A Need for Change
Anticipation builds while players’ line in formation. Electric seconds pass while the quarterback yells the play. Shockingly, the players’ crash together in an explosion of energy, aggression, and sod. Televisions across America play this scenario over and over every Sunday during football season. Enthralled by the sheer athleticism and excitement of the sport, fans watch religiously, eyes glued to the screen. In the craze of the game are fans ignoring the risks, brutality, and casualties of the sport?
Acute head injuries are commonplace in the NFL. David Weisman, a neurologist and author for Seed Magazine, explains in his article “Disposable Heroes” some of the mental damages caused by football. Weisman expounds that
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Coaches drill players to tackle head first with as much force as possible. Though this is an effective strategy, it is also incredibly dangerous. In Nate Jackson’s article “The NFL’s Head Cases” he reports, “Some say players should block and tackle with the shoulder pads instead. Doing that means choosing a side, trying to hit the opponent with the left or right shoulder. That technique will get you cut by any professional team. It uses only half your body and half your strength” (Jackson 228). Helmets are made of hard plastic, increasing the impact achievable but also making it difficult to realize just how much your brain is “rattling around” inside your …show more content…
The NFL doesn’t take realistic solutions seriously, they simply continue to fine players and teams enormous amounts of money for “inappropriate” tackles and blocks. This turns into a vicious cycle, the NFL charging players for behavior their coaches are encouraging them to perform. How do we pull the sport out of this? What is the solution? Can we make this sport safe without ruining the thrill? Solving this problem involves not only educating the public, but also eliminating head-first tackles and providing better equipment.
Undoubtedly, football is a difficult, treacherous sport but currently no measures are being taken to improve players’ safety. Small things could make a big difference in the NFL. People are getting hurt before our very eyes, and we don’t do a thing about it, we should be appalled our lack of action and let it motivate us to make improvements and needed
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Show MoreCarson Simpson Mrs. Gallos English 3 Honors 24 April 2017 Concussions in Football Although football is a very popular sport, changes need to be made. There is a lot of research and data showing head injuries in football and how they hurt the players. The NFL tries to just sweep these cases away because they know it would hurt the popularity and economical support of the sport. Head injuries and concussions are the most popular injuries in football because of the fact that they are one of the most dangerous injuries a player could have.
The National Football League has even changed some rules to prevent head injuries. They have paid extra attention in keeping players who cannot defend themselves safe. This was shown the most in wide receivers in the seconds after they catch a ball. The officials will now grant the receiver an extra second to put themselves in a position to defend themselves. (Referee Walt Anderson)
Not only has this happened at the professional level but at the collegiate level as well. Players who make contact with another player by using the crown of their helmet are subject to a penalty as well as ejection upon review of the hit. The Ivy League has even gone as far as to starting in the 2016 season to non-contact practices. These new rules have upset some football fans that say that the game is meant for hard hitting and violent collisions. Fans do need to take the time to look at the reason as to why these new rules have been put into place.
Tackle football may seem all fun and games, however, the threat of injury is out there, with athletes participating in tackle football risk 3 times the percentage of a serious injury than other sports. Even though this threat is present, tackle football itself is too much ingrained in the PSAL system and pro league, and change is not always welcomed even if there are some problems. However, the public must be educated about the dangers of tackle football so that concussion related injuries will be lowered. Recently someone in the high school that I attend, Abner Kahan, petitioned for the option of flag football to be available as an official PSAL sport for those who attend Stuyvesant.
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
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.
Coaches number one thing they should do to protect their players is practicing “heads up” football. Heads up football is a practice of not lowering a player's head before they make impact. Players should never lower their head before a hit because if two players are going full speed at each other and they collide hitting heads they will most likely get a concussion from the impact. Another way players can be protected from getting concussions and head injuries is to have a good fitting helmet, good fitting pads, and a mouth guard formed to fit their mouths. Players equipment is the most important thing to keep them from getting injured.
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.
I punched in an adequately vague search term (football injury) and was directed to League of Denial, a book exploring the link between the NFL and brain damage. I expected it would feed my initial premise, and that I would use it as evidence of football’s mental toll. But, as I skimmed through the chapters, I
Firstly Minnpost states “ football has the highest injury rate of any teamsport aged nine through twelve who has played football experiences an average of 240 head impacts during a single season. Parents and new televisions has spoken and has notice since events happening in football has caught them that football is a rough-housing sport. Since children ages nine through twelve are more likely to get hit in the head, show teens are manufacturing that this could be a rough sport for them to play may lead to a problem. In addition, Boston University School of Medicine states “ the study lead by Boston University involved forty-two retired NFL players, aged forty through sixty-nine who had experienced memory and thinking problems since playing football in the NFL for some point of their life. Colleges and Medicine research are trying to see what causes these concussions and deaths from football that shows that this could lead to more further research.
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.
The players tackle each other in an effort to win; however, if the players were educated on the different health risks or injuries that can occur than the players would not tackle as hard or be more cautious when playing the game. According to “The NFL’s Fading Memories,” “there is a growing body of evidence that the multiple concussions and traumatic brain injury suffered by an estimated 30 percent of former player may very well precipitate the kind of violence that has dominated recent headline” (Amses 13). If high school football players know about these risks, then they probably would become more cautious with educated players. Football would not be as dangerous as before, and the game would still be entertaining and
More Safety Precautions are Needed in Football 34 of 35 former NFL athletes suffer from CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). Brain injuries and other injuries are ruining athletes careers. But some people think that the players gear isn’t safe. Even though the NFL already has safety precautions in place, safety precautions in the NFL should be more strict because concussions are causing a lot of players to get hurt, and injuries are ruining careers in the NFL. Concussions and injuries cost teams and player a lot of money.
However, an article written by the Chicago Tribune stated that “the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement calling for more non tackling leagues for youth players, more instruction in proper tackling techniques and zero tolerance for illegal hits to the head” (Chicago Tribune 17). They want to educate football coaches on how to properly tackle how you’re supposed to, they also want them to seriously crack down on all of the illegal or dirty hits that kids might commit during the course of a game or even during one of their team practices. In the same Article written by the Chicago Tribune it stated, “In Illinois, state law requires high schools to follow the concussion protocols spelled out by the Illinois High School Association. This year, the General Assembly added rules for when kids can return to school and sports after a concussion” (Chicago Tribune 19). These rules were made and added so that when football players get injured they do not try to come back earlier than they were supposed to and end up injuring themselves even worse than before.
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