Essay On Head Injuries

Jeremiah Jolly

Research & Comm., Period C

Mrs. Pienton

April 27, 2015

The NFL is Not Supporting Head Injuries Sufficiently

Introduction:

Football is a major sport played in North America and is one of the top paid professional sports in the nation. Is the National Football League (NFL) putting forth enough effort to support the league's players regarding head injuries? In the NFL, players have been diagnosed with many head injuries such as brain trauma, concussions, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The key figures and organizations surrounding this issue would be NFL management, teams, doctors, game referee, helmet companies (such as Riddell), and very recently, Chris Borland’s early retirement and the resulting publicity. Supporters

Dr. Ann Mckee, director of neuropathology at the Department of Veterans Affairs, strongly supports this conclusion explaining "These changes [in the brains of people afflicted with those conditions] are devastating—they're extreme and they're throughout the brain. They're in the cortex where we think and make judgments, where we do most of the thought that makes us humans. It's hard to imagine what the last few years of [Borich's] life were like”(“NFL Head Injuries”). Mike Borich was a Chicago Bears coach in 2000 that suffered many concussions when he played football that lead to him abusing alcohol. When he coached at the University of Arizona, his problem started to get worse and he was asked to leave before the season started in 2003. Borich never coached again, and as his depression became worse the began to abuse other substances. He overdosed in February on a mixture of alcohol, cocaine, and OxyContin. OxyContin is a synthetic analgesic drug that is similar to morphine in its effects and subject to abuse and

“Defenders of the NFL argue that the league has been proactive in diminishing head injuries in the game. At the October hearings, Goodell argued that rule changes adopted by the league have resulted in a safer game for players. He told committee members,We are changing the culture of our game for the better. Our goal is to make our game as safe as possible for those who choose to play it and treat our retired players with the respect and care they deserve." In an interview with PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith noted that, in response to concern over concussions, the NFL has worked to cut down on helmet-to-helmet contact (“NFL Head Injuries”). This argument is illogical because the amount of concussions in the NFL has not decreased much even since this rules have be changed. The NFL rate of a concussion compared to other professional sports are eight times greater. This makes the average professional career of NFL players last only 3-5