Should Schools Spend Too Much Money On 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

Children who are not aware of the consequences and the magnitude of the injuries they can sustain need to be protected.

The sport of Football has been evolving to help prevent head injuries in many ways one way that it tries to help prevent head injuries is by making a stronger helmet. When the sport first started playing with no helmets. but they later found out that without helmets there were too many people getting

In the high school sports community, concussions remain a high threat to the athletes who do not receive sufficient awareness and the knowledge they need about concussions. Even though sports, such as football, are implementing penalties and different policies to try to reduce the amount of concussions that occur, high school student-athletes still suffer concussions at an alarming rate. Concussions remain a serious public health concern, as approximately 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related concussions are estimated to occur each year. (Covassin, Elbin, Sarmiento 2012). However, North Carolina has taken the initiative to increase the student-athlete 's education of concussions within the high school community. Previous research regarding concussion

The danger of concussions are very high in football, but helmet safety has reduces the risks of concussion. Helmets is one of the big deal in the 50s. “Awareness of this sporting context in particular can be surmised from a 1958 paper on helmet design, and concussive blows to the head as causes of chronic traumatic encephalopathy” (Casper). In the 50s there wasn’t may changes until over time on head traumatic. A couple of years later helmets were starting to develop and safer and better. In the modern world helmets has establish more of harding shell in the inside instead of the outside, but players are still suffering from depressions and dying on the fields. Skull fractures and broken noses losing teeth have to really change since the

This is one of the biggest advancements in helmet technology or one of the worst ones. In one perspective they provided more padding and protection for the football player. On the other hand it gave the players the ability to use it as a weapon on the field and gave them the confidence to hit other players with their head, where before they were scared to use their head. Once players found out they could use their heads they began to use it more often and in some instances these hits left players unconscious and concussed. Concussions are a bad deal in any sport and if a player is concussed and doesn 't say anything and gets another one it can lead to permanent or long term brain damage or in the most severe cases even

First thing I would like to talk about is equipment. At USA Today Sports I read that there are groups like NOCSAE that test football helmets with drop tests and ram the helmets with a dummy that can show them results of the impacts to test if the helmets are safe. Another thing I’ve found is that the NFL has advanced its helmets and pads a lot throughout the years and are now from leather helmets to reinforced plastic and metal helmets with impact

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 support this, “No amount of protection can stop the sudden acceleration and deceleration of the head that comes with blocking and attacking, which can cause the brain to slosh around inside the skull like yolk inside a vigorously shaken eggshell.” (Source #2). The evidence proves that no amount of protection can stop the head. Moreover, “No helmet can protect concussions entirely, says Rowson.” Source #1). One can interpret this as no helmet can protect your brain. Thus, some helmets aren't strong enough to protect the

The NFL has seen an increase in concussions over the years due to the style of play, and the speed of the game is much faster paced. In the past five years, the NFL has taken steps to try to limit concussions. The reason why it has taken so long to make changes was because in the past no one really knew the dangers of concussions. Some precautions that have been put in place are fines when hits to the head occur to restrain player from violent head to head collisions. The NFL has restricted teams to only allowing 14 full-contact practices during its 18-week season. 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. The game is being changed because of the research that has been conducted and the shocking results of life after football. The major demographic of the fans who do not appreciate the new rulings are males who are middle aged and played the sport when they

You finally get a day off from work. You decide to go watch your sons’ football game, since he has been begging you to come to one for months. Everything is going great at the game, your son plays amazingly. All of a sudden your son is tackled, and is now lying on the ground screaming in pain. You run to him as he is surrounded by people trying to help. Over 147,000 youth football players suffered from concussions in the 2013-2014 school year. Although, the article “Should kids Play Football?” states that “Young athletes learn discipline, focus, teamwork—skills that will help them be successful later in life.” Football is too dangerous of a sport. Football players are at a high risk for concussions,

Simple implementations such as better helmets, more trainers, and more physicians could further decrease the concussion rate to make the game even safer. With the joint effort from children’s leagues, the NCAA, and the NFL to make the game more secure, yet simultaneously just as enticing, the entire sport of football would be ameliorated, with very minimal cases of concussions. More parents would be willing to let their children play this new style of football instead of holding them back, as they may have done previously due to the fear of head injury. More research and care for concussions could result in even more technological advancements. All of this could easily become a reality with the unification of all types of football, resulting in a benign, yet highly enjoyable

The documentary Head Games directed by Steve James follows former football player and ex-wrestler, Chris Nowinski, on his mission to uncover the truth about the consequences of playing sports related to concussions. A concussion is a brain injury that you cannot see and where the brain moves around in the skull. More than 3.8 million concussions occur a year due to a sport. The documentary raises the question of whether protective head-gear should be worn in all contact sports. I believe a head is more likely to sustain more damage to the brain without a helmet than a head with a helmet.

From the first football game ever played till now, the development of safety equipment has sky rocketed tremendously from the first leather helmet to the now hard plastic shelling with thick padding on the inside. The classic idea of a helmet that have been used since 1893, is to wrap the players head in a tough external shell. Over time the evolution of helmets has had significant improvements in reduced lacerations and skull fractures, however, the ability to prevent brain injury has been limited. Helmets can help reduce the size of impact forces, but they cannot counter the brain from moving within the skull. An invention called the Q-Collar, incorporates a different approach to attempt to do that. Slightly clamping down on a player’s jugular vein, causes the brain to swell and fit more snug inside the brain. Already, tests have been done and have shown major improvements however, the Q-Collar has not yet received Food and Drug Administration approval yet, and more research is still needed. Not only could this have major benefits in athletics, this could also benefit automobile accidents and military operations. More than just developing safe equipment is being done. The simple modification of changing what the sport of football is played on to help reduce concussions are

He shows that rugby tackling has proven to prevent as many concussions as possible, and if it was adopted by football it could prevent a majority of concussions. The author adds onto his idea of the change in tackling, by also suggesting helmet sensors to detect when a concussion occurs. Finally, Munger states that if the athletes created a mutual respect for their fellow athletes’ safety then this could cause a decrease in major injuries among athletes in football and rugby. Overall Munger tried to portray an urgency to change the tackling used in football and an increased respect for athletes’ health could cause a significant drop of concussions in football and rugby. Munger succeeds at convincing sports lovers and athletes to believe that the root of the concussion problem is how the athletes view concussions and their overall health because of his use of logic and personal experience in the sport; but he takes away from his overall argument with the choice to not restate his point in the conclusion, choosing to add another idea