ESPN's Dan Orlovsky explains why he thinks youth sports are 'completely broken'


ESPN

Published 8 December 2024 If you tune into Dan Orlovsky on ESPN, you’ll get a hot take on what’s going on in college football or the NFL. If you speak to him about kids’ sports, you’re likely to get one, too. “I think youth sports are completely broken,” he says. “I think the emphasis on ego from the coaches has completely overwhelmed youth sports. I think the emphasis on winning and losing has completely overwhelmed youth sports. I think the lack of commitment to development has completely overwhelmed youth sports. Obviously, there's a lot of money attached to it nowadays. We have lost sight of why kids play sports.” To negotiate a world of pay-for-play teams and “professionalization” from young ages, we need to constantly check in with our athletes, and with ourselves, to make sure we are giving them a positive experience. It’s especially tough when we take our kids to their games, and they are under constant pressure – from us or elsewhere – to be successful. Orlovsky, 41, was an elite college football player at Connecticut and an NFL quarterback from 2005 to 2015. Today, he’s all over ESPN as a football analyst. He’s also a father of four: Daughter Lennon (9) and triplet sons Madden, Hunter and Noah, who will turn 13 later this month. “The unfortunate card that they got dealt is every game that they go to, there's expectations,” he tells USA TODAY Sports. He reaches out for help. He is a spokesman for a fatherhood program called All Pro Dad, which provides feedback and support from a community of fathers through workshops and encouragement. He helps host events, along with other sports celebrities, in which he speaks with dads and their kids. It's an interactive experience, like parenting needs to be. “Probably being a dad for me is not even close to being the most important thing I'll ever do in my life,” he says. “I don't think that I was naturally born with elite dad skills.” Here are four insights for parents of young athletes he has gained from his program and from interacting with other parents.