...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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...Blasting blow after blow can take its toll on all football players. Every play demands contact against the opponent. With excessive contact and collisions at rapid pace, no human being can withstand the effects on his body. Football demands full attention and effort because of the constant intensity it requires. The games demanding focus results in split second decisions such as sprinting in a certain direction or lunging to make a tackle. Spectators watch the demanding hits players take and deliver each time the ball is snapped. These crucial hits over time create problems for players currently playing or years after his career. It is no secret for fans watching that these players face tremendous pain through gigantic blows causing injuries...
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..."High school football accounts for 47% of all sport related concussions" ("Sports," 2013). High school athletes still have developing brains. Any injury to their brain can cause severe changes in development and cognitive ability. When thinking about sports, there are many that require more impacts than football. Take ice hockey for example. The athletes get pounded into the walls and fall down easier, but football players still acquire almost half of all concussion, and the majority of those concussions happen in practice. Football is one of the most watched sports in America, but is also causes a lot of injuries. Many people think this has to do with the football helmet, made in order to protect the head and brain of a player. However, stricter...
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...Tackle the Concussion Battle Within Football? Introduction The National Football League (NFL) or as some people may say, “Not for long” is responsible for some of the greatest athletes. Excellence appears to be their one goal, which is to win Super Bowl championships. Some players perform at a high level for a while, whereas others don’t have a chance at experiencing actual playing time on the field at all. NFL players are less and less likely to have a definitive long-term career in the NFL. On average their career may span for about 3 ½ years (Stradley, 2011). (Workman Pub Co, 2002) The NFL has added several new teams, provided innovative equipment, additional rules, distinctive playing styles, but most importantly there has been a revolutionary change of the NFL culture. The game of football is being played at a faster pace and players are becoming larger, and intelligent (Wharton, 2011). While the sport of football can be stressful, competitive, entertaining and enjoyable, it also poses a dangerous threat of injury. One of the more common injuries within playing or watching football are concussions. Over the past few years concussions have become a more serious endangerment to those who play, from new evidence we have seen on the effects on the brain and how it can affect a player’s future. The purpose of this project is to investigate the current status of football and concussions in finding a solution to reducing head trauma in players as it pertains to the following areas:...
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...Football is one of the most popular sports in the United states. However it is also one of the most dangerous sports out there personally I believe it is too dangerous to play in high school. Football players sustain more than half a million injuries nationally. Injuries such as concussions, fractures and worse of all chronic traumatic encephalopathy or more commonly know as CTE. CTE was first discovered by Dr. Bennet Omalu a forensic pathologist and neuropathologist Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The NFL and NCAA are implementing and regulating rules to make the game safer for players. Football is the leading sport in sport related injuries. In a research conducted by the Center for Injury and Research and Policy at Columbus Children's Hospital...
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...Contact Sports Head/Body Injuries Research Paper November 19, 2013 Down, Set, Hut, Hut! The ball snaps, and everyone clashes into each other like warriors in battle. This is what we love about the game of football. While we are enjoying this rugged game, behind the scenes there are players in pain on and off of the field. From them having concussions to broken toes, or in other words from head to toe, every game possibly being there last one depending on the extremity of their next injury they still continue to play and entertain us. In this paper we are going to journey through some of those injuries and issues due to this sport we love and how we could help solve it, and help these athletes we love so much be able to stay in the game of football a little longer. To start off, although we’re just focusing on NFL, I have to let you know it’s not just affecting them, but the little ones we having playing this sport as well. In an article I read entitled, “Hits to the Head Don’t Differ in Age, Research Indicates”, it says that more 25,000 kids ranging from ages 8 to 19 are taken to the emergency room seeking treatment for concussions each year (Belson, 2013). This goes to say that although we enjoy when the adults are doing all this physical contact, but when it’s our own kids do we feel the same way? Well, in this case think of those NFL players as you do your children. What if they could never play again, on or off of the field? In reading another article by Sabrina Rogers...
