Concussions In Concussions

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Recommended: The Impact Of Concussions On NFL Players

To a select few in this country professional football is considered to be a job. From paper cuts to broken bones, injuries can happen in any job, and like any other job, the NFL has its fair share of injuries. Concussions have rapidly become one of the most occurring injuries in the high speed, hard contact sport of football. Players in the NFL have become bigger, stronger, faster, and hit harder than in years past. With these key attributes in mind, this simply converts into a “physics problem of mass versus velocity” (Lark 9). With the NFL being the premier leader in all of sports, they were failing in doing their best to keep players safe. Since 2009, the NFL, as an organization, has finally started to install new equipment and regulation standards to try to prevent the frequency of these head injuries from occurring at their previous terrifying rate.
A concussion is “a trauma-induced alteration in mental status that may or may not involve loss of consciousness” (Lark 4). Enclosed in the skull, the brain is made of soft tissue that is protected by spinal fluid. Bruising, injury to the nerves, and blood vessel damage occur when the brain bounces around in this fluid as a result of blows to the head. Due to the damage that can occur to the blood vessels from these violent jolts to the head, the availability of glucose is limited. Based on their severity, concussion symptoms can include slurred speech, nausea, headache, clumsiness, vision problems, memory loss, and sensitivity to light and/or noise. Concussions are graded on a scale of one (minor) to three (major), this helps the coaches and team doctors determine the severity of the injury and the steps necessary to help the player. A player has a six time greater chance of ge...

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...elerate workouts if no symptoms occur. Once the player is at full speed, with no incidents, both the independent and team physicians must sign off on the player’s health before being able to return to the field.
According to the American Journal of Sports Medicine, 300,000 sports-related concussions happen each year in the United States (Peters). Football in general, accounts for 47 percent of all concussions. With the NFL being the premier leader in sports, taking a stand against concussions, has led to other leagues doing the same. Today MLB, MLS, the NBA, and the NHL all have concussion policies to follow, however each of those policies have only been in place for the last four years (Peters). Making concussion awareness a vital part of professional sports not only protects its players; it protects the children who play the same sports and idolize those players.

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