...During each National Football League (NFL) season, hundreds of concussions are recorded, and potentially a significant amount are not even reported. Increased concussions have short-term and long-term effects on players, and these effects are damaging to their health. Right now, little is being done to solve the problem, and the NFL is trying to pretend that concussions are not a big problem since injuries are common in football. However, the fact is that increased football head injuries over the years have created a big problem that the NFL cannot avoid. They should consider the proposed solution which will help reduce head injuries in the league. The solution will help them save lawsuit money and show the public that the league is dedicated to their players’ well-being. Problem The problem with the NFL is that the league is taking minimal steps in...
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...unfortunately get a concussion in countless ways. If a concussion goes unnoticed this is a major problem. We are aware that Rugby is a contact sport and we are aware that injuries are sure to happen, but we also have to be aware of the injuries that we can’t see. Not only does this sport cause physical damage to the body it also causes trauma to the brain. Repeated trauma to the brain could cause a disease that is life altering, and can be severely worse if concussions aren’t treated at the start. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including concussions as well as sub concussive hits to the head. This disease is seen by the protein tau in distinctive areas of...
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...coaches referred to concussions as “having your bell rung” and were never considered as a serious injury. Athletes would simply skip a play and would be given smelling salts. After that, they would be back in the game in no time. Concussions now have been linked to life-threatening injuries in many athletes. Today, concussions are the most common football injury by young athletes and are becoming more frequent each year. Coaches, players, trainers, physicians and parents need to take better precautions when dealing with concussions and with their help concussions will not be as life threatening as they are today. Multiple concussions suffered by athletes can lead to psychological problems long-term. A scholarly person once said, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Even though the person was actually referring to people taking advantage of school, it now can be applied to football. A concussion is an injury caused to the brain which can cause loss of consciousness, confusion, blurred vision and ringing in the ears. Multiple concussions can be life-threatening, career-ending and serious. Concussions used to go unnoticed by players and coaches and they referred to them as “having your bell rung”. Players would return to the field after a short rest. Today, the NFL and sports teams across the United States are sitting up and paying more attention to the medical profession when it comes to concussions. Concussions are dangerous, cause permanent damage to a person’s physiological...
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...result of playing the sport. Unfortunately these professional athletes end up suffering from brain damage as a result of our thirst and fascination for hard hits and violence. I would explain that while football helmets seem safe, they truly only provide very minimal protection against concussions that cause the brain to bounce, shake and rotate back and forth hitting against the wall of the human skull as a result of frequent football tackles that appear harmless to those watching the sport. To ensure the message hits home, I would bring up examples of their favourite former NFL players such as Hall of Famer Mike Webster who actually suffered neurological effects of playing the sport. It is important to highlight the most severe consequences first, which is that playing football can cause severe trauma to the brain as a result of multiple concussions that these athletes regularly experience. This trauma starts to destroy the integrity of the brain cells, causing a degenerative brain disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). High levels of CTE in a football player’s brain can result in memory loss, agitation and even increased anger management issues. It can also cause death, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). This neurological trauma affects your ability to regulate your own emotions. You would likely feel more depressed and experience loss of short term memory and increased confusion...
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...Society Concussions in Sport: An Analytical Discussion “I had no idea what a nickel was (Kevin Kolb, The Concussion Blog).” NFL quarterback Kevin Kolb has suffered three major concussions since 2010 (Galliford, Buffalorumblings). His most recent one just this past August effectively ended his football career. This is just one example of the many in which multiple or severe concussions have cut short careers in sports. The issue of player safety in sport has become a topic of controversy and debate in recent years. Many professional leagues such as the NFL and the NHL have adopted strict concussion test protocols and procedures for its players. Player safety has no doubt become a major concern in contact sports. The problem is, many of these regulations have yet to address what happens after playing careers are over. What happens to former players’ mental and physical health after they retire? How do players whom have suffered multiple concussions playing contact sports live their lives as opposed to players whom have played non-contact sports such as golf or baseball? What will be questioned in this analysis is do known players that have suffered multiple and/or severe concussions throughout their playing careers due to playing a contact sport develop abnormally high levels of mental and physical health problems at an early age? Previous history on the attempts to lower the frequency of severe injury and concussions have shown advances...
