The attorney for the family who is suing the Pop Warner football organization over the death of their son says very young kids should not be playing tackle football. Sheboygan attorney Gordon Johnson specializes in brain trauma cases and represents the family of Joseph Chernach. Chernach played Pop Warner football in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and continued to play tackle football through high school. “He was allowed to play in leagues where he wasn’t heavy enough to play in Pop Warner. The coaches just didn’t have the training in how to supervise these games, limit the practice, there were no concussion protocols,” Johnson told AM 1170 WFDL’s Between the Lines program. “In general there just wasn’t any precautions taken to limit the degree of repetitive head contact.” At age 25 Chernach commited suicide. An autopsy showed that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. “His cognitive function began to decline, his behavior became very different. His mood crashed,” Johnson said. “Over a period of three to four years he went from being the homecoming king type, happy go lucky, friends with everybody to very withdrawn, very aggressive, just very depressed.” The lawsuit claims that Pop Warner’s conduct was deliberate and a disregard of the plaintiff’s right to safety, health or life. “The lawsuit is an attempt to hold accountable an organization that took on the responsibility of making football safe for children, yet never took any actions to assure that the degree of head injuries suffered during games is limited.”
