Should Sports Leagues do More to Prevent Concussions and Other Sports Injuries? As a kid, I wanted to try all types of sports. I played soccer, swimming, Basketball, and Flag Football, and after I did little league Flag football, I wanted to try the real thing. One of the sports with the highest amount of concussions and other injuries is Football, and that is why my parents never let me play it, as a kid, even though I wanted to. Today, I thank my parents for not letting get into football because, even at that young age, kids can get serious injuries, including concussions. According to The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), "1.6 million to 3.8 million concussions occur each year." A concussion occurs when the brain …show more content…
This is a classic way of reasoning. Similar to how Benjamin Franklin did his Pro-Con analysis, Football, or any kind of sport, players, consciously or unconsciously, decide to play based on how it benefits him or her. For instance, if NFL player did not get the rewards of being a NFL player and still suffered the injuries, I am sure that most of the players, after having to pay (out of pocket) for those injuries, would not stay and continue to play. Luckily for them, there are many benefits for being a NFL player. The first big benefit, obviously, is the pay. Tom Gerencer, a writer for Money Nation, says, “the typical NFL player makes $860,000 per year in 2015. Players like Drew Brees ($23.8 million) and Philip Rivers ($21.2 million) make a lot more.” (Gerencer) That is a lot of money to do what most of these players love to do, which brings me to the next benefit. For almost every single player, playing football is a dream come true. It is their passion. Nkemdiche, of the Arizona Cardinals, said "You get to a point of loving the game, and you 're like: 'This is me. This is what I have to do. And I know I 'm going to do it for a long time." (Clarke) Nkemdiche is not alone in his statement. Many other football players have the same opinion. Being able to do what a person loves and get payed for it; that is the definition of a dream job. The benefit of getting paid an average of $860,000 for doing what a person loves …show more content…
Ken Belson, a writer for the New York Times in Tokyo, said, “...to address the growing problem of head trauma in football, the N.F.L. will spend another $100 million on the development of new technology and more research on the effects of head injuries.” (Belson) The key word is another, meaning that the NFL has donated more than $100 Million to make football more safe for it’s players. Also, sports companies, as the NFL, are already enacting safer tackling techniques, as said before. In an article written by Jenny Vrentas, titled Helmetless football? It’s the new practice for New hampshire, talks about how the team New Hampshire wildcats, in 2014, started practicing without helmets or pads, for a short period of time, to help the players learn how to tackle correctly. Why must they take of the protection? They take off the protection so that the players become more self aware of what their bodies are doing. Not only do the Wildcats practice good techniques, but they also put sensors on the right side of the head and behind the ear. After a game or practice, the players can go see the results to see when and where he was hit, so then the players can try to improve in the next game or practice (Vrentas). Sports companies are doing a good amount of work to improve the safety of the
America’s newfound favorite pastime, football, came from a bizarre chain of events. Football started when a soccer player got fed up with just kicking the ball, so he picked up the ball and ran to the goal. His actions of picking up the ball and running with it fathered a new European sport, rugby, which was soon brought over to American shores, and was altered slightly, the shape of the ball and a few other small rules. The sport became organized into a league and produced the NFL(National Football League). The NFL had a slow beginning, but has picked up popularity, currently having a 9 billion dollar yearly revenue. Playing football comes with great costs, including physical and mental health deterioration, plus the amount of time spent prepping before game day. Which can pose several questions, “Why suffer for a game, Is it worth the money? Is it worth the fame? How great is the cost?” I believe that football, should have stricter regulations for the treatment of injuries, along with informing players of just how devastating a concussion can be, along with the other major injuries that commonly occur while playing football.
Are young children putting their health and even their lives at risk if they partake in the sport of football? Some claim that the American sport is far too dangerous and the risk of concussions and injuries far outway the pros of the physical sport, while others insist that technological improvements and new regulations have made the sport safer. Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of history and education at New York University, argues in his paper, “We Must Stop Risking the Health of Young Football Players,” that football is a sport that is too dangerous for the youth. He states his belief that technological improvements in helmets and changes in the rules of the sport have had little effect on reducing injuries and that nothing has worked.
