Football is a great game, for most people. Football is one of the most played sports in the United States, with Pop Warner leagues all the way up to the NFL. But according to John Branch and Billy Witz of New York Times, it's starting to show that the number of football players are decreasing, and the number of athletes playing other sports are increasing. A major part of this is due to the injuries football can cause, especially head injuries. (Branch and Witz #2/1 ) Tom Ferry of ESPN, emphasizes that head injuries and concussions are not given the attention they deserve, in fact most head injuries go unnoticed and unreported. (Tom Ferry #1) Mr.Ferry argues that football is a very risky game, at the top of the list of most injury-producing sports, only second to cycling.(Tom Ferry #1) Mary Dallas of Philly.com demonstrates that, in fact, 50% of High School athletes do not report their injuries, and 25% of college athletes do not report their injuries.(Mary Dallas #1) But why is …show more content…
Players often have to be held out due to head injuries.(Jeff Bobo #2) This year for health related safety issues, the state of Tennessee is making concussion and head injury health forms to be required to be collected in order to even put on a helmet to play for your school.(Jeff Bobo #4) This would seem like a good solution for the problem of communication and knowledge, right? Wrong, this isnt a good solution because even tho parents and athletes turn in these forms they say they do not really know about the issue.(Jeff Bobo #3-1) How often do you read the whole sheet of the things you
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.
In Daniel Flynn’s essay “Football Does a Body Good,” he states his point of view on football and the way people should see it. Football is a dangerous sport that has caused many types of head injuries concussions and other health problems throughout the years. This popular sport has caused many players to develop diseases later on in life, such as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE, Alzheimer 's, and Dementia. One of the NFL’s most pressing issues is concussions, which can have life-changing health effects on the football players.
Stats for the football leagues are a big deal for fans. Fans are obsessed with numbers its a big deal for the fans. In 2001 there were 150,000 athletes that were injured at the age of nineteen and younger. In 2009 there were 250,000 injured athletes at the age of nineteen and younger. There is a 6.3 per 1,000 incidence a college player will suffer a concussion while a high school athlete has a 11.2 per 1,000. Risk of concussions in football is high and equipment should continue to improve, but rules should stay the same in order for the game to remain
American Football is a huge spectator sport where offensive and defensive players will use teamwork and perseverance to try and score more points than their opponent. Football is highly respected in America, where boys will try and pursue the dream of playing in the NFL (National Football Association) someday; but if you look at an average neighborhood, you will find that kids and adults of all ages love to go out and throw around the pigskin. (Lerner and Lerner 275). One thing Americans will take pride in is the college and NFL football teams they root for. People sit down with a beer and talk hours upon hours of football and two individuals can get in a heated discussion in the local sports store of whose sports team is better. Surprisingly enough, one will find the most passionate football players at the high school level. Most boys will start their football career as a young child in football programs such as Pop Warner to get a foothold and to get those involved in teamwork and friendships. These programs are usually the start to someone falling in love with the sport and making it a career choice eight years later. Football is one of America’s favorite sports. When fall season comes around, people across America are placing bets, finding out where that new sports bar is, and buying wide screen T.V’s to watch NFL on Sundays. After their team plays, they will go out and reminisce what happened that Sunday. While thousands of fans are still pumped from the NFL games they watched; small towns across America are getting ready to shut down their shops and restaurants to have the chance to make it to the local high schools football game. Ray Glier, a reporter for the New York Times, writes about football in the small town of Appala...
Athletes are one of the most highly paid professions, and with that comes a great responsibility to everyone but themselves, even it means putting their lives, and others around them at risk. A football player’s goal is to entertain the fans that tune in to watch them, however their only job is to win their games, and untimely a Super Bowl Championship, but not for themselves, for the franchise that owns them and their bodies. As long as they can run a play and take a hit foot players are gold to their employers, or if you will their owners. “Toughing it out, turns out, can kill people.” (Diaz Truman, M 2013), and cause irreversible brain damage to football players. Continuing to ignore evidence that supports the growing concern of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and how it relates to the NFL players is troubling because of the long term affects it has on a player’s mental s...
The number of concussions in professional and amateur football has been rising and has sparked much controversy in recent years. These concussions are most likely linked with disease and even the deaths of some pro and semi-pro football players. New research is attempting to solve the problem but the issue is still prevalent in football today.
