Concussions In Football Essay

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt saved the game of modern football. The game has roots that go back to the 1300’s, and over its immense life it has been attacked and thrashed by those who believe that the brutality of the game lacks civility. But the game has stood the test of time, surviving up until one of its biggest reforms came in the form of a governmental reform by the president of a young and thriving United States. When Roosevelt confronted the issue footballs existence in the modern era hung by a thread. Harvard, Yale ,and Princeton, the biggest names in the game at the time, had decided that they were going to remove the football programs from their Universities. The reason they left: 18 players had died playing football

For years the NFL has claimed that concussions on the field and brain impairment after retirement aren’t related, that a hit on the field didn’t lead to a loss in brain cells. Mike Webster played as a center for the Pittsburgh Steelers for 15 years. Nicknamed “Iron Mike” he pushed the Steelers through three super bowl wins and sits at number 75 on the The Sporting News ' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. With his wife and four kids, Mike retired from football with a full pension and a reputation as one of the greatest football players of all time. From there his retirement took a drastic turn. By his last month on earth Mike was living out of his pick-up truck under an overpass. His friends in football offered to buy him places to stay, but he refused to live anywhere but his small 2 seat truck. His wife had divorced him 4 months previous, and his youngest son, Garrett, had to act as a Father figure for his Dad. Mike, after one of the most incredible careers the game of football had ever seen passed away at the age of

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is a neurodegenerative disease that can only be spotted after death. Yes that 's right, it cannot be seen or diagnosed until the individual ailed has passed, making this one of the hardest diseases to cure. The cause of this silent killer? Concussive blows to the head. Doctors stated after the autopsy that the blows he suffered were equivalent to roughly 25,000 automobile crashes. The amount of concussions he suffered from is unknown, but it is guessed to be more than 10. Now these were major concussions, which means they lasted more than a day. The worst thing about these accumulating injuries was that they were never treated. Not once did Iron Mike Webster admit to having a concussion. Not once did he ask anyone for help, or question whether or not he should continue to play. This opened the floodgates for concussive research in the NFL, leading to a major investment of 30 million dollars to make the game more safe and protect the people that