The era of Football in America is slowly coming to a close. Football has been known as America’s sport next to baseball for many years now. The general physicality of every play isn’t(B3) matched by any other sport on the planet, and that is why football causes more injuries than any other sport on the professional, and youth levels. Parents are pulling their kids from their teams, even in the middle of the season because of the information that has been released over the past decade illuminating a big problem for the game.
Just during the 2005-2006 season, high school football players received more than half a million injuries nationally (“How Dangerous”). One seemingly unexpected danger of high school football is something that falls completely on the decisions made by coaches and players. If a player comes off of the field injured, often times they don’t want to let their team and coaches down by having
“An estimated 1.6-3.8 million sports- and recreation-related concussions occur in the United States each year, although the true figure is unknown because most concussions are not recognized and reported. Players in collision sports such as American football may experience many more subconcussive impacts throughout a season and career” (Stern 460). The people at risk for concussions and CTE range from amature athletes to professional athletes and even highly trained military personnel. The cause and effects of concussions and CTE are becoming more prevalent in all levels of athletics, however athletes themselves are still slow to acknowledge them and take themselves out of the game in order to allow their brain to heal. There are millions of athletes participating in contact sports as well as military troops who are at risk for repetitive brain trauma.
What are the health risks of playing health school sports? The dangers of playing high school sports are now higher than ever. The amount of injuries has risen “Since 2000, 145 high-school football players have died from football-related injuries.” This quote is showing how dangerous high school football has now become one of the most dangerous high school sports. “Six have already dies this fall” according to Travis Waldron.
Football should be banned in the United States because it can lead to a concussion, can cause brain damage, and can even kill you. When anyone plays football whether it’s professional, college, or high school you can get a concussion. A concussion is also known as traumatic brain injury(TBI), a concussion is caused by the violent movement or jarring the head or neck. Most cases of brain injury are concussions. People who suffer from concussions generally fully recover fast.
About 7,500 hits that youth players experience, 8% are high magnitude (Robach). Think about this, 40 G’s is the hardest amount of force someone can take from a car crash and still be able to walk away with no sort of injuries (Robach), yet parents allow their 7 and 8 year olds to receive hits of 80 G’s, that is the same force college players are dealt with when playing (Scott and Don). Little kids are getting hit the same way and same force grown men are when they play football, this is a huge problem. The hits kids experience or have faced should be taken into account when parents decide if their child should step on a football field. People believe that the big hits that players are dealt with are part of the game, and without the booming hits the sport wouldn 't be the as entertaining to watch.
In the Table above, we look at the number of concussions dealing with both teams and individuals. The two six year periods, one from 1996-2001 and the other from 2002-2007 prove that concussions were extremely similar when comparing the 2 6 year periods. I found this to be extremely interesting due to the fact that the NFL saw concussions as an on growing issue and they made many changes within the rules to help try to prevent this MTBI’s from occurring. Some of these rule changes included moving the kickoff up 10 yards resulting in more touchbacks, emphasizing no head to head contact, fining players for dirty and illegal hits and tackles and emphasizing sitting out players for longer periods of time to help reduce the risk of re injury.
Every football player aging from pee-wee all the way to the National Football League are putting their health at risk. In recent studies, researchers have found that football players are more susceptible to severe injuries in the head and neck area. A major injury that is quite common amongst football players is a concussion. According to the Mayo Clinic
As stated in “High School Football Players Face Bigger Concussion Risk,” it shows that “High school football players suffered 11.2 concussions for every 10,000 games and practices. Among college players, the rate stood at 6.3. The authors cautioned, however, that their estimates are likely conservative because many concussions go unreported and because data on such injuries is limited. Even a helmet that passed industry safety standards for protection against skull fractures and other severe head injuries could still leave a player with a 95 percent likelihood of receiving a concussion(Breslow).” This shows that there is truly no way to protect yourself from things like this and when trying, you are only just wasting money through trying to buy the top of the line equipment when there can still be almost a 100% likelihood of an injury that can still occur which is another reason why we shouldn’t profit a football team in here at McKeel because it would basically be like paying for the students here to get a possible lifelong
Every year, more than 3.5 million children under the age 14 need treatment for sports injuries, with nearly half of all sports injuries for middle and high school students caused by overuse(Inetwork, 2017). This means that kids are being worked out to hard and play too much. Kids should not have to practice their sports everyday. 1.35 million kids a year get a serious injury from playing sports that are too competitive. It is getting to a point where the kids are not even having fun when they are playing sports, they are just playing it to win.
There are approximately 1.1 million high school football players compared to only 10,000 in the NFL, and college football. High school players endure three times as many injuries and catastrophes, like deaths, permanent damage, and neck fractures and head injuries, as college players. The skill level of younger athletes sometimes makes them prone to
Safety for NFL Players The National Football League founded in 1920, in Canton, Ohio is a professional American football league comprised of thirty two teams. In North America, the National Football League is one of the four major professional sport leagues. But, as a result, of the physical contact that is required, the players often encounter head injuries during or following their careers.
A concussion is a violent shock from a heavy flow, or a hard hit to your head. Younger kids that get a concussion are at a higher risk of brain damage due to their brains not being fully developed. These injuries could ruin your child 's academic status, memory, or their physical ability. Is playing tackle football more important than these
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.
When the hit occurred everyone watching the game knew Cam Newton had suffered a concussion. We all watched in awe as he continued to play, wobbly from the dramatic trauma that had occurred from the previous hit to his head. Collisions like these are the reason that many think the National Football League is nearing an end in the immediate future, as people become more aware of the trauma caused by concussions. This is why the National Football League needs to more strictly enforce their concussion protocol to preserve player’s future health. Not until recently has the National Football League really started cracking down on how players and teams should deal with players who are assumed to have suffered a concussion.