The seriousness of sports related concussions have been brought to the forefront in recent years. New concussion legislation along with new rules and regulations have been implemented around the country. In effort to reduce the amount of concussions greater awareness, action plans, and policies have been put in place for many sports--especially contact sports such as football. However, despite these actions the amount of sports related concussions have not seen a significant decrease. I propose a detailed analysis of current concussion policies and action plans implemented in recent years with an emphasis on football. I will explore these different policies and their guidelines for diagnosing a concussion along with their protocols for athletes
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
Concussions in sports are extremely common, especially in high contact sports like football and lacrosse where helmet to helmet contact is very high. Although helmet technology has drastically improved as there has been more concussion awareness the past decade, concussions are still one of the top injuries. A smart helmet that contains an electromagnetic field to repel helmet to helmet contact would significantly decrease the amount of head and neck trauma. The helmets will utilize opposite magnetic fields to ensure that when the helmets do get close together they will be repelled from each other. These smart helmets will contain the technology to determine the acceleration of the two people and determine the right amount of repel to expel
As an avid NFL fan over the years, and someone who has watched many games, I have noticed the NFL’s shortcomings in protecting the safety of its players C. Thesis: There are many topics of discussion when it comes to the NFL concussion
so if someone as a concussion it can be helped quicker. Concussion is important topic to discuss because it allow people to see that it a serious topic. That these injures are happening it seems like employers are taking action. It
For a player to be recognized, he or she must be in a position to give-up on safety limits and certain boundaries. However, these players get injuries hence affecting their mental wellness, long-term willingness as well as their personal life. Concussions are the leading injuries in football and have attracted the attention of the public who needs to know what can be done to help these
A concussion is considered one of the most complex injuries in the sport for the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment. Athletic trainers must understand that concussion causes ultrastructural changes in the brain and that these changes are not large enough to be visible on neuroimaging such as an MRI or CT scan (Khurana, Kaye, 2012). Athletes who sustain a concussion are three to six times more likely to sustain a second concussion. As an athletic trainer, physician, or other medical professional, understanding this statistics and previous history of concussions is very important information to decrease the likelihood of concussions (Khurana, Kaye,
Fans ignore how impactful head trauma can be in players’ lives because the players earn millions of dollars in return of enduring the hardships. Due to this, popularity for the sport has never decreased. Many children dream of becoming football players. However, they do not conceptualize the cruel reality that comes with this dream. Overall, the NFL must take major safety precautions regarding head trauma before America’s
Stated in the first excerpt, people should be aware that 10% of athletes take more than 7 days to recover from the effects of a concussion. The percentage could vary depending on how badly you were hit. If you were to continue a game while injured it could hurt you even worse or even make the effects last longer than they should. If you sat out when told, you could recover faster then get back to the game to perform your best. When performing better, people will notice you more and your chances to play for colleges could increase.
The continued physiological effects could suggest that athletes have been cleared too soon for playing after they experienced an injury. If this is the case, it could be leading to higher rates of injuries. Dr. Michael McCrea, a professor for neurosurgery, stated that this research lets scientists intimately observe the working mechanisms in an injury, and it shows the recovery process of humans rather than animals, which is helpful. What is the ultimate aim at the Medical College of Wisconsin? Their goal is to understand neurobiological recovery during and after an athletes experiences a concussion.
The concentration on concussions in sports has elevated in the past few years given the number of sports figures who have passed away all too soon as a result of the studies conducted after their passing. The severity of the damage concussions can cause is still to be proven, but prevention should be a topic that is top of mind for anyone who participates in sports, from youth to professionals. In the case of Steve Montador, whose career ended due to a concussion, was documented as a shoulder injury is proof that sports leagues are aware of the challenge, but may be unsure of how to address. Some are concerned with what the lack of physicality will do to the overall “entertainment” factor of attracting fans.
This article talks about how coaches could better recognize concussions as they went through an education program that helped them recognize the symptoms of a concussion. Some sports teams may not have certified athletic trainers or doctors on the sideline to take care of a concussion and that leaves the coach to be the first person to try and recognize a concussion. Also, to help coaches recognize concussions, the Center for Disease Control started a program called Heads Up!, which was used at the youth and high school levels. The big issue with the concussion knowledge is that some of these coaches today have misconceptions of concussions because of the magazines and newspapers they read instead of going through coaching education programs to properly get their information on a concussion. For this study, they had to get people who were enrolled in classes related to coaching education majors and minors.
Almost 58,000 concussions were reported from the NCAA, which represents 1,200 colleges/universities, in the 2001-02 season (“Head Injuries”). That is about 48 concussions per school, and 1 in every 23 athletes. Sports and recreational concussions have become a more serious issue over the past decade. Many parents, coaches, and players deem concussions not serious and resume playing in the game. The increase in concussions, mainly in sports, has a long-lasting effect on the human brain and needs to be taken more seriously.
In 2011 the Colorado legislator took a step to protecting youth athletes form the dangers of second-impact syndrome by requiring that educations course cover not only the dangers of a concussion, but the dangers of multiple concussion. Colorado even expanded its law’s scope beyond those of California, requiring that private clubs, public recreation facilities, and athletic leagues sponsoring youth athletic activities comply with the requirements of the concussion laws. Pennsylvania has even gone as far to provide for statutory penalties for a coach who does not comply with the statutory “return to play” requirements. Connecticut imposes educational requirements on student athletes and their parents or guardians regarding concussion. Demonstrating a strong understating of where youth concussion pose the most risk, Connecticut also requires that football coaches undergo best practice training on dealing with football specific concussions.
The pressure put on kids to perform from coaches, parents, and peers is a lot, and can lead an athlete to put a sports team over their own health. According to Dr. Aaron Karlin, the Director of the Concussion Management Program at Ochsner, “A concussion won’t appear on a CAT scan or MRI, as it is a functional injury to the brain”(Ochsner). Due to the fact that these injuries do not show up on scans, it is completely up to the injured athlete and anyone surrounding them to report any symptoms after a big hit. Although this may sound simple, some athletes ignore symptoms to stay in the game or to return quicker after already being taken out. In a report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council it stated this,” There is still a culture among athletes that resists both the self- reporting of concussions and compliance with appropriate concussion management plans” (Hoffman).
Almost one hundred and forty-eight years has passed since the first football game. During that span, there has been numerous leagues of all ages formed, the popularity has skyrocketed in and out of the United States, and as a plethora amount of people played, a higher amount of people sustained injuries. Fast forward to today’s time, and a major topic with the media is the NFL, the concussion scandal, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and player safety. As an Athletic Trainer and medical provider, there are aspects of every football game that create a sense of anxiety. Big hits and kickoffs are exhilarating for the spectators; however, Athletic Trainers see thunderous impacts and full speed collisions jarring the brain, damaging the body, and decreasing player safety.