The issue of concussions in the NFL has always been a glaring issue involved in contact sports like football. Many people have heard of the issue and all the protection and safety regulations that have been implemented to try and help prevent serious injury. This has always begged the question of whether playing in the NFL is worth it. With the risk of all the injuries and post playing health conditions caused by playing in the NFL not worth the risk of serious injury.
As the seasons came and went there became an all too familiar issue arising from collisions on the field: concussions. For a long time “The NFL’s strategy seemed not unlike that of another powerful industry, the tobacco industry, which had responded to its own existential threat …show more content…
This is an issue that can come from playing football and makes the long and short term effects not worth the risk. Every player throughout their career will be hit hard and most likely receive a concussion, making the risk very high. If a player never gets severely injured in their career they are extremely lucky because it rarely ever happens. Some of the long term effects can be devastating. There are many medical issues that come with head injuries “While there are no consensus diagnostic criteria for CTE, behavioral and personality changes including depression, apathy, irritability, suicidality have been suggested to be part of its clinical spectrum”(Didehbani 2). There has always been an issue that people know about but one thing that people don't know about is how severe it is or how often it occurs. These are some of the issues former players have to go through because they received a concussion and there should be more help and protections in place for these players. If a player must go through these conditions there is no sum of money or any other compensation that make playing worth the …show more content…
Many studies into the long term effects of concussions “In addition to the recent investigations of long-term effects of head injury in athletes, military studies have also examined the impact of early head trauma” (Didehbani 3). One of the good things that have come out of concussions, is that there have been many beneficial studies that have shed light on injuries and how to prevent and treat them. Unfortunately with the good there is typically something bad, in this case that's players that suffered from concussions have a higher chance at developing some sort of depression later in life. This depression has an immediate impact of the lives and families of former players as well as down the road depression can lead to suicide. Some players have decided that playing in the NFL is not worth the risk such as: “...Chris Boreland who quit after his first season with the 49ers for fear of head injuries” (NPR np). This shows that players do make decisions about their health and whether they think it's worth the risk to play. If players decided to stop playing because they were worried about their health, then the league would suffer. The more people that decide not to play, the more people that might join them and make the league look like a bad place to be if players don't think the league does enough to protect its players. Many former