Concussion injuries have been a big speculation in the National Football League (NFL). Documents filed in federal court showed the NFL expects nearly a third of all retired players to develop some form of long term cognitive problem- such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia in their lifetime as a result to head injuries or concussions suffered on the field. After years of denial the National Football League is starting to come clean. In this editorial the author is trying to inform the public about these accusations.
Brian’s Song Essay (Football Concussions) Imagine you just hit the turf really hard in a football game. This is one way of getting a severe concussion which could lead to 2 weeks with no light. Concussions are a major problem in football and it needs to be fixed.
Many people question why concussions happen so often within the NFL? After all, these players know how to tackle properly and have they best equipment however the size of these men along with the violent nature of the game is what causes these concussions. Concussions happen at around 140 per season with several players receiving multiple concussions within the same year (Halchin). Team doctors have been extremely cautious in letting these athletes return to the filed of play after being diagnosed with a concussion. Halchin believed that the NFL does a wonderful job in protecting it’s players and said that until hitting is eliminated from the game completely, concussions will be a reoccurring injury and a risk that players have to deal with
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
Some of the tests revealed damage to the amygdala which controls mood. Additionally the NFL players scored much lower on memory tests, and had worse verbal skills (Hedin, 2015) 5. Due to the recent number of suicides & violent crimes committed by former players, there is more of a need to research the correlation between the head injuries in the NFL and brain disease even more C. Thesis Point 3: What steps the National Football league has taken to protect players long term health and safety 1. With the scrutiny the NFL has come under, they have developed a new protocol for the diagnoses and treatment of players with concussions 2. Under the new protocol, any player who exhibits sings of a concussion, even the most remote sign, must come out of the game and be checked out by the medical staff, they may not return to the same game if they undergo tests for concussion.
Concussions in sports are extremely common, especially in high contact sports like football and lacrosse where helmet to helmet contact is very high. Although helmet technology has drastically improved as there has been more concussion awareness the past decade, concussions are still one of the top injuries. A smart helmet that contains an electromagnetic field to repel helmet to helmet contact would significantly decrease the amount of head and neck trauma. The helmets will utilize opposite magnetic fields to ensure that when the helmets do get close together they will be repelled from each other. These smart helmets will contain the technology to determine the acceleration of the two people and determine the right amount of repel to expel
Studies have concluded that not just one concussion increase the risk for subsequent concussions but rather a frequent history of concussions may lead to slower recovery functions. The risk of permanent brain injury each time you receive a concussion increases. Article #1 said that high school students alone are three times more likely to receive a second concussion if they experienced one the first season. The point that is being made is that the more frequent the concussions without time to recoup nor assess the damage proves to mine highly detrimental to athletes. This issue raises awareness to the importance of needed time for the players to have after being diagnosed with a
Have you ever thought that a sport is too dangerous, but others think it isn’t too dangerous. Football has too many long-term effects, facts that people may not know about football, and after you get a concussion, it is more common for you to get many more concussions after the first one. Therefore, football is too dangerous for these following reasons. First, there are too many long term effects in football. Concussions may be short, but if you have a lot of concussions it could cause you to kill yourself.
As a result to raise awareness about concussions, the National College Player Association was developed in 2001 as nonprofit organization, to minimize the risks of college athletes receiving brain trauma and keep them in good standing until they are finished playing their respective sports. The program allows for college athletes to voice their concerns and opinions in accordance with NCAA rules. It was launched by a group of UCLA football players to serve as a support system for all college athletes across the nation and is the only organization that serves an independent voice for them. More importantly, the NCPA Players Council developed the Concussion Awareness and Reduction Emergency (CARE) Plan for college athletes. The CARE Plan includes
Concussions get a bad wrap. Concussions are becoming a very relivent part of todays sports culture. People are going as far as quitting their sport due to just one concussion. These head injurys have become a very hot topic and are debated heavily when it comes to contact sports. Athletes and parents need to be aware of these injuries, and a tough protocol should be placed on the amount of concussions an athelete can have before they become ineligible to participate in sports.
Dr. Frank Conidi analyzed the brains of 40 former NFL football players who averaged seven years in the league, and had been retired from the league for less than five years. All had brain images using sophisticated MRI, and 43% showed that the white matter of the brain had damage, which is responsible for attaching the nerve cells among separate regions. The length of the damage has been just enough to be classified as traumatic brain injury. Thirty percent showed derangement that neurons used to interact with each other- compromised connections is one of the leading causes of many brain disorders and is the first sign of bad brain health (Alice Park). Conidi has found out that the more years a player plays in the NFL, the more likely he was to show symptoms of the disease TBI.
Concussions which is a blow to the head causing brain trauma that can last several weeks and other injuries that has just as high risks like a concussion. September 26, 1928, a football league was created for professional football players called the NFL. The start of the league has always been at high probability for its injuries. In order to continue to play the game that countless people fell in love with, the NFL has to take serious safety precautions such as helmets and pads. NFL's necessity rules, such as unnecessary kids being penalized, are being utilized to reduce life alternate injuries and provide a better experience for the players and the fans.
The long-term side effects of these traumatic injuries have led spectators and doctors to speculate the dangers of head on collision in sports. Furthermore, concussions lead to TBI which leads to depression and problems with their functioning. Brain injuries have led to famous NFL players committing suicide and losing their families and
Throughout America’s history, football has been well known and a popular sport. Throughout the years, however, the safety of helmets have always been in question. As time went on, the amount of injuries significantly went down the helmets did not solve the problem completely. On November 6, 1869 the first "football" game took place. In my research I found that helmets were not mandatory until the 30’s which left a lot of players open to injury especially when half the players were wearing helmets and the other half were not while playing on the field.
Injuries in sports are inevitable, and can range in complexity. We would never know how bad an injury is unless we get checked out by a license medical professional. But in some cases the injury might not be able to be seen by the naked eye. An injury that might not be able to be noticed is a concussion. A concussion can range from mild to severe and was never a major problem in football until the last decade.
