A new reality show called "Friday Night Tykes" on the new Esquire cable channel is generating controversy.
The show follows a youth football league in Texas, where 8 and 9 year old kids play tackle football.
The kids are coached by often over-zealous parents who berate, push, and even encourage aggression and violence on the field.
One mother on the show was recorded saying, "When the kids look bad -- I look bad."
During interviews, some kids revealed they don't even want to play, but their parents are making them.
The National Football League denounced the program, calling it "disturbing."
Many health professionals say it's not healthy either physically or psychologically for the kids involved.
"This is the thing that blows my mind on this: if you had somebody in a classroom, a teacher cursing a child, humiliating a child, embarrassing a child -- and this is what happens regularly on the show -- you would call that person a bully," family therapist and author Dr. Linda Mintle said.
"If it was a parent who was doing that in a family, you would say that child was being emotionally abused," she added.
Dr. Mintle talked more about the show and its disturbing impact on CBN News Wednesday, Feb. 19.
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