Al Toon, father of Saints receiver Nick Toon, was forced to leave professional football after sustaining nine concussions in eight years of professional football. Football is one of the most dangerous games. As the years go on, more and more rules are being written to prevent the danger, but danger is the nature of the game. Most of these rules are for the protection of the players, but there are times when injuries can be a good thing. The Philadelphia Eagles were 3-5 to start the year, but Michael Vick was injured and the backup quarterback led the team to be 10-6, win the division, and almost beat the New Orleans Saints in the playoffs. "About 1.7 million Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year, about three-quarters of them mild TBIs, or concussions" (Clemmitt). Traumatic Brain Injuries are used as the main form of evidence in Richard Cohen's claim that the end of the NFL is near, and quite frankly, his argument is pretty solid.
Football is a sport your mother warns you not to play, but your father is on the other side of the argument, encouraging you to do it because it is a “man’s game”. Even though you don’t want ruin your manhood, your mother is always right. Football is in the top three of most injuries caused in sports (HEALTH GRADES, INC) and a majority of it comes from concussions. A concussion is a temporary unconsciousness caused by a blow to the head. Football helmets are used to prevent that from happening and is still a battle today on creating the perfect helmet to protect these young athletes. The football helmet has undergone significant transformation during the evolution of the game. To find out how this important head gear came to be, you have to
Injuries are a huge part in professional sports. When playing a professional sport athletes do not always take into consideration that their bodies are vulnerable to injuries. One of the leading injuries that can end athlete’s career is concussion. According Kia Boriboon author of the article “Concussion Management In Football: Don 't Shake It Off” concussion occurs when the brain repeatedly collides with the skull. Concussions are serious and cannot be taken lightly they are detrimental to a person’s athletic career as well as life. Players who have suffered from a concussion or like symptoms of a concussion are at risk and should not continue playing their sport until cleared by a medical doctor, who is an expert in concussions. If concussions are not treated with the appropriate medical care, it can cause physical and mental health problems for athletes well after their professional career have ended. In
("N.F.L. Players’ Union Weighs the Benefits and the Pitfalls of Helmet Sensors. This technology helps prevent a player with a concussion that he doesn’t know about from continuing to play during that game and cause more damage to his head that can last forever. Another good advancement is helmets that have a design that uses energy-managing materials and a facemask attachment system that disperses energy from frontal impacts. This helps prevent the head from taking the main part of the blow and disperses the energy to lessen the likelihood of becoming seriously injured from a hit. These types of helmets have a certain shelf life meaning you can only use them for so many years before they have to be replaced, this is beneficial so that the equipment stays up to the new standards of safety for the players as well as prevents them from becoming stressed over the years and breaking.
Football is America’s favorite sport. It is a fast-paced, hard-hitting game. Every week thousands of men and boys all across the country take part in football and every week these men and boys receive violent hits during the game. Frequently, as a result of these violent hits, the player receives a concussion. However, the long-term effects of concussions on players are not fully understood. New research shows that even a slight concussion in a football game can have lasting effects on a player. As a result of this research, children under the age of fourteen should not play tackle football.
In American football, helmets are required to decrease traumatic brain injuries and have been successful in doing so. A large part in the success of helmet design is improvements in technology. The sizes of athletes have gone up to make football more dangerous. To protect against brain injury, helmets designs have changed to become heavier and wider, filled within the space are energy absorbing materials, air space and padding to protect the skull upon impact. Originally, helmets were designed to prevent only traumatic brain injuries, but technology is advancing to fill the gap of concussions. Until recently, the seriousness of concussions were not considered part of the equation that needed to be addressed, so manufactures did not utilized in constructing helmets to address this issue (Post et al. 653). Upon predicting risk of concussions in tests, by themselves linear and rotational acceleration are not suitable measurements for modern helmets. These testing measurements do not address the rotational forces and minor hits to the brain which are associated with concussions (Post et al. 654). Given the seriousness of concussions in contact sports, more attention is given to prevent and reduce concussions through testing methods and advancing technology, stronger regulation and changes to the sport. As stated in the article involving the National Football League (NFL), “The risk involved in playing sports are also very real. The NFL is struggling with serious mental and physical health problems because they sustained repeated mild traumatic brain injuries, is what concussions are called. (“Concussions and Marketing of Sports Equipment” 6).
