...Concussion Awareness Among Athletes The packed stadium all holds their breath. Everyone except the player who is about to catch the ball sees what is going to happen. Then just like that it happens, the loud collision of two bodies slamming into each other, helmet to helmet. The player who just tried to catch the ball drops it on impact and now lays motionless on the field. He gets up with help and walks slowly off to his sideline. This athlete has just suffered what professionals in the medical field call a concussion. This article will be taking a deeper look into what happens to a players brain during a concussion, signs of a concussion, and what rising athletes can do to prevent these concussions. Concussions have been an ongoing controversy as of late in the world of sports and it comes with good reason. Though concussions are most prevalent in football, they are common across the entire sports spectrum. A concussion occurs when the head is hit directly or indirectly, causing a chemical disturbance within the brain that can have immediate consequences. An estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions occur each year (CDC 2012). The numbers will always be very broad when it comes to concussions because so many athletes refuse to take themselves out of their games and a majority of the time they neglect to report any concussion symptoms to a trainer or coach. Lets take a look at some of the factors that contribute to athletes neglecting their concussions. A university study...
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...Concussions have the capability to destroy a brain. Multiple concussions, if left untreated can result in serious life threatening damage. The issue of concussions is very close to home and important to me. A few years ago, I suffered from a concussion while playing soccer and for months afterwards, I was affected by symptoms of the concussion such as headaches and dizziness which kept me out of playing the beautiful game. I feel very strongly that something must be done to keep athletes safe from this deadly injury. I believe that an independent oversight organization must oversee concussion protocol, which is to identify, treat, and clear any athlete with a concussion. Concussions have always occurred but have not always been identified as such. During battle, concussions occurred to soldiers but they were not classified as concussions. It...
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...The hardest part of being an athlete isn't always the physical part, but instead it is the mental aspect of it. When your coach tells you to "get your head in the game," or "pull it together kid." These things are all common when you play a sport, and you hear them quite a bit. But what are you supposed to do when your head isn't in the game? What are you going to do when you just got knocked down so hard you blacked out; your coach wakes you up and tells you to get back out there. You try to shake it off, but your mind is blurry and you can't really remember what you were trying to do. All of these thing are very familiar to those who have just suffered a concussion. Returning to play prematurely will make the affects even worse, increasing symptoms and...
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...Sport Concussions and Head Injuries Concussions are a problem in sports and can affect people’s lives forever. There is an estimated 300,000 high school concussions per year (Parachute- Preventing Injuries. Saving Lives). Half of trauma deaths are due to head injuries (“ Journal of Trauma Management and Outcomes”, BioMed Central). The leading cause of concussions are sports, falls, motor vehicle related, and assaults. Football is the most common sport with concussion risk at 75% chance for a concussion. This is why I think sports should make football, hockey, and other sports that have a high concussion rate, safer to play. Some people don't like to play a physical game, but people like me would rather play a rough game. The more physical it is can make it a lot more fun to play and watch, but sometimes they get too rough and people can get hurt. It can be very bad if you get a concussion at any time in your life because it affects your brain. Your brain controls your nervous system, your planning, and thinking. Your nervous system...
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...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. Extended...
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...Case Study Draft Introduction Concussions have casted a dark shadow over sports throughout the last decade. They are the most common head 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...
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...Athletes and the Money They Make Wouldn’t you like to make over $100 million a year by simply playing a game? Well you can if you are a professional athlete playing at the NBA (National Basketball Association), MLB (Major League Baseball) or any other league. We all know that these professional athletes make a lot of money and there has always been a debate on this topic. People often question why professional athletes are earning so much but they do not often consider why these professional athletes truly deserve the money they earn. Professional athletes work a rigorous routine. Most people think these athletes only work a particular season of course this is not true, training and conditioning is year round. Athletes must spend their time staying in shape and they have to train during offseason. This means that athletes do not have much time for themselves or their families. This conflict with what most people believe about athletes and how they go out to parties and spend all their money. When in a team of professional sports the team would not wait for an athlete to get back in shape. So if a player does not stay in shape he or she is most likely going to lose their job. It is important for athletes to stay in fit so they can keep their job and still receive their paycheck. Athletes have to risk an injury every time they go out on the field to play. Football leads all other sports when it comes to injuries, the most common injury are traumatic injuries such as a concussion...
