“Deadly Hits” by Lauren Tarshis analyzes the topic of concussions. Over 300,000 concussions, or brain injuries, occur each year in sporting events. Ms. Tarshis analyzes 13-year-old Zackery Lystedt, a Tahoma Junior High football player, who suffered a near-fatal concussion while playing football in Seattle, Washington. According to the author, Zackery ’s injury was the result of a head injury.
Nathan Juhl Mrs. Daigle Pre-AP English 03 October 2017 Independent Novel Project: Hit Count Main Characters A- The protagonist of the book Hit Count by Chris Lynch is Arlo Brody. Arlo is a freshman in highschool and is in love with the game of football. Arlo is hardworking and determined to play highschool football for the varsity team even though his mom quotes head injuries from ´the file´. Arlo is one of the best players on the varsity team and makes all of the monstrous plays and that is enough to convince him that everything is okay.¨All I ever wanted to do was hit people¨ (Lynch 1).
In the craze of the game are fans ignoring the risks, brutality, and casualties of the sport? Acute head injuries are commonplace in the NFL. David Weisman, a neurologist and author for Seed Magazine, explains in his article “Disposable Heroes” some of the mental damages caused by football. Weisman expounds that
“Hike,” the ball moves and two lines crumple into each other, both trying to obtain the upper hand as they churn their feet and push with final reserves of strength. In 1920, the American National Football League began, and injuries have been a part of the game since the start. However, significant, life-altering harm from the repetitive crashes into others with massive amounts of both size and speed, has become an epidemic in recent years. What used to be considered just a good knock on the head that “rang his bell,” is today of serious concern and will quickly be followed by extensive concussion tests. Physical injuries affecting players during professional football should not keep adults from watching since fans experience communal feelings,
The National Football League should be held responsible for the head injuries caused to players, because the improvement of equipment, such as helmets is possible through the use of technology. As a consequence of the physical contact that is required in the National Football League, there are a great number of players that have come to face brain injuries during or after their careers. Many players have productive careers in the National Football League, which help lead to them developing horrific health issues. The players of the National Football League play with great effort and passion until they are physically incapable. In the book, “Slow Getting Up”, author Nate Jackson gives insight to how, “In the NFL, you are alive until you are dead” (Jackson 7).
Imagine the rules of sports completely changing because of athletes receiving extreme hits to the head. From receiving major hits athletes can receive diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or even Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. These following diseases can affect the way the athlete plays as while their everyday life. Athletes began to face life challenging experiences as time passes by. Throughout time there has been conversations of many compact sports changing their rule to make the sports safer.
From youth football to the NFL, concussions are prevalent at every age group and skill level. The NFL has helped to look into youth football in a variety of ways including heads up tackle which is a program that teaching athletes to use proper technique when tackling a player as well as fitting these athletes for equipment. By doing this, youth football players learn how to properly tackle someone to absorb a hit as well as give these athletes the least likely chance of having a major traumatic brain injury (Goldberg). Goldberg’s Hypothesis was that if you teach youth players in the sport of football the proper technique of tackling, concussions would not be an issue. Although the NFL has helped make dramatic impacts on the youth games including leagues such as pop warner which roughly over 40% of NFL athletes played in as a child, there are over 650,000 youth players in the United States and because of this large number, they do not track
Youth sports are an intricate part of our society. They teach kids from a young age how to work together as a team, which they can then build on and use in other facets of their lives. Concussions in youth football are at an all-time high, only because they weren’t (B3)kept track of until recent years.
In the years 2001-2009 there were more than 80,000 traumatic brain injuries cases, also known as concussions, brought to the emergency room that were related to sports within youth (Annual Emergency Room Visits For Traumatic Brain Injuries related to sports and youth aged 19 or younger, 2001-2009). Only 80,000 concussion went reported in those years, although a numerous amount of our youth don’t report their injuries. Mostly due to the fact that they “wanted back into the game”. Concussion are on the uprise and we must take action preventing them. Three of the actions needed to minimize the number of unreported concussion are the following.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, emergency department visits for sports and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), including concussions, increased by 60% among children and adolescents (from birth to 19 years old) over the past decade” (USATODAY, 1). Concussion rates in children are increasing by so much that schools even have had the need to put in concussion rooms for those children who are suffering through concussions. In addition, children getting concussions are even worse than when adults have got them. One reason includes how kids don’t have fully developed brains. “This sets them up for brain injuries that are more serious than those sustained at a later age from the same amount of force” (USATODAY, 1).
Although some football enthusiasts believe that children under the age of twelve should play tackle football because it promotes friendship and teamwork, the negative impact that the sport has on the brains of adolescent males outweighs the comradery that the sport teaches. Children play the sport without thinking of the effects of the brain injuries. Through interviews with past players as well as scientific studies, researchers have found that the cognitive ability of males (average age of early fifties) is greatly affected by the age in which the young player began playing (Boston University School of Medicine). Boston University’s Dr. Robert Stern said the concern is not from concussions, it is from, “subconcussive hits: these hits that don’t necessarily result in the symptom right then, but people can get hundreds of them a year.”
People believe that concussions and deaths are the results of football, but the good outweighs the bad and the concussions can be prevented Football should not be banned because it keeps kids off the streets and into the classroom. In Michael Lewis’s “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” a homeless boy is given a second chance by getting the opportunity to play football in high school. This heartwarming story about a teenager, Michael Oher, proves that football and other
If American Football is an art, then its athletes paint with blood. This should surprise no one; the gridiron plays host to modernity’s most violent sport. In this unforgiving environment, it is all to common for former stars to flare out with career-ending injuries. As I kicked off my research on the National Football League (NFL), I intended to report on these injuries. With a premise on my mind and a paper in my sights, I headed to JumboSearch to begin my investigation.
My first pinewood derby race It was my first pinewood derby race and my mom and I were driving to Tom’s house (one of her co-workers) to make the car. When we got to the house, we got out and went to the workshop to get the shape of the car. When he opened the door to the workshop, I saw so many power tools, hand tools, and utilities. We first went to i’m pretty sure it was the band saw to make the shape of the car. Of course I wanted to use the tools all by myself since I was a third grader, but like always, my mom told me I had to be helped with the tools and I couldn’t use the saw because I was too young.
“In the U.S., about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries each year” claims Stanford Children’s Health. It’s definitely true that competitive sports can cause all sorts of injuries from big to small. The media teaches people simply that sports leads to horrific injuries and can cause stress, but what the mainstream media hardly discusses are the great benefits of competitive sports. While there may be some negatives to competitive sports, that’s just life, and to add on to that; there are plenty of benefits which are sure to override to media’s facts. Kids should play competitive sports because competitive sports teach children powerful life lessons, contributes to their social and mental stability, and because of the physical gain competitive sports provides.
