
There are less concussions in youth league sports than in the NFL, but research is still being done to determine what long-term effects a concussion has on a child as opposed to a grown man.
Eric Holden is a lifelong New York Jets fan. Follow him on Twitter @ericholden.
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