In the article “Should Kids Play Football” from the Scholastic Scope on February 2015, writer Jennifer Shotz discusses both issues of the benefits and dangers of playing American football. For example, Jennifer Shots mentioned that tens of thousands of young football players get concussions every year. She states that most players return to the game after they are healed but some never return because their concussion was too severe to their health. On the other hand, the writer also discusses how football isn't the only sport that encounters concussions. The rules of football are always changing and each new rule provides a safer way to play the game. For example, the writer notes that Pop Warner has reduced the amount of practice time dedicated
“Concussion rates for children under the age of 19 who play football have doubled in the last decade, even though the overall sports participation has declined” (Youth Football Concussion Statistics). Football is extremely popular in American culture. Children all across the world love watching and playing the sport. However, many studies have shown numerous possible long term effects of starting the beloved sport when young. Undeveloped brains have a harder time recovering from bumps and blows that occur during playing time. After examining the long term effects of children playing football, it is clear that the tradition of tackle football in youth should be held off until the brain is more fully developed,
Even though the advantages of the helmet designs are extensive, the football players are put in dangerous and sometimes unexpected situations on the field. Players are running and hitting each other at full speed while not taking into consideration what they are doing, and considering the consequences. Sometimes with head related injuries, these players may not feel any symptoms until later on in the day, or even day...
The NFL has been making strides to improve their health and safety in light of the information being revealed in these new studies. The NFL has recently implemented new rule changes and have worked with equipment suppliers in attempt to make the game safer for it’s players. One of the mistakes the NFL made was denying their role in the situation so early on. A Main reason the NFL has had negative PR has been because of their unwillingness to act and take responsibility for head injuries. Now that they have assumed some responsibility in the matter, they have reached an agreement to help former players with head injuries to get the help they need, as well as reach other agreements with the NFLPA. These agreements insured that players were
Yeah! Welcome back to total Pro Sports. We could make a list hundreds of entries long that show the most graphic videos of injuries on the field. It would be pretty awful honestly, so while this list takes inventory of in-game sports injuries it doesn’t feature the terrible Paul George type things that make you walk around dog pale for the next four hours, rather these are the iconic sports injuries more akin to battle scars. They’re cool, not disturbing, at least I think so, your mileage may vary. So here are a few of the worst injuries that athletes have played through. We kept the MMA and boxing stuff off this list because those can get really graphic and we’re more looking for the kinds of injuries that produce iconic images, and now, the nine most iconic sports injuries of all time.
American football is full of exciting competition, but do we realize the danger! Helmet safety in football remains an immense problem as the sport accounts for the highest incidence of concussions. Since leather football helmets, the technology for safer helmets has improved drastically and continue to improve. The development of newly designed helmets and technology has lowered the risk of head injuries for players. Furthermore, improvements in helmet testing methods have led to better understanding head injuries and the protectiveness of the helmet. In respect, football helmet safety still remains a challenge, such as a necessity of a proper categorization system to rank helmets and regulations to improve helmet safety. Regardless, standards and regulations attempt to address helmet safety through government intervention and a proper measuring system for football helmets. Despite the cultural perception of football, measures are taken to ensure safety, such as the reforms and education with regards to playing safer football. I intend to address the technological advances and regulation of football towards the discussion of helmet safety. Therefore the aggresivity in football’s culture should embrace stronger helmet standards and regulation that are promoted through improved testing methods and innovations because of the need to prevent further dangerous head injuries, especially concussions.
It is important to point out that football was not the only sport to be leading to concussions and catastrophic injuries. Other sports that involves a lot of contact such as wrestling and