The National Football League (NFL) is one of Americas greatest past time, and although this sport has brought many people closer together, there are devastating events starting to surface about this breathtaking sport, and the athletes that play it. Concussions are becoming a problem in the NFL and also at football at every level. Many people are starting to see the effects of it, which is a concerning for the NFL. The NFL has done a lot to change the outcome of concussions, and they have also come up with numerous rules and techniques for players to use to protect themselves and others, and to put a stop to traumatic injuries these athletes are facing. The game of football has seen its share of major and minor injuries; players have broken legs, ankles, arms, and some have even torn ligaments in their bodies. Many manage to recover from those injuries, but concussions are different. “The CDC defines a concussion as a type of traumatic brain …show more content…
Kevin Seifert, on ESPN NFL Nation states that over 200 players had concussions in the 2015 season, 271 to be exact. This number is outrageously high compared to the previous seasons (Seifert, 2015). Looking at the numbers most people would say the NFL has done nothing to change the outcome of this situation, but those are the same people that sit in the stands game after game cheering on their favorite teams, not even caring or thinking about the risk those players are taking snap after snap, game after game until the “injury” or “concussions” happens, and according to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, concussions can have a long term effect on players who suffer multiple concussion, or who do not treat them properly, called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
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
Some of the tests revealed damage to the amygdala which controls mood. Additionally the NFL players scored much lower on memory tests, and had worse verbal skills (Hedin, 2015) 5. Due to the recent number of suicides & violent crimes committed by former players, there is more of a need to research the correlation between the head injuries in the NFL and brain disease even more C. Thesis Point 3: What steps the National Football league has taken to protect players long term health and safety 1. With the scrutiny the NFL has come under, they have developed a new protocol for the diagnoses and treatment of players with concussions 2. Under the new protocol, any player who exhibits sings of a concussion, even the most remote sign, must come out of the game and be checked out by the medical staff, they may not return to the same game if they undergo tests for concussion.
Concussions themselves are a controversial topic simply because of their destructive forces on the lives of everyone, ranging from people who tripped and fell a little too hard, to people who make a career of hitting other people as hard as they possibly can. There are many people opposed to the idea of football’s inherent violence, yet advocates of the sport claim that removing the factor of colliding would make a completely different sport that cannot even be called football, which itself has become so ingrained in American society that it practically owns a day of the week from Week One of preseason to the closing seconds of the Superbowl. The fact remains though that if football were to suddenly cease existing, many people would be jobless,
From youth football to the NFL, concussions are prevalent at every age group and skill level. The NFL has helped to look into youth football in a variety of ways including heads up tackle which is a program that teaching athletes to use proper technique when tackling a player as well as fitting these athletes for equipment. By doing this, youth football players learn how to properly tackle someone to absorb a hit as well as give these athletes the least likely chance of having a major traumatic brain injury (Goldberg). Goldberg’s Hypothesis was that if you teach youth players in the sport of football the proper technique of tackling, concussions would not be an issue. Although the NFL has helped make dramatic impacts on the youth games including leagues such as pop warner which roughly over 40% of NFL athletes played in as a child, there are over 650,000 youth players in the United States and because of this large number, they do not track
Although there is a lot more work to be done, the NFL and other leagues have taken a stance on the egregious situation that befalls those with concussions. There has been a recent decrease in the concussion rate due to the latest concussion protocol that the NFL and many other leagues have implemented that allow for professional trainers to look over players that are suspected of being concussed. Those players are not allowed to go back into the game if they still seem like they have a concussion, increasing the safety of those players who are unwilling to report a concussion for the purpose of being able to continue play. The enhanced detection and examination protocols have led to an 11.3 percent decrease in concussion rate. However, as stated previously, there is much more to do to eradicate concussions once and for all.
The concussion crisis exactly began over a century ago. The concussions were identified among football players during the first decades of the game. This crisis subsided and allowed the issue to grow rapidly, because football supporters redesigned the public’s acceptance of the risk. They appealed to the American values that allowed violence, attentions shifted to address more highly visible injuries, which legitimized football within a more ethically dependable institution. In the meantime, changing demands in the medical profession made specialists more reluctant to take a definitive stand.
Abstract With Football becoming the most popular sport in society today, injuries are bound to occur despite all the safety measures taken. As a result, Concussions are one of the most common injuries football players receive throughout their careers. This review of literature will take a look at symptoms of concussion’s, and their effect on retired NFL players later on in life. The research will show that players who receive concussions during their career will show signs of depression, Alzheimers disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and even suicide in some cases. There are three stages of concussions such as mild, moderate, and severe all with the potential to affect overall cognitive abilities later on in life.
Carson 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.
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.
Concussions have always been an issue in sports. Many sports can cause a concussion. However, the main sports are either football or soccer. Most of the coach's in these sports trey to help with the issue but do not fully understand the process of helping. "
Medical checks and helmets may reduce the number of concussions people acquire each year but will not stop this injury from happening. There are many ways to try and avoid concussions from happening, including creating less contact in sports but overall there are already many regulations that control how much players can have contact and more will change everything. Every year about 3.8 million people suffer from a concussion this number is only in sports so even though the helmets and rule changing may only bring the number down by a couple at least one person doesn’t have to get a concussion because of little fixes to regular day
The brain does not only get injured during concussions. Minnesota says that any given professional player can receive up to 1500 blows to the head each season. Multiple seasons of football can lead to serious damage, and diseases like alzheimer 's. More precautions should be taken by the NFL to prevent brain damage from
Football concussions can lead to brain injuries or other serious health issues that can be fatal. Concussions can happen in many different ways, which all involve big hits to the head. Hard hits to a player's head can cause his or her brain to move in different ways which can cause brain bruising or bleeding. A hard hit to a player’s forehead causes the brain to accelerate in a back and forth motion that can make a player feel nauseous or unstable. If the hit is focussed in the left or right side of a player's forehead it can cause the brain to move in a twisting motion which will leave the player light headed and with a headache.
Concussions in Sports In sports, concussions occur frequently across all age groups. From little leagues to high school sports to the professional leagues, concussions pose a high risk of long term Traumatic brain injuries. Because of the high rate of concussions in sports more attention should be paid to protocols and treatment to prevent traumatic brain injuries. High school athletes that partake in a sport that requires intense physical activity are the most vulnerable to concussion and need more time to recover. According to the Head Case “High school football accounts for 47 percent of all reported sports concussions, with 33 percent of concussions occurring during practice.”
Professional football in one completed study pertained to be the highest concussions among individuals who had reported to have zero to five plus concussions. Football was compared to professional men’s ice hockey and professional men’s rugby. Rugby reported more concussions in players compared to players in hockey. The only number value to be higher than footballs was rugby ’s account of having approximately fifteen men suffering from six or more concussions (Gouttebarge, Aoki, Lambert, Stewart, & Kerkhoffs, 2017).