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...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 are the main reason we watch the game, but has anyone ever stopped for a second to observe how dangerous the hits can actually be and how they can affect a player and their families long term? We often hear about how NFL players current and from the past are being accused or charged with domestic violence, assaults, murder, and other heinous crimes, but often we over...
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...Each year 3.8 million americans get a concussion from playing sports or partaking in other physical activities. A concussion is when your brain gets shaken usually from a head on collision with another object and can cause unconsciousness or headaches. The top three sports that cause concussions are american football, soccer, and ice hockey. American football, the sport that causes the most concussions, requires that the players wear protective helmets and gear mainly because of the high rate of concussions if they did not. Even with helmets and other protective gear on, 65-77 percent of players have concussions. Concussions are caused the most in this sport because of how many head-on collisions there are. The top three players that get the...
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...Can We Tackle the Concussion Battle? Can We 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...
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...affected by sports injury is the brain. Damage to the brain can be caused by a sudden movement which causes the brain to be rattled around in the skull. Due, to your brain being rattled around you can suffer from a concussion, which can lead you to be diagnosed of one of the two major diseases caused by multiple concussions, ALS and CTE. ALS and CTE are two major diseases caused by concussion in sports or any other activity. One of the diseases you can get from multiple concussions,is ALS ,which stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. ALS can not only be caused by excessive concussions but also smoking,toxins,warfare,and too much exercise. In other words this means that ALS will weaken every part of the body except for your brain.This is also known as the Lou Gehrig Disease. Symptoms of...
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...College Athletes: Compensation Deserved but not Given Everyone loves to watch their favorite college basketball or football players play in a game, yet college athletes do not get paid for the entertainment they provide. Athletes put in around forty hours of work a week, when including both practices and games. Colleges should pay their athletes so that they can have less stress and focus more on their performance. There are many benefits to paying college athletes, and there are many reasons why they should be paid. College athletes should be paid because they put their lives at risk for entertainment, they need money for personal needs, and they should be able to get some of the spoils of their work, instead of coaches and administrators making all the money. College athletes should be paid because they put their lives at risk for entertainment. In football there are many chances for a player to get a concussion, one...
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...“A concussion is a traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, blow or jolt that can change the way the brain normally works” (Stich). Anyone can obtain a concussion no matter what activity they participate in or if they simply do not participate in anything. A concussion can happen anywhere and everywhere and happens much more than people think. People have gotten concussions while working and even while doing nothing. One of the most common sports to receive a concussion in would include football. “Teens who pay high school sports are four times more likely to come down with a concussion today than they were a decade ago” (Jio). Many football players in the NFL have received concussions and many of them have the disease called Chronic Traumatic...
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...ALS and CTE’s connection with young athletes The Ice Bucket Challenge and a simple hit in the head are nothing compared to ALS and CTE’s. ALS and CTE’s are horrific diseases that impact the lives of people every year. They have recently became an even bigger issue as more and more young adults have been getting diagnosed with these diseases. Specifically, young athletes have been the victims of these diseases and now the sports world is reacting by making sports safer, even if it means changing up the game. Changing up the game is causing a lot of corruption in the sports world because people believe the game can’t be played right with recent rule changes that will affect what the game is all about. They believe...
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...sports nation and everybody involved. This source educates the entire world on the seriousness of concussions. From children playing pee-wee football to adults playing in the NFL, concussions cause brain damage. They can cause a player to be inactive for a month, year, or a lifetime. In some very serious circumstances concussions may cause death. Zirin, Dave. "High Price of Concussions." Progressive Oct. 2010: 42. Wilson OmniFile Full Text Mega Edition. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results_single_ftPES.jhtml>. 2 NFL commissioner Rodger Goodell is taking serious steps to make his players more safe. Coaches are looking at what Goodell is doing and are following him by example. Goodell feels that if coaches and players see how serious the problem is, they will find more and more ways to protect the youth. "Heads up! NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell talks about the importance of protecting student athletes from traumatic head injuries." State Legislatures 37.2 (2011): 21. Gale Student Resources in Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. <http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/MagazinesDetailsPage>. 3 E:60 is a segment conducted by the ESPN network. This network covers every single sport and is a very credible source. The purpose was to inform its viewers on the seriousness of concussions. By introducing second impact to viewers, it encourages athletes to let all symptoms of their head injuries disappear before continuing to play a contact sport. ...
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