NFL Held Responsible for Brain Injuries

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NFL Held Responsible for Brain Injuries Throughout history in the NFL, head injuries and fixing those problems have always been hidden from the athletes because of the NFL striving to make a large profit instead of caring for the players. With this being an ongoing problem between NFL players and the NFL itself, many past and current players are digging deeper to find the truth and statistics continue to show how serious this problem actually is. When the lawsuits first began to come known to the public, the NFL agreed to pay over seven hundred million dollars to compensate former players suffering neurological injuries. Many believe the NFL offered this so quickly, hoping to avoid a potential public relations nightmare. The NFL, a ten billion dollar annual business, couldn’t take any type of guilt, or legal discovery, which some inside and out of the industry expected could have caused a fatal blow to the game’s future (Thiel). The settlement may have prevented the public from learning much about the past, but the issue of head injuries is a danger to football and won’t just go away because NFL wants it to (Waldron). The average NFL player takes up to 1,000 blows to the head throughout their football career. Some of those blows can have the force of a sledgehammer (“RealNatural”). Based on a research study by Dr. Jesse David, there were 265 concussions reported in the 2012 season, during the 2011 season there were 266 concussions, and 270 concussions in 2010 season (Kacsmar). It has been known that repeated blows to the head can cause long-term brain damage since at least the 1950’s, long before most of the NFL players had begun their careers (“RealNatural”). Past infractions of the NFL have already resulted in over 4,500 forme... ... middle of paper ... ...07 June 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2013 ”Mega-lawsuit Says NFL Hid Brain Injury Links.” CBS News. CBS Interactive, n.d. 7 June. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. “RealNatural.” RealNatural. N.p.,n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. Slager, Paul. “Is there a Winner in This Game? The NFL Head Trauma Settlement.” WFTS. n.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. Smith, Stephanie, and Dan Moriarty. “NFL and Ex-players Reach Deal in Concussion Lawsuit.” CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. Nov 10. 2013. Thiel, Art. “NFL’s Plight on Brain Injuries Not Over.” Al Jazeera America. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. Waldron, Travis. “Joe Namath: ‘The NFL Is Responsible’ For Concussions, Brain Injuries.” Think Progress RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. Wilner, Berry. “NFL Concussions Mega-Lawsuit Claims League Hid Brain Injury Links From Players.” The Huffington Post. 07 June 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

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