Pee Wee League players are getting paid to play football. Football conditioning is a year-round endeavor. Our kids are sustaining traumatic brain injuries (TBI’s) before they reach high school. And, worst of all, many young football players are sacrificing everything to make it into the NFL history books…an almost impossible goal that isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. No wonder they’re not having any fun anymore.
So how do we fix it?
Written by a successful businessman, father, and high school coach with nearly twenty years of experience playing and coaching this game, Tackling Dummies offers both an objective and insiders look at the game and identifies key problems with the sport and culture of amateur football. Both technical and common sense solutions are provided in an easy to understand and often hilarious way which will help every player, coach, and parent get the most from the game.
With real football stories from a number of amateur fields at all levels, concussion treatment and prevention protocols, descriptions and photos of safer and more effective tackling techniques, football tactics, and honest insights into college and NFL “careers”, this book is a must-have for any football fan, player, coach, or parent.
Bobby Vernon is an accomplished entrepreneur, having started, managed, and sold several companies. He received his MBA from Duke University and his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, where he played varsity football for the Hoyas. Between 2001 to 2015, Bobby founded and sold three financial insurance distribution businesses. He also co-founded ProcessMaker, Inc, an open source, business process management software company, where he still serves as a non-executive director.
Bobby currently coaches high school football in Miami, Florida, where he resides with his wife Lelis and their three amazing sons. Bobby is also a speaker and writer and remains active as both an investor and board member in the financial and technology industries.
"Tackling Dummies is a must-read for anyone who wants youth and high school football to be safer, yet just as exciting." - Gregg Easterbrook, author, The Game's Not Over and New York Time columnist, Tuesday Morning Quarterback
"Parents who question football's safety must read Tackling Dummies. As a neurosurgeon who has treated concussions received by football players at all levels for nearly twenty years, I have never read such an enjoyable, yet technically proficient book about football and how to play safer. It's a fantastic read!" - Oszkar Szentirmai, MD, Neurosurgeon, Martin Health System, Stuart, Florida
"Awesome book! Coach Vernon's love for the game and for players of all ages comes through on every page. Football has to become safer. Tackling Dummies suggests solutions that can reduce the force and frequency of head impacts, improve the game and make it more fun for kids while preserving its essence." - Dr. John Kuluz, director of traumatic brain injury and neurorehabilitation at Nicklaus Children's Hospital, Miami, FL
"In his new book, Tackling Dummies, Bobby Vernon offers sage advice about how to make amateur football safer without undermining the game. It focuses specifically on amateur football at the youth, high school, and college levels and Vernon writes about the need for change and lays out a realistic game plan for reform. Vernon asserts, What's needed are workable solutions to real problems facing the game. And while a number of items need to be addressed (e.g., ill effects of big money in major college football), Vernon believes priority #1 is making the game safer. He's right. But getting there hasn't been easy. That's because the American public won't accept safer football that comes at the expense of changing the essence of the sport. Creating "un-football" for safety's sake is a non-starter.
Vernon walks this high wire of change successfully: the reforms he proposes won't ruin the game as we know it. But making the game safer will require improving football techniques and altering the culture of the game.
I strongly recommend Tackling Dummies. It's a reasonable game plan for change, written by an insider who knows the game and issues associated with it.
It's a book for literally anybody who cares about the sport." - Frank Fear, The Sports Column, October 10, 2016
"Author Bobby Vernon knows all too well the risks involved playing amateur football because he has been playing and coaching football for nearly 20 years. He is a coach down in Miami, Florida and is on a mission to educate parents and coaches on how to keep their boys safe on the field. His new book, Tackling Dummies: Playing Amateur Football Smarter, explains in detail how to make American football safe enough for kids to play.
I found his training photos especially helpful. As a first time football mom I still don't quite understand the sport. Tackling Dummies is a simple and fast read that explains everything that a new football parent like myself would need to know about the sport. He also shares stories that coaches and parents can relate to and learn from." - Cascia Talbert, Health Mom's Magazine, October 6, 2016
"Coach Vernon does a great job of analyzing the entire world of amateur football from the youth level to major college. It is obvious that he has done the research and his analysis of the current state of the sport is spot on. This is a book that every parent and coach, at every level should read." - Rob Sgarlata, Head Football Coach, Georgetown University