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...develop permanent brain impairments. Safety, especially when protecting an individual’s brain, should be highly encouraged, even more than it is now. Safety is highly necessary for hockey because the player can get seriously hurt. If the player does not have the proper gear, especially paddings and helmet, the body and brain can be severely damaged. Even in baseball, the player has to wear protective head gear because of possible strikes to the head. As studies show, violent physical activities can have detrimental long-term effects on the participants. Sports or games that have the possibility of leading to concussions should be banned. Just because the individual...
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...,“League of Denial” The NFL Concussion Crisis ave you ever taken the time to consider the consequence? Not the immediate consequence, maybe not even the short term, but the long term consequence of how we as society treat our bodies. For the NFL, its players and “Iron Mike” Webster, the consequence’s became reality on September 24th 2002 when “Iron Mike” meet Dr. Bennnet Omalu as he lay lifeless on a cold autopsy table at the Allegheny County Coroner’s Office. Concussion: a condition resulting from the stunning, damaging, or shattering effects of a hard blow; especially: a jarring injury of the brain resulting in disturbance of cerebral function and sometimes marked by permanent damage (http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/concussion). Concussions have become more prevalent in the National Football League as awareness has risen. There are numerous cases of CTE that have resulted in permanent damage or death over the course of the last 15 years. The reality behind concussions is that there will never be a total solution to the issue, in contact sports the danger will always be there. We must continue to raise awareness and develop protective equipment to minimize the risk. Concussions are one of the leading causes of CTE among all professional athletes toady. Mike Webster retired in 1991 from the NFL and the Pittsburg Steelers after 17 years in the “pit” and made an attempt at a normal life, a short time into this journey it became apparent that “Iron Mike”...
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...It's often that playing sports results in an injury, concussions specifically, or multiple injuries that might end up with serious and possible fatal effects. It's not worth risking an athlete's mental state just to win a game due to the fact that a concussion causes both short and long term side affects that can lead to permanent brain damage if a second incident occurs after a short period of time. An obvious fix to the situation would be keeping players out for longer periods of time in order to keep up the players health status. However, some people's understanding is to add the player back into the game as soon as a medical professional checks off the athlete. Although, making sure the player receives a full recovery can also prevent the athletes susceptibility to the effects of concussions, all because the player was given more time on the sidelines. Notably, a player might report to their coach that they've had a head injury, and the coach is likely to overlook this and say something like "he suffered a ding" in order to relieve the player so he/she may return to the field. Even though this one concussion wasn't so bad, it may as well be treated as any normal blow to the head. According to the article, there were 43 athletes in a study who suffered multiple "dings" to the head and were not returned to...
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...Concussions in the NFL Concussions have been and will continue to be a major threat and liability risk to the National Football League. Head related injuries can have devastating long-term effects, causing serious brain damage, neurological disorders, and other cognitive health problems (“Concussions in Sports”). Within the past couple of years, suicides by former professional football players have been linked to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a disorder attributed to multiple concussions (Hanna). As a result, numerous class-action lawsuits have been filed against the NFL alleging “negligence, fraud, and concealment” (Brandt). Although the League has implemented new safety mechanisms and rules regarding head injuries, the main focus of the lawsuits is based on the NFL’s past failure to perform its legal duty of protecting and informing players about the true dangers and life-long impacts associated with concussions. The various lawsuits filed by football players demonstrate a liability risk to the NFL. Under the United States legal system, a liability risk arises when a person or entity can be held financially responsible for the life, income, or health to someone else (Rejda). Brain injuries and severe cognitive repercussions suffered by former NFL players can be categorized more specifically as bodily injuries. This type of liability damage imposes legal responsibility “for losses a person may incur because his or her body or mind has been harmed” (Rejda). In addition...
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...Consequences of Sports concussions. Jonathan C. Edwards M.D graduated from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and is a professor at the Medical University of Neurosciences. Jeffrey D Bodle MD graduated from the Indiana University School of medicine and is a neurologist in Charleston, North Carolina. The title Causes and Consequences of Sports concussions reflects the focus of the study because in the article the focus is on causes of sports related concussions and also the consequences. The research in this article is qualitative because the researchers focus on gathering verbal data rather than measurements. This report includes an abstract, discussion, results and references. It does not contain an introduction or methods. The abstract of this article contains the purpose of the study; it covers the common characteristics of concussions, certain symptoms and touches base on the impact of a concussions. Within the overview a concussion can also happen with impact to the...
