Football Brain Injuries

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In the fall of 2014 Ohio State University football player Kosta Karageorge, went missing. Four days went by with no sign of the young man. Then, after days of searching, on November 30, his body was found, with cause of death being suicide. A day later, on December 1, a study was released about how football hits affect the brain, and how it can affect a person's mental state. Which is believed to be the reason why Kosta took his own life. Brain changes are just one of footballs many effects, which range from dangerous brain injuries such as CTE, to positive effects such as increased confidence. Football is best known for its hard hits, but those ground shaking highlight reel tackles have negative impacts on both the hitter and the recipient, …show more content…

Football is a very physically demanding sport, that can lead to short and long term injuries. These injuries can be as minor as a bruise to something as major as a torn ACL or a broken leg. In Fact, the flexing, puhing and hard hits involved in football, tax your joint, ligaments and muscles. Which lead to immediate injuries such as torn muscles and broken bones, but can also lead to long term injuries such as severe arthritis and joint pain (Tramel 3). Along with the obvious injuries related to football, life long complications can also be caused by participating in the sport. Many of those complications are caused by the weight of the football player. For example football players who are told to be “big” have many long term side effects of their increases weight which can be upwards of 300 pounds. Those side effects range from the obvious obesity to sleep apnea. Infact a 2003 New England Journal of Medicine study found that 14 percent of the active players in the NFL had sleep apnea (Tramel 2). In addition to sleep apnea many larger football players also suffer from obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. This shows that football has football has many negative effects on those that play it ranging from broken bones to long term complications like diabetes and sleep apnea. Now even though playing football has many negative effects there are still several

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