At the snap of the ball a whole players world could come crashing down. The game of football holds a whooping 47% of all concussions reported in the world, while ice hockey and soccer trail behind. Football is America’s sport and its athletes become the world’s pride and joy, but what happens when an athlete is injured and is struggling to mentally get better. This topic hits close to home for me because it was the one sport my family praised and adored. My older brother who is now twenty five, played highschool football for the Laconia Sachems. Just the name Sachems is enough to make me get the chills. In 2007 the Laconia Sachems the only undefeated team to go on to win the New Hampshire state championship saw success, but my brother went
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...
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.
Baseball may be America’s past time, but football is America’s game. The crack of pads and the roar of the crowd in the crisp fall air is a part of America’s culture. The best of the best play professionally in the National Football League. Incredibly big, incredibly fast humans put their bodies on the line for gridiron glory. Football is a beautifully violent game, and the fame and glory are not without their perils. In the past few years, the high profile suicides of former players Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, as well as the murder/suicide of Jovan Belcher, have placed a target on the NFL, specifically as it relates to head trauma caused by concussions. The prevalence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, in the brains of many
Football is a very violent sport. There is a lot of concern over the risks posed by hits that injure the head and potentially the brain. The players say they have suffered one or more brain injuries. They want the NFL and helmet maker, Riddell, to set up and pay for medical monitoring and treatment programs for all former, current and future NFL players. Liberals are big supporters of the respect for human dignity. In that case, the NFL tentatively agreed to pay $765 million to past players with health problems that can be caused by concussions. Although research and progress within the scientific and medical communities is understandably slow, the same could be said about the NFL's response to concussions and the dangers they pose to new research reveals new findings. However, some liberals believe that it has taken to long for the NFL to respond to the perceived crisis and its attempt to regulate the concussion treatments which could eventually lead to players ...
In June of 2012, 4000 former NFL players filed a lawsuit against the NFL. The lawsuit was filed because of the neglect of the NFL on the issue of concussions. The NFL didn’t have a system dedicated to concussions. Players played with concussions, they weren’t informed on what repetitive concussions could have on the brain and head to head penalties were not even thought of. On August 29, 2013, the NFL settled with the former players for 760 Million dollars. Despite of this settlement, concussions are still a prevalent problem in today’s game. The main cause of this concussions are head to head hits, most commonly intentional head to head hits.
Most players just want to get back in the game. The average concussion recovery time is about 1-2 weeks. When you get a concussion you can not do any physical activity. After you do not do any activities you can do slight activities, if you get oked by the doctor at your checkup. When you do go in the activity stage then you can keep up the activities as long as you do not get any headaches. At the next checkup the doctor will see if you can go into practice with contact. All these steps if you get headaches then the player will have to tell doctor about it. If you do not have any problems then you can go into games, what the player has waited for through the whole recovery.
As Americans residing in a sports-enamored society that is dominated by the billion-dollar industry known as the National Football League (NFL), it is often difficult to face the fact that the United States is the only nation in the world that truly indulges in football. However, studies by modern scientists convey that football is not something to be “indulged” in by its players, for its risks on health far outweigh its benefits on glory. “League of Denial” examines many instances where the NFL denied a direct link to the cause-and-effect of brain injuries, concussions, and dementia due to playing football. Even though reputable and accomplished scientists have tackled the challenge of finding a link between Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and playing football, the NFL have shut them down play after play. Without a doubt, recent studies and research are bound to change the mindsets of the football public…
The NFL has already been doing this, which is a step in the right direction, until you realize that, “The New York Times has found that the N.F.L.'s concussion research was far more flawed than previously known.” (Schwarz). One of the reasons for faulty research was that NFL teams are not required to submit NFL concussion data. The NFL took advantage of that and pretended they did not know that all concussions were not reported for the research so that it looked like concussions were less of a problem than it seemed. It get’s worse once you hear the that NFL tried, “...to influence the scientific understanding of the consequences of repeated head trauma.” (Maese) in order to get biased research saying concussions are not as bad as people portray them. The mindset of spending millions just to get flawed and faulty data puts the science of concussions, head injuries, and CTE at a major disadvantage. Next, the NFL could implement and force players to start using gear that helps cushion impacts to the head, like a new helmet. The University of Washington developed a new helmet that, “adapts to any head size
Concussions have become arguably the #1 most prevalent issue in football today. The number of concussions throughout football has been rising for the past 20-30 years and there seems no way of stopping them. However, the NFL and many private researchers are set on finding a way to conquer this issue. They want to stop these concussions from happening and prevent the diseases resulting from them that have ruined so many football families’ lives. In order to solve this problem, I think that these researchers need to combine all of their knowledge to solve an issue that so many want solved. As soon as we conquer this “illness” we can return to enjoying the game that we love.