Brain Trauma In Football Essay

Brain Injury in Professional Football

A reportable concussion had been described as change in brain function induced by trauma. It was demonstrated by: first, altered consciousness, including being amnesic, confused, or rendered insentient. Second, symptoms and signs usually accompanying post-concussion syndrome, such as, persistent headaches, impaired balance, syncope, cognitive dysfunction, hearing loss, blurred vision, drowsiness, lethargy, fatigue, memory disturbance, and difficulty in carrying out routine activities (Casson, Viano and Powell 471). The Concussion Legacy Foundation disclosed that CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by brain trauma, had been diagnosed among football players from more than 100 college football programs (Concussion Legacy Foundation). Furthermore, researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs discovered that the brain tissue of 131 out of 165 football players, at all levels, had tested positive for CTE (Schumaker). Concussions are the primary cause of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among football players.

identified a pathology consistent with CTE in a NFL player who succumbed to atherosclerotic heart disease, 12 years after he had stopped playing in the NFL. He had depicted memory deficits and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (Galgano, Cantu and Chin). Strong blows to the head are commonplace in professional football, and 87 of the 92 former NFL players had developed CTE, as disclosed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (Schumaker). Strong blows, including concussions, to the head can trigger CTE. This was concluded Boston University’s researchers, who observed that brain trauma, resulting from head injuries, activated protein build-up (Schumaker). As such, it has proved difficult to establish causal associations between behavioral changes, hemorrhaging and concussion (Harrison