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...responsibility is to treat and evaluate players after an injury. While they claim that they only release players if they are completely free of symptoms and that also the players consent to feeling normal, the NFL should take on more responsibility with current and former players and acknowledge fact that they have knowingly allowed players to compete in games when they should have been kept on the sideline. There have been over 4100 former players who have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which also includes illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There have been several suicide related deaths that have left many unanswered questions. Some have even left suicide notes that requested that their brain to be researched. Additionally, medical research has been able to show connection through several studies that head injuries, especially repeated, can cause traumatic brain damage. The main point of this research paper is to argue that repeated head injuries suffered by current and former NFL players are directly related to the neurological problems and the deaths of Junior Seau, Jovan Belcher and others, while also presenting the reactive measures that are taking place to prevent future occurrences in regards to rules and equipment. Every NFL football team is assigned a medical staff that is a paid member(s) of the organization. Their sole purpose is to tend to players after they have an on the field injury during a practice or game. The history...
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...television every year. However, the NFL has recently come across increased intense scrutiny by former players and the media for their lack of action towards preventing concussions. The NFL is often compared to a gladiator arena, where players push through serious injuries and perform spectacular feats in front of a roaring and bloodthirsty crowd. Many people look at professional football players and forget that they are still human. They are not invulnerable to pain, and they are not immune to the side effects that come with playing such a violent game. Former players who played in the 1980’s and 1990’s played with rules that allowed dangerous helmet-to-helmet hits, and in a society that expected them to play through injuries, such as concussions. Players at particular positions are at an additional risk for concussions, with 18.2% of defensive backs suffering concussions sometime in their career (Pellman, Viano). Players that suffered repeat concussions were found to have a much greater risk of “increased neuronal vulnerability”, and that there is an increase in the likelihood of “recurrent concussions with each successive previous injury.” (Guskiewicz). Former players are experiencing increased rates of brain injuries such as depression, dementia, early-onset Alzheimer’s, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (Pellman, Viano). Over 2,000 former professional football players are now suing the NFL over allegedly hiding the fact that concussions can cause these effects later in...
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...responsibility is to treat and evaluate players after an injury. While they claim that they only release players if they are completely free of symptoms and that also the players consent to feeling normal, the NFL should take on more responsibility with current and former players and acknowledge fact that they have knowingly allowed players to compete in games when they should have been kept on the sideline. There have been over 4100 former players who have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which also includes illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There have been several suicide related deaths that have left many unanswered questions. Some have even left suicide notes that requested that their brain to be researched. Additionally, medical research has been able to show connection through several studies that head injuries, especially repeated, can cause traumatic brain damage. The main point of this research paper is to argue that repeated head injuries suffered by current and former NFL players are directly related to the neurological problems and the deaths of Junior Seau, Jovan Belcher and others, while also presenting the reactive measures that are taking place to prevent future occurrences in regards to rules and equipment. Every NFL football team is assigned a medical staff that is a paid member(s) of the organization. Their sole purpose is to tend to players after they have an on the field injury during a practice or game. The history...
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...Head Injuries in the Game of Football Head Injuries in the Game of Football 250,000 people age 19 and younger were treated in emergency rooms for concussions and other sports- or recreation-related brain injuries in the country in 2009. That was an increase from 150,000 in 2001 (Cleared to Play). Did you know that high school athletes sustain an estimated 136,000 to 300,000 concussions per year (Moms Team)? How about that 24.7 percent, out of all the patients who were admitted into an emergency department with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), obtained their head injury while playing football (Swarm Interactive)? That is higher than any other sport or activity associated with TBIs. Brain injuries contribute one third of all injury-related deaths in the United States and 75 percent of those injuries are concussions (CDC). It is easy to conclude that head injuries are extremely dangerous and can be easily obtained. For these reasons, people should be informed of how football can be immensely risky to play and how the sport is associated with brain injuries. Numerous retired professional football players now suffer from a degenerative disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). This disease is caused by countless hits to the head or body, causing small concussions (ESPN). CTE is a build up of a protein that garrotes brain cells that control one’s emotions, memory, perceptions, and more. As far as we have seen, the disease also causes serious depression, dementia, and...
