Concussions in the NFL
Today, concussions have become perhaps the most complicated issue facing the NFL. The NFL is trying to find ways to help prevent players from receiving a concussion. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that alters the way your brain functions. Since football involves a heavy amount of contact, players can easily be put in a position where they could receive a concussion. The NFL is trying to prevent concussions because multiple concussions can really damage a player’s brain, which in the long run can give players some serious emotional and physical issues. Too many hits to the head can cause brain disease, as we have seen in some former NFL players, like Dave Duerson. I believe that the NFL needs to find better
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This film tells the true story of a forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu who discovers neurological deterioration that is similar to Alzheimer's disease in former NFL player Mike Webster. Omalu publishes his findings and names the disorder chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is the result of taking too many hits to the head. As other athletes face the same diagnosis, Dr. Omalu embarks on a mission to raise public awareness about the dangers of football-related head trauma. This film shows how serious concussions in the NFL really are and that people need to be more aware of the long-term side effects that come with football-related head injuries. Scientist have proven that damage to the brain caused by concussions can last for decades after the original head trauma. Some people can recover from a concussion in about two weeks, however others can experience post-concussion syndrome (PCS), which has longer lasting symptoms that can affect someone both physically and emotionally. Multiple head traumas can lead to even more severe issues. For example, Junior Seau who was a standout player in the NFL from 1990-2009, committed suicide two years after he retired from playing and studies by the National Institutes of Health concluded that Seau suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is the same disorder that Dr. Omalu discovered in the movie …show more content…
These symptoms can last for days or week and even after the symptoms have gone, the brain still won't be completely normal. Players with multiple concussions can have drastically worsened symptoms and exponentially increased recovery time. In the NFL it is very common for players to receive multiple concussions throughout their career. Even though many people think that the NFL needs to do more to prevent concussions, some people believe the NFL has done all that it can. The NFL has been doing things to try and solve the concussion problem, for example, The Head Health Challenges is a three-stage collaboration between the NFL, General Electric and sportswear brand Under Armor that works to “ advance the development of technologies that can detect early-stage mild traumatic brain injuries and improve brain protection.” The initiative pledged $20 million to fund technology and research over five years, taking in three stages which seek to: understand and diagnose mild traumatic injury; invent materials and technology that will protect the head from traumatic injury; develop advanced materials with energy absorbing and energy dissipating
To decrease the number of concussions a year the National Football League must issue more rules and better quality equipment. Despite the tackling and wanting to " knock out " an opponent of the other team, football players need to transition their mindsets to a different objective. Instead of wanting to hurt the opponent or lay them out, just focus on getting them down. Football players must have the mindset to keep their healthy bodies and prevent injuries so that they can continue to entertain, perform, but to mostly importantly win. Football without concussions and even injuries can make the sport more enjoyable for the parent, wives, and children of the players.
Once a professional athlete has experienced a severe concussion they are required to take a neuropsychological test. Neuropsychological tests are assessments of cognitive given to measure psychological brain-functioning skills to professional football athletes to determine if they are qualified to return to play for the season. Once a athlete has experienced at least one concussion, they are twice as likely to receive more. Brain trauma affect one in three football athletes. To be more specific receivers, quarterbacks, defensive backers, special teams and corners are the players who experience the most concussions.
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
In football today, concussions are the number one leading injury in the National Football League. In the past 7 years alittle over 10 national football players have died due to concussions. The list of players getting concussions during the past couple of years have just increased more and more as time goes on. A reason why the NFL concussion protocols are so strict is because the NFL does not want to get sued for mistreatment of players and insufficient care. That could possibly cause permanent damage physically and mentally to players.
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.
Since scientist have begun studying the effects of concussions on the brain with professional football players it has become apparent that concussions can lead to permanent brain damage and memory loss. Also, studies show that because of the speed and hits they receive every day, retired football players have developed brain diseases and short term memory which has made their lives a blight. Since the link of concussions to brain damage has been made, the NFL has made changes in the league to prevent these traumatic diseases. The league has changed the way they practice on the field and even the equipment they use. Even though there is no definite answer to solving the serious amounts of concussive cases in football, the game of football still goes on and precautions are being taken to prevent dramatic
The NFL has had a problem with concussions for the last twenty years. Recent studies have shown that concussions hurt your brain in the long term of your life which is to be expected when getting hit in the head with 1600 pounds of force from an average defensive player. But this is exactly what the players signed up for. Lots of money now but they will most likely have medical problems in the near to distant future. Players are now getting penalized and even fined for hitting the head.
It is not new news learning that concussions are a common occurrence throughout the sport of football. It just so happens that throughout the last two decades, former NFL players have or have threatened the NFL with lawsuits regarding their personal health, specifically brain injuries. Many experts and players also question if the latest technology used to prevent concussions from occurring are effective. Modern day CT scans can rule out bleeding in the brain, they however do not diagnose concussions. This causes many concussions to go unseen due to the lack of advancements in the use of CT equipment.
Concussions are among the most common and most dangerous injuries youth athletes receive. Most concussions and other mild traumatic brain injuries should completely go away within one to six weeks. In some cases, however, people experience post-concussion syndrome (PCS) with symptoms lasting far longer than this. Post-concussion syndrome can include headaches, dizziness, irritability, difficulty focusing or completing tasks, etc. (Long).Because of safety precautions sports leagues are unwilling to take, people will suffer from serious physical, cognitive, and emotional problems.
Concussion can usually be treated at a hospital or doctor's office right a way however some patients may have to stay overnight or in trauma cases there may be bleeding inside the skull. Concussion recover depends on many things such as age, where the blow to the head was,how hard the head was hit, and how healthy the person was before the hit. The concern with football players is the constant blows to the head that sometimes create concussion and multiple concussions with a person is showing long term effects such as difficulty with concentration and memory and sometimes physical coordination. A study of American high school and college players confirmed 94 catastrophic head injuries in a 13 year period, 71 percents of the high school cases had had a concussion in the same season with 39 percent playing with residual
Concussions are a scary reality of playing NFL football. Every year there are more and more players that are having season ending, and career ending injuries due to hits to the head. There have been many NFL players that have had serious issues due to concussions. Former NFL superstar tight end Aaron Hernandez was convicted of executing a man with a half-dozen bullets inside an industrial park. He was sentenced to life without parole (“Aaron Hernandez’s”).
Athletes who have a prior concussion face greater risks of developing critical symptoms of concussions and that can lead to slow recovery (Agel and Harvey 319–323). On some instances, concussion can lead to permanent damage and can even become
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.
Contact sports involve touching, hitting, or banging other children, which is often why children get hurt in these sports. Among teens, concussions and death have happened. While these sports increase the strength of teenagers as they partake in a school activity, the risk of injury and death is great. The health benefits of contact sports do not outweigh the risks of playing them. The leading causes of death and accidents in sports are caused by concussions.
Omalu had innocently believed that the NFL would offer a positive reception to his study that exposed the dangers posed upon football participants’ mental health. Contrary to his expectations, the NFL demanded for an extraction of the article from 2005’s July issue of Neurosurgery. Three editors from the NFL’s committee for Mild Brain Injury wrote about serious flaws they had come across in his research. Other people who had been affected apart from Webster were the likes of Terry Long. After the first report denial by NFL, Omalu pushed forward with a second brain examination on Terry Long who had showed signs of distressing behavior after his immediate retirement.