Every person in the world loves football! Football has the highest rates of catastrophic head injuries (16).The long term health effects of high impact sport injures can be super dangerous.
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.
The project that I decided to research was concussions in sports, focusing on the National Football League. Though the NFL is famously known for being hammered with controversy surrounding concussions, they are trying to improve the health and safety measures to prevent them from happening, and to protect players. These measures are usually tagged with a term called “Concussion protocol”. This term has been thrown around for years by announcers, coaches, players, and probably the most by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The question I had was, was the concussion protocol actually being effective and reducing the amount of concussions in the NFL?
On Any Given Sunday injuries happen just as they do in any other sport that either has
Over the past three seasons, the NFL alone has reported over 690 concussion related injuries causing major athletes such as Ben Roethlisberger, Devonta Freeman, DeAndre Hopkins, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie to miss significant time on the field (CNN 2015). Testing in sports have always been significant, but as of late, they have come to the forefront following the large concussion lawsuit filed against the National Football League and the countless names emerging from Major League Baseball for being linked to performance enhancing drugs. Health and player safety is becoming the number one issue for many of the professional sports leagues including the National Basketball Association and the Federation International de Futbol Association
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.
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
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,
Young boys go full force in everything they do, and football is no exception. Most boys will start playing at age
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.
Concussions have become a major problem in athletics throughout the entire world. Head injuries can impact many athletes lives in a negative way. Hard contact to the head of a player can damage the brain and the way he goes about life. The way football is played, equipment should be better equipped to prevent significant injuries such as concussions. Head injuries drive a player out of the sport earlier than normal, so the NFL has looked into the issue and has gone about bettering technology and equipment to prevent concussions in the future.
Eckhart, Elizabeth. "Looking at the Risk of Concussion in Sports Head On." Brainline. N.p., July 2014. Web. 24 May 2017. .
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.
In 2015, the NFL reported 271 concussions through practices, games, and workouts in the 2015 season alone (Breslow). The NFL is the most popular sport in the US (McGarry and Schwartz). It’s competitiveness and excitement were all people focused on until players recognized the true effects concussions can have on a player. Today, only a handful of players come out and speak about the problem, addressing their concerns. The cost of speaking out could be that you would lose respect from your teammates and coaches, as they are trying to preserve a game that they love. The benefit of speaking out would be the change that followed in order to reduce head injuries. It is very important to bring awareness to this issue so that the NFL can make
With a growing epidemic of concussions we should spend more time studying concussions and get better protection in the sports we play. There should be more safety requirements, concussion protocols, and better education on concussions.