Concussions in football have become one of the most popular stories in the sports world today. During a concussion, a person’s brain hits the back of their skull and stuns their head. The brain then proceeds to bruise. This is a very serious issue, and should be handled professionally. Concussions usually take place on helmet to helmet contact or when a players head hits the ground hard. It is hard to prevent concussions from happening in the game because the players are not trying to hurt each other usually. The majority of the concussions that take place in football are accidental, but there are a few cases where players are trying to hurt opposing players. The National Football League pays players based on games played in a season, and players …show more content…
One story that the book relates to is Tyler Sash. Tyler was a former safety at the University of Iowa who played for the Hawkeyes from 2008-2011. He suffered from multiple concussions while playing the game he loves. Sash forwent his senior season and was drafted by the New York Football Giants. He played in the National Football League until he took his own life by overdosing on painkillers. Tyler Sash suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy; Sash was twenty-seven years old at the time of his death. The author provides real life examples to help the audience understand how serious concussions can be. Dr. Culverhouse wins her audience over from this emotional event. Throwaway Players is full of real life struggles that player after player went through in the National Football League. Brett Favre, Terry Bradshaw, Ben Roethlisberger, and Steve Young are just a few of the names that are brought up by Dr. Culverhouse. All of those players were high quality NFL quarterbacks in their times in the NFL. What do they all have in common? Concussions, they have all had concussions, multiple concussions. Those men are now at a significantly higher risk to develop dementia than the average person at their …show more content…
It’s not dangerous to play with a concussion. You’ve got to sacrifice for the sake of the team. The only way to come out is on a stretcher.” (Culverhouse 68).” Dr. Culverhouse included this quote because it shows where it all goes wrong. She responded by saying, “What seventeen or eighteen year old has the medical experience to make these decisions, (Culverhouse 68).” Gay is trying her best to raise awareness for the concussion crisis. She believes young football players are too uneducated to understand the importance of rest during concussions. Culverhouse also talks about the human brain and how it develops well past high school. These kids should understand the importance of how a concussion can affect a person later in life. Culverhouse firmly believes that no twenty year old should have to suffer from constant headaches, brain damage, depression, memory loss, and fuzzy thinking at such a young age. “Poor management of high school players’ concussions isn’t just a football issue. It’s a matter of public health, (Culverhouse 69).” She is saying that the issue is bigger than football. There comes a point in time where a person needs to go what is best for them, not best
football players often make dynamic and explosive movements causing strain on the muscles. Football is generally a rough sport despite all the helmets, pads, braces and supports. All of this can lead to injuries to many parts of the body including Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries, Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) injuries, hamstring strain, hip pointer, shoulder dislocation and Acromioclavicular joint injuries. One of the most common injuries in high school football is a concussion. Players don’t realize just how crucial concussions are.
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
The NFL and the Concussions Crisis For the past two decades, the world of contact sports, particularly American football, became controversial because of the increasing attention focused on the long-term consequences of concussions. This issue would enter a tug-of-war battle between business politics and scientific evidence. The scientific evidence on the long-term detrimental effects of concussions implies that football may be too dangerous for any individual. It is only logical that the National Football League (NFL) would protect the integrity of football and everything it encompasses.
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.
This is true, however the number of incidents is on track this year to be even lower than last years. Concussions cannot be abolished entirely, they are present in every athletic activity, from Hockey to Gymnastics. Because of the effort, and the fact that it is showing results, the NFL should be credited for lowering the amount of concussions, an injury which is basically an occupational hazard of all athletes (excluding perhaps
By his last month on earth Mike was living out of his pick-up truck under an overpass. His friends in football offered to buy him places to stay, but he refused to live anywhere but his small 2 seat truck. His wife had divorced him 4 months previous, and his youngest son, Garrett, had to act as a Father figure for his Dad. Mike, after one of the most incredible careers the game of football had ever seen passed away at the age of
Concussions have just recently been identified as a severe injury and the results of untreated, repeated concussions are downright terrifying. For centuries the brain was a mystery to scientists and doctors, and up until the recent century is when breakthroughs pertaining to the brain have occurred. Now concussions are a somewhat well-known injury, but continue to be a severe injury. With all the attention concussions have gotten through the media, in forms of movies and medical campaigns, the major problem of concussions in football still remains. In the article “The Dangers of Safety Equipment” by Michael Munger, he states that if football athletes came to an agreement to keep each other safe while they keep tackling at the same level of
Abstract With Football becoming the most popular sport in society today, injuries are bound to occur despite all the safety measures taken. As a result, Concussions are one of the most common injuries football players receive throughout their careers. This review of literature will take a look at symptoms of concussion’s, and their effect on retired NFL players later on in life. The research will show that players who receive concussions during their career will show signs of depression, Alzheimers disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and even suicide in some cases. There are three stages of concussions such as mild, moderate, and severe all with the potential to affect overall cognitive abilities later on in life.
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
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 prevent concussions, coaches and parents have the right to support their athletes to mental support from doctors.
Head Injuries In American Football Since the beginning of American football, concussions have been a big problem with players in high school, college, and the National Football League. Concussions have led to the end of many players football careers and in some cases, their lives. People that are in college and the NFL continue, playing even though they are risking their lives just for a little fame. Today football players play the game to make money and just because of their love for the sport.
THE INCREASING NUMBER OF CONCUSSION IN ATHLETES ARE DETRIMENTAL TO THE FUTURE OF SPORTS In the recent years, concussions have become a common accident related to various types of sports around the globe. A concussion is a traumatic injury of the brain, they can also be as a result of a sudden blow on the body. Such a blow may cause the head to jerk back and forth in a rapid motion. This may cause a bounce or twist within the skull, which may over stretch the brain, cause cell damage and alter chemical functioning within the brain.
Concussions in Sports In sports, concussions occur frequently across all age groups. From little leagues to high school sports to the professional leagues, concussions pose a high risk of long term Traumatic brain injuries. Because of the high rate of concussions in sports more attention should be paid to protocols and treatment to prevent traumatic brain injuries. High school athletes that partake in a sport that requires intense physical activity are the most vulnerable to concussion and need more time to recover. According to the Head Case “High school football accounts for 47 percent of all reported sports concussions, with 33 percent of concussions occurring during practice.”
"By the time they get to high school, kids have a 5% chance of sustaining a concussion for each season they play" (Zimmerman). If they choose to keep playing football then they will eventually end up with a brain concussion or brain damage. Over the years 65-80% of head injuries go unnoticed ("Stopping the..."58). Football player ignore the fact that it is just a headache. Hospitals took 150,000 in 2001 to 250,000 in 2009 dramatically increased because of concussions ("Injuries in...").