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...Concussions in Football Football is an exciting sport in America, but football is also considered the most dangerous. 90% of most diagnosed concussions do not involve a loss of consciousness. From middle school to pro league, numerous injuries occur, and some are dangerous enough to be deadly or affect one’s future mentally or physically. Concussions are becoming more and more “popular” in the sport and need to be controlled before the game is nonexistent. Concussions are injuries to the brain caused by blows to the head, and the symptoms include dizziness and memory loss. Through my experience football is an enjoyable sport to play and watch but if players keep getting permanently injured or dying, then there won’t be much to watch and enjoy. Currently coaches/associations, parents, and players are debating about what action needed to be taken to prevent concussions. Dedicated players live, eat, and breathe football whether it’s during the season or during the offseason. Unfortunately, this...
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...According to Head Case, 4 to 5 million concussions occur annually. This is a mind blowing number that is only rising each year, especially in middle school and high school sports. The definition of a concussion according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a type of traumatic brain injury - or TBI - caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head or brain to move rapidly back and forth. This sudden movement can cause the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull, creating chemical changes on the brain and sometimes stretching and damaging brain cells. Vince Lombardi, a legendary Green Bay Packer football coach, pointed out, “football is not a contact sport; it is a collision sport--one...
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...with the helps of pads and the newest, safest helmets players still have an extremely high probability of sustaining a minor or serious injury. Some of these injuries can create long lasting health problems that can affect an athlete throughout the rest of their lives. Football is to dangerous of a sport for high school students, because it can cause serious injuries like concussions and also leaves many players with multiple long term health issues. Concussions are a very serious injury that many students experience while playing football. The total number of concussions throughout a season maintains a rapid increase, as it develops into a more frequent and dangerous injury. Over 9500 concussions occurred throughout the 2014 high school football season, and...
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...leather and protected the head down to the ear. Next came the plastic helmets, which had a facemask and minimal padding. Much later in the 1990s, the modern helmet debuted. This new, technologically advanced helmet has great features such as inflatable padding, a visor, and a durable material known as polycarbonate, a harder and safer plastic.The changes to the helmet have greatly made the game safer, but there is still room for improvement. Based on an article in the Chicago Magazine, “if the facemask attached to the sides of the helmet instead of to the top, much of the force would be released away from the player’s head.” With this new placement of the facemask, there would less impact on the head, causing a reduction in the number of concussions. According to Dr. Mawji from the Chicago Magazine, the NFL should use helmets with Kevlar and should place sensors in every helmet. Kevlar is a material used in bulletproof vests and would provide enough protection in the helmet to protect the head. Also, by placing sensors in each helmet, medical professionals would be able to see how hard each hit really was, which would make it easier to diagnose them with...
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...Millan Engl-1302 VF1-Composition 2 - Rhetoric 9 December 2014 The Big HIT in the NFL: Head injuries are changing the way the game is played I firmly believe that the future of the NFL and all of its players is in jeopardy of being lost as the American sport as we know it simply due to the fact that too many injuries are occurring in the NFL today than what was happening in the past. Sure past players got hurt, but players now hit ten times harder, play ten times tougher, it’s obvious they are due for a serious injury, it’s just a matter of time and when, surely they make millions each year, but is all that money worth the risk of losing your life or possibly harming it? Imagine this, you’re at your sons final football game as he’s a senior about to graduate, he’s got the crowd rooting for him, he’s the one who snaps the ball, yes the quarterback of the team. The defense is running full force, showing blitz when suddenly “ WHAM!” he takes a huge hit from a defensive player and stays laid out on the floor , suddenly coaches and staff from the team rush to the field while he remains still, the crowd silent , awaiting the outcome . Slowly he gets up with the help of the staff and coaches, he’s then carted to the locker room by team staff where they tell the parents that they are checking him for a concussion because it’s UIL protocol when it comes to hard extensive hits taken by a defenseless player. Not one person who loves football can deny that the big hits and huge plays...
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