Not many sports are as physically demanding on the human body as football. The physical toll that football players pay is almost impossible to comprehend unless one has actually played the sport for a significant amount of time. However, until recently any connection between the hits taken by football players and their health down the road was largely ignored. A common, yet difficult injury to detect in football is a concussion, the most common traumatic brain injury (Pearce). A concussion is defined as “a brain injury that is caused by a sudden blow to the head or the body. The blow shakes the brain inside the skull, which temporarily prevents the brain from working normally” (Heiner pa.5). Reports and studies have surfaced shedding light on just how much damage is inflicted upon the brain due to crippling hits. These studies suggest that NFL athletes who received concussions suffered lasting damage to the brain, which opens the gate to a multitude of other health issues such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and clinical depression (Pearce). This is an aspect of the game that not many are aware of and it is a serous issue that needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later. There have been too many heartbreaking stories such as that of Justin Strzelcyk who heard voices and died in a crash while fleeing police or that of Andre Waters who shot himself in the head after struggles with depression (Zarda pa.1). Many current and former players are suffering in silence; this shouldn’t be the case. The National Football League needs to extend a hand to former players debilitated by head injuries. The problem of concussions and other head injuries in the NFL is one that needs to be tackled head on.
Mihoces, Gary. “Parents Weigh Risks of Youth Football Amid Concussion Debate.” USA Today. USA Today, 23 May 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Nowinski, Christopher, and Jesse Ventura. Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis from the NFL to Youth Leagues. East Bridgewater, MA: Drummond Pub. Group, 2007. Print.
If there are many injury reports then the sport has to be pretty dangerous. “Based on almost 1,900 injury reports submitted to the RIO, the researchers estimate there was 517,726 football-related injuries during the 2005-2006 season at the high school level across the United States.” (High School, College Football Comes With Risk) High school sports are more dangerous because the athletes are still growing. “High school athletes are less physically mature and have less muscle mass than the collegiate athletes, for instance. They also have incomplete growth plates, meaning their bones are still developing.” (High School, College Football Comes With
Even though the devastation of concussions is just rising to the surface, they have always been around. In 1994, the NFL started a committee called the MTBI (Mild Traumatic Brain Injury). Dr. Elliot Pellman was appointed as chair, and he was quoted saying, “We think the issue of knees, of drugs and steroids and drinking is a far greater problem, according to the number of incidents” (Ezell). This quote shows how concussions did not hold much importance, even though it should have been the committee's main focus. This is ironic, because in today’s sport world concussions are a highly talked about topic. They hold such significance that some rules are even being changed to lower the risk for players.
If by chance you are one of the lucky ones who make it that far, the effects of the injuries are compiling with each hit you take for this sport. At this point in your life the amount of hits you’ve taken and dealt are probably reaching a serious number. Research has found that 243 football deaths have occurred from 1990 to 2010. Out of the deaths 62 were due to brain injuries, this does not take into account the accumulating long term health issues caused by such hits. 38 of the deaths were from other issues such as an undiagnosed heart condition. These statics are
Should the fear of brain trauma, change the rules of sports for good? Athletes have been susceptible for brain injuries since contact sports were invented. Although some are familiar with this, many people are unaware of the long term ramifications that often come with these types of injuries. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, (ALS) is a disease that is slowly plaguing our nation, starting with athletes. It is one of the fatal repercussions of repetitive head trauma, that is often overlooked. CTE, also known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is also a disease caused by head trauma that can drastically impact one’s life. CTE’s have a subset of different associated diseases such as Alzheimer's, Dementia, Parkinsons, and Huntingtons disease.
Football injuries is something people hate to see and experience but are all a part of the game; and if athletes choose to play this sport they have to realize the longer you play the sport the more likely you are to get hurt playing that sport. Therefore athletes should be very careful and try to prevent if possible any injuries from happening to them as well as others.
From a high school level to a professional level football players everywhere have acquired a numerous amount of brain injuries and diseases from playing the sport that they love. According to Cook; concussions, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s are just a few risks that athletes put themselves up against when choosing to play. Cook explains that until the culture of football changes all we can do as Americans is to stop pressuring injured players to get back into the game until they have been cleared. While both the filmmakers and the author understand how important football is, Cook only comments on the negative impact that it has on players; Lindsay and Martin have an optimistic view on how football positively impacts the players’