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Dangers Of Head Injuries In Football

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In the true story based movie and the documentary, the dangers of head injuries in football are laid out for the viewer. Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered the brain injury chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE; however, the NFL was in denial about the effects football had on the brain and had on causing CTE. I believe that the NFL’s denial to the accusations were detrimental to many football players and that serious consideration should be taken into the way football is played overall. When Dr. Omalu originally diagnosed CTE on Mike Webster and the NFL denied that football was the cause for his death and disease. The NFL’s reaction was absurd and all they did was place many people in danger. Their decision to withhold the truth led to parents …show more content…

For example, better protective head gear and rules against head butting would allow less permanent damage and head-on-head contact. These changes could make the sport much safer for players, including young children that are being put in danger by playing football. The dangers of football concealed by the NFL were detrimental to the lives of many players, young and old, and their loved ones. An NFL football player will endure somewhere between 900 to 1500 blows to their head over the course of a single season. With an immense amount of blows like this comes an immense amount of damage to a player’s brain. This extensive amount of brain damage has been decided, by Dr. Bennet Omalu, to result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Over the course of these discoveries and much controversy, the NFL has been targeted, denied all accusations, done very few things to lessen the risk of concussions in football, and the risks and number of concussions have steadily increased throughout the league’s …show more content…

One huge example of this neglect to watch out for their players is displayed through the New York Jets’ wide receiver Wayne Chrebet. Chrebet was knocked out cold, yet the Jets’ team doctor still sent him back into the game to play. In the first 10 day prior to a concussion, athletes are at a much higher risk of developing another concussion; however, instead of allowing players to recover, the NFL send players directly into the line of fire after they have already been shot down. This failure to help provide more adequate preventive measures has caused an increase of the number of concussions per year and continues to wreak havoc on players lives prior to their time playing in the NFL. In the past few years, the number of concussions per year has only spiked. The NFL calls it a “cultural change” in that the staff are more willing to report head injuries instead of neglecting them. However, to many like Christopher Nowinski- one of the founders of the Concussion Legacy foundation- this increase just shows that the NFL does not care to prevent head injuries, only treat them when they are developed. The number of concussions between the 2013 and 2014 season actually increased by 58

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According CNN’s article “NFL Concussion Fun Facts,” there have been 692 combined concussions diagnosed throughout the preseason and regular season in the NFL over the past 3 years. It may be evident by these numbers that the NFL has a major problem with players getting concussions, and over the years their concussion protocol has been questioned by former players and other people around the football community. Ken Belson stated in his article “Brain Trauma to Affect One in Three Players, N.F.L. Agrees,“ that a third of retired football players are subject to long term brain issues, these issues may include the disease known as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) which has been brought to light in a more recent time. CTE has effected a good

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