American Football Sociology

A synthesis text differs from a single sourced text due to its heightened credibility, substantiating support from multiple databases. In the single-sourced text, “Is it Immoral to Watch the Superbowl?” by Almond and the synthesis text “Are You No Longer an NFL Fan?” by Vasilogambros, both authors share similar viewpoints on football but their  perspectives regarding the aftereffects of the sport differs.

We all come from somewhere. Our story defines who we are, what we stand for, what we are built upon. In the debate whether collegiate athletes should be paid it is easy to get lost in the numbers and dollar signs. In “The Shame of College Sports”, Taylor Branch took a step back to evaluate the values and conditions that the NCAA was built upon. Telling the story through historical moments and recounting important lawsuits, Taylor gives a biased rendition and account of the NCAA’s upbringing.

In the article titled "Offensive Play" published in 2009 by the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell argues that NFL players, in particular linemen, and dogfighting resemble due to the amount of violence that has been done to their bodies and the long-term effects they acquired from the amount of violence. However, this analogy that Gladwell presents throughout the article that can be viewed as a false dichotomy. Gladwell deftly manipulates his audience into believing in the analogy by the end of the article, but the truth is that the analogy is far off because of player have an option of choice. Gladwell makes this analogy hard to follow throughout the article because of spiraling transitions between subject focus.

John Eisenberg, a former sportswriter, writes about the creation of the NFL on pages 325-326 of "The League”, written in 2019 to celebrate the 100th year of the NFL. It tells an important story, to sports fans, about the start of the NFL and achieves his purpose of praising the hard work of the original NFL creators in the 1920s-1940s through specific details of the first Super Bowl, the impact of the rules created, and their feelings after finally achieving success. First, Eisenberg uses specific details about the first Super Bowl to set the scene of the impact of the NFL creators' hard work. Throughout the book he includes specific details about games.

In the true story based movie and the documentary, the dangers of head injuries in football are laid out for the viewer. Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered the brain injury chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE; however, the NFL was in denial about the effects football had on the brain and had on causing CTE. I believe that the NFL’s denial to the accusations were detrimental to many football players and that serious consideration should be taken into the way football is played overall. When Dr. Omalu originally diagnosed CTE on Mike Webster and the NFL denied that football was the cause for his death and disease.

Article of the week #3 The Title of the first article “86 of 91 Tested Ex-NFL players Had Brain Disease Linked To Head Trauma” caught my eye because it stated something that was not surprising to me because football is a very dangerous sport. The first sentence itself is an eye grabber and it gives a great overview to the whole article it states “Eighty-seven of 91 former NFL players who donated their brains to science after death tested positive for a brain disease that I believed to be linked with repeated head trauma and concussions, researchers said. ”(Gallagher). That sentence made me think about what is going on behind the scene and on the field because I am not a football fan and when I do watch football it’s the super bowl

Research Project: NFL Concussions The project that I decided to research was concussions in sports, focusing on the National Football League. Though the NFL is famously known for being hammered with controversy surrounding concussions, they are trying to improve the health and safety measures to prevent them from happening, and to protect players. These measures are usually tagged with a term called “Concussion protocol”. This term has been thrown around for years by announcers, coaches, players, and probably the most by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Football is the most American of all of the sports we play. We have good memories of playing catch and watching games with our friends, however, there is a darker side to this all-American sport, the damage done to the brains of the players. While the NFL has attempted to make great strides in preventing further damage to players on the field suffering from concussions, the rates of concussions continue to rise. In 2014, 206 concussions were diagnosed, while in 2015, that number rose to 271 concussions. If these new regulations truly had an effect upon the safety of the players, we would instead see little growth, if not a decline, of diagnosed concussions.

With all the studies performed and medical discovery about this concussions, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and Neurological Brain disease’s proving to cause symptoms of depression, suicide, and cognitive abilities later in life, there needs to be measures taken to help ensure safety of former and current football players. Introduction Over one million people are projected to play football in today’s society. With that being said, football may possibly be the most popular sport in America. The game of football has a violent nature that takes a toll on person’s body, physically and mentally.

As concussions occur more and more in the NFL and among teens, more research has been conducted. There has been research on teens that concussions had occurred in teen’s brains, to find out what type of hit teens gotten by football may of suffer from it. There are many concussions in the NFL and especially teens who play football that have suffered death and never to play the sport they love. Teens and athletes who love the sport football, have been suffered by concussions that had ruin their playing for the most of this moments but research has been conducted of ways to help out teens and NFL. To prevent concussions, coaches and parents have the right to support their athletes to mental support from doctors.

Every person in the world loves football! Football has the highest rates of catastrophic head injuries (16).The long term health effects of high impact sport injures can be super dangerous. “Medical researchers at Boston University recently confirmed that 88 of 92 former NFL players donated their brains for research…”(15). “... NFL players who donate their brains for research suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy( C.T.E.), a brain disease induced by repetitive head trauma and linked to depression,aggression,impulse-control problems,memory loss, and dementia”(15).

Meanwhile, the NCAA makes $11 billion from a contract with CBS. The benefits that these players are collecting “have led to a black market for compensating athletes” (Birkenes and

Football is too Dangerous of a Sport You finally get a day off from work. You decide to go watch your sons’ football game, since he has been begging you to come to one for months. Everything is going great at the game, your son plays amazingly. All of a sudden your son is tackled, and is now lying on the ground screaming in pain. You run to him as he is surrounded by people trying to help.

People believe that concussions and deaths are the results of football, but the good outweighs the bad and the concussions can be prevented Football should not be banned because it keeps kids off the streets and into the classroom. In Michael Lewis’s “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” a homeless boy is given a second chance by getting the opportunity to play football in high school. This heartwarming story about a teenager, Michael Oher, proves that football and other

Adrenaline pulsing through my body and anxiety filling up in my stomach, I quickly throw on my football gear and head out to the practice field. It’s a nice hot day in Ocala, Florida, with the sun beating down on our necks, we stand side by side in line waiting to be picked to play second, third, or fourth string in a play. Waiting in anticipation, each of us grinding our teeth, watching first string pure athletes colliding against each other like gladiators to have possession of a ball made at one-time of “pig’s skin”. To some people, the game of American football makes no sense, whether it’s the idea of trying to protect a ball or running and passing it to make a goal for your team. People like this, see the concept of football and understand why millions of people love it; but to them the sport is pointless and causes way too many casualties.