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...and brain injuries suffered by athletes. A concussion is “a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body, a fall, or another injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull” ("Concussion - WebMD: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention"). The major problem regarding concussions is that they are not visible to the human eye. Concussions occur all the way from Pop Warner leagues as a child to the professional leagues. My friend has played football his whole life. Unfortunately, he has been plagued by concussions ever since he started to play the sport. He is a prime example of an ordinary kid who plays a sport he loves, but has altered his future forever. Commissioners are actively trying to reduce the number of head injuries that occur while playing. However, the main problem regarding head injuries in sports is that players tend to rush back to their respective sports, without proper testing and treatment. This results in athletes risking their playing careers, a life filled with long-term head complications, and eventually putting their lives in danger. As an injured athlete, there comes a point where you have to ask yourself, is rushing back to the game really worth a lifetime filled with head injuries and complications? So what do team doctors need to do differently when treating head injuries? Junior Seau and Sidney Crosby are just two out of thousands of professional athletes who have endured brain injuries throughout...
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...High School football injuries can be manageable if new safety guidelines are in place and followed. Football safety has evolved over the last 20 yrs. Due to concussion awareness, tackling techniques, and better equipment, the safety concerns from parents and couches are much today however. These precautions will make a difference to longevity to the players and team. Future requirements would mean less practice times, proper strength and conditioning, exercising, strict rules and better equipment. Football is not dangerous for high school students under the proper environment and supervision. The most common type of injuries are knee and ankle related. Knowing how to recognize the symptoms are important because they can be easily be prevented by weight training, proper strengthening conditioning activities, stretching exercises and practicing safer falling techniques (Page 22). The use of ankle braces and knee pads are another form of protection which reduces the severity of lower leg injuries. These injuries can be extremely painful but with the help of exercise and conditioning they will eventually heal and over time they can continue playing the game of football....
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...Head to Head Collisions: A Real Knock Out Audience- All football players and their parents. Also those fans of the NFL who believe the new rules are taking away from the game. Purpose- Address the recent changes in the NFL concerning the rules against helmet to helmet collisions, and make those involved aware of the dangers of footballs most common and most dangerous injury. Matt Gfeller was the average teenager living in a small suburb town in North Carolina. He grew up loving the game of football and dreamed of the day he would start on the high school varsity team. On August 22, 2008, during the fourth quarter of his first varsity game, Matthew suffered a severe helmet to helmet collision while making a tackle at outside linebacker. This accident caused a fatal traumatic brain injury, putting Matthew into a coma. Matthew never regained consciousness and died two days later on Sunday, August 24, 2008. Tragically, events similar to this happen all too often in the fast-paced, hard hitting game of football. The National Football League has recently taken steps to keep its players safer on the field by making all helmet to helmet hits illegal. Many players and fans alike claim it is taking away from the game, but many ex-NFL players and parents of younger players such as Matthews’ would disagree. They believe that the new reals regarding helmet to helmet impacts should be enforced and helmet standards should be raised to further protect the athletes. The NFL and other...
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...The minimum income for a rookie NFL player is four hundred five thousand dollars but does it compare to the toll the game takes out on their body” (Jenkins)? There is a growing list of ex-NFL players who have developed physical and mental issues, and there have been many successful studies proving that there is a correlation to their time in the National Football League. One of the more disastrous injuries caused by the physically draining sport is CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). Injuries like these bring up the question of whether the NFL is safe for players. Football can be a dangerous sport and there is already efforts to make it safer however there is very little effort to help the people who are still suffering from their career as a...
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...NFL Player Safety and the Effects of Concussions An increasingly popular topic in the realm of sports fans has begun to unravel. The National Football League recently has begun to introduce new rules and regulations for their athletes to start abiding by to ensure the continued safety of the player’s health. Although most find this change in the game of professional football as a positive step forward, others see this as a diminishment of the sanctity of NFL football. New rules and regulations that have been introduced into NFL are vital to athletes involved in the sport and help them to play with lowered risks of long term injuries that could possibly affect not only them but also the league in the future as well. The reasons for these changes of rules in the NFL come from various points of emphasis. Legal actions taken by former NFL athletes have plagued the league and its reputation as of late, prompting this proactive approach to reduce the risk of long term effects on players. With all of the legal actions being performed on the NFL some felt that these changes that needed to happen would solely be kick started because of the legal aspect of it as represented by this quote, “"I don't think it'll be driven by public opinion, but by lawyers and insurance companies," David Meggyesy, who played linebacker for the St. Louis Cardinals in the nineteen-sixties.” (McGrath, 2011). One of the main concerns by the NFL is the long term affects that concussions have been shown to have...
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