Football Concussions

When it comes to playing sports, it can be both fun and dangerous. Playing sports is not all that it is cracked up to be, it can have serious consequences that could affect a person’s entire life. No matter what sport anyone signs up for, they are taking a risk of getting seriously injured. Anyone can get seriously injured during sports, no matter what age and gender. Everyone deserves to have fun while playing the sport they love while also taking safety into precaution. Studies have shown that when it comes to playing football or any other contact sport, both children and adult athletes have suffered serious injuries like concussions that not only affects their mental health, but in some cases, have also caused death.

Traumatic brain injuries sustained in the National Football League has risen steadily since the first game was played. The public, as well as players, have been inadequately informed of the severity of concussions resulting from severe head trauma. Players have been sent back into play with life threatening injuries that may be invisible immediately but detrimental when observed long term. The National Football League has covered the concussion issue due to the lack of publicly the sport receives when role players are out with a concussion or another injury. Concussions and traumatic brain related injuries have become a costly problem in the National Football League (NFL), and most instances are mistreated and covered up.

Abstract Concussions have been a serious problem for athletes in the past and continue to be a problem today. From pee-wee football to the professional league, head injuries are the number one safety concern. Years after the injuries, a lot of players develop signs of a brain disease called CTE. This disease has shown up in over 75 deceased NFL players.

Sports fans still believes that NFL is still hiding many facts about concussion amongst players. With fans’ urges to find the truth, many media sources interview ex-football players, doctors, and concussion victims to spread the truth about the NFL and actual effects. With testimonies from the concussion victims, awareness of concussion through the media helps facilitate the change in the NFL with regards to concussion protocols. According to John Shockey from DePaul University, he writes, “The increase in media framing of the NFL concussion crisis has made the issue important to the public and made them sympathize with the athletes and their families” (“Media Framing of the NFL Concussion Crisis Is Changing the Culture of the NFL”). Shockey

Recently over the previous decades, concussions have increasingly received attention in the world of sports. A concussion is a serious head injury that can happen to any player, and in just about any sport. Indeed, it has been happening to a countless number of athletes for centuries. However, it is also important to note that a concussion can also take place outside of sports, meaning it can happen to anybody. For instance, there have been incidents where a person tripped while running, fell, and the impact of their head’s contact with the ground has caused a concussion. Or, in a car accident many front-seat passengers, or even the driver, have slammed their heads against the dashboard/steering wheel, also possibly resulting in a concussion.

THE INCREASING NUMBER OF CONCUSSION IN ATHLETES ARE DETRIMENTAL TO THE FUTURE OF SPORTS In the recent years, concussions have become a common accident related to various types of sports around the globe. A concussion is a traumatic injury of the brain, they can also be as a result of a sudden blow on the body. Such a blow may cause the head to jerk back and forth in a rapid motion. This may cause a bounce or twist within the skull, which may over stretch the brain, cause cell damage and alter chemical functioning within the brain.

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.

A simple tap to the head can change someone’s life forever. Athletes like to slap each other’s helmets and shake another player’s head after a good play, what they do not know is that they could give that player a concussion. It is likely that every individual will receive a concussion at some point in their life. Research has been done to look at the effects that concussions have on the lives of professional athletes and now the focus has changed to the effects of concussions of children. The focus is beginning to turn away from how do we prevent concussions to what are the lasting impact of concussions. What lasting impacts do concussions leave for adolescents to deal with in the future?

Redesigning the Football Helmet Head to head contact is a very serious matter. Kids, adults, and everyone in between are getting hurt in football due to the hard hits they take either in practice or games. The goal is to make football safer but people are still getting hurt and even killed. There are new helmets coming out every year but still not eliminating the problem.

“Deadly Hits” by Lauren Tarshis analyzes the topic of concussions. Over 300,000 concussions, or brain injuries, occur each year in sporting events. Ms. Tarshis analyzes 13-year-old Zackery Lystedt, a Tahoma Junior High football player, who suffered a near-fatal concussion while playing football in Seattle, Washington. According to the author, Zackery ’s injury was the result of a head injury.

More now than ever athletes are being watched out for when there is trauma to the brain. After multiple cases of poor treatment to concussions parents and doctors are cracking down on letting concussions not be a big deal. As more studies advance, it is discovered that every case is different. The range is created by severity, past experience with trauma, and how the patient heals. Concussions in sports can range in severity, and how they affect each individual over time depending on times of impact.

Imagine being the MVP of an all star sports team, then suffering a concussion from a very competitive game or tournament. No matter what sport an athlete plays or how skilled they are at it, there is always going to be a possibility of injury. Concussions are an injury with serious side effects and can permanently end any star's career. Today, many young athletes suffer from sport related concussions. An estimated 3.8 million recreational and athletic concussions occur annually in the United States, according to statistics in 2012 (Concussion and Sports).

An NFL football player will endure somewhere between 900 to 1500 blows to their head over the course of a single season. With an immense amount of blows like this comes an immense amount of damage to a player’s brain. This extensive amount of brain damage has been decided, by Dr. Bennet Omalu, to result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Over the course of these discoveries and much controversy, the NFL has been targeted, denied all accusations, done very few things to lessen the risk of concussions in football, and the risks and number of concussions have steadily increased throughout the league’s

According to a research report from Loehrke, a young athlete suffers a sports related injury that is severe enough to go to the emergency room approximately every 25 seconds, or 1.35 million times a year. The most prominent of these injuries were concussions, which accounted for 163,670, or 12 percent of the total 1.35 million injuries (Loehrke). Dr. Alexander K. Powers, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Wake Forest Baptist Health in North Carolina, found that most children who suffer concussions recover, but the prognosis for children who suffer recurring concussions is unknown. Recurring concussions could lead to several disabilities later in life, such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer 's disease, epilepsy, and many other neurological disorders that would require a substantial amount of surgery to cure, if they could even be cured at all (Powers). Putting a child at risk to suffer injuries, such as the ones listed above, is one of the main reasons why the amount of children participating in competitive sports has been dropping

One concussion can have big effects on a person. Many athletes acquire multiple concussion during their careers, and that can result in a lifetime of emotional and physical problems. The risks posed in college sports are nothing to take lightly.