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Outline concussions in the nfl
Outline concussions in the nfl
Negative effects of violence in sports
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The NFL’s expectation of violence and tolerance of systemic violence is disturbing to think about. Our troubled consciousness, however, can easily shake off the pangs of moral discomfort, and carry on. The hundreds of athletes who experience the consequences of this violence every day can not. They “[regard] their bodies as machines and weapons with which to annihilate their opponents” and deliver pummeling blows with each passing down (Messner and Sabo, 95). A human being is simply not designed to withstand the cruel, punishing hits all too common in professional football. Many players leave the field due to a career-ending injury; those who don’t still pay dearly for their moments of fame. In retirement, the once hulking, intimidating specimens …show more content…
It threatens to disrupt our delusions of gridiron morality, but more importantly, the lives of the players themselves. And while cringe-worthy injuries are prevalent in day-to-day play, it is not the physical well-being that disturbs me most, but the damage done to the mind. Linemen notorious for their violence and brutality begin to suffer mental degradation soon after they hang up their numbers. Hall-of-fame lineman ‘Iron’ Mike Webster—infamous for his explosive head-spear tackles—began his descent into madness almost immediately (Fainaru and Fainaru-Wada, 25). His son recalls how his father “broke down in tears in front of [him] a couple of times because he couldn’t get his thoughts together and he couldn’t keep them in order” (Webster, qtd. in League of Denial). Webster’s mental capacity had been crippled by 17 seasons of combat, and his family experienced the full force of his disability. By age 50, ‘Iron’ Mike was dead (Lyman). An autopsy preformed by Dr. Bennet Omalu revealed the full extent of the damage; Webster had developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. This lethal neurodegenerative disease—common in retired boxers—had never before been found in football players and was a shocking discovery. The possibility that professional athletes were sustaining life-altering brain damage at the nation’s entertainment was a scary thought. Scarier still is the reality that such devastating …show more content…
Yet the NFL—hesitant to admit that America’s primetime spectacle was wasting its stars—refused to accept the simple truth. Billions of dollars were at stake, and the future of the game rested in the balance. For ten years long, the league’s corporate heart led a crusade against football’s naysayers, establishing sham commissions, denying repeated allegations, and personally attacking physicians prominent in the discovery of CTE (Lyman). In 2004, the NFL’s Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee published Paper Number 5, which asserted that “no NFL player experienced… [brain damage] from repeat concussions.” The paper went on to state that it “did not follow players who left the NFL.” In other words, the study’s sample population did not include those players who exhibited the first signs of concussion-related brain damage (Fainaru and Fainaru-Wada, 167). The MTBI’s delusions were further bolstered by additional papers which posited ever more dubious claims about the safety of the sport. According to one paper, “it might be safe for college/high school football players to be cleared to return to play on the same day as their injury” (Teitelbaum, 156). All the while, autopsies of deceased players continued to reveal the presence of CTE. In 2009, the House Judiciary Committee called on Commissioner Roger
Over the past years, many will say that football has become America’s new pastime, taking over our weekends for almost half of the year. Fans travel from all over the country to see their favorite college or professional teams play, and once the football season is over, the countdown clock for the first game of fall begins. There are many positive aspects to the sport, and the fans and players love it, but in John McMurtry’s “Kill ‘em, Crush ‘em, Eat ‘em Raw”, the reader is introduced to a side of football that some have not seen, and many choose to ignore. McMurtry believes that the game of football has become one of people just wanting to hurt other people and too many injuries are occurring to justify the fun
He Appeals to Logos when he writes, “Over the past two decades it has become clear that repetitive blows to the head in high-impact contact sports like football, ice hockey, mixed martial arts and boxing place athletes at risk of permanent brain damage….Why, then, do we continue to intentionally expose our children to this risk?” He continues by writing, “If a child who plays football is subjected to advanced radiological and neurocognitive studies, there can be evidence of brain damage at the cellular level of brain functioning…. If that child continues to play over many seasons, these cellular injuries accumulate to cause irreversible brain damage, which we know now by the name Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy,” a disease founded by Dr.Omalu in 2002. C.T.E can cause “major depression, memory loss, suicidal thoughts and actions, loss of intelligence as well as dementia later in life.” C.T.E has also been linked to “drug and alcohol abuse as children enter their 20s, 30s, and 40s.” Dr.Omalu Appeals to Ethos when he writes, “As physicians, it is our role to educate” and “protect the most vulnerable among
A big part of the NFL’s hold on players is their contracts and money. Thousands of young men aspire to be on a professional team, just for the fame, money and title. They are not made aware of the lasting conditions that come with playing football and their everlasting effects. If anything, the NFL has gone out of their way to discredit the newer research that links playing football with CTE. CTE stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is a disease that has the same effects as dementia and Alzheimer’s, except that CTE leaves tau protein deposition in distinctive areas of the brain, which is what separates CTE from dementia and Alzheimer’s....
Gladwell describes how the effect of contact to the head can have on the neurological system. He shows in his article that players that play in the league can suffer from brain damage that is similar to Alzheimer or dementia. This damage is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy and it occurs when individuals suffer from many concussions or any other form of head injury. This damage has a lasting affect and can cause people to die at an earlier age then which they should. The life expectancy goes down for people with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. In this article it talks about many play...
The Frontline episode entitled “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” focuses on the injuries incurred by players during football and the impact of such injuries. Throughout the episode many acronyms are used, such as TBI and CTE. The effect the sport of football has players can lead to certain injuries also discussed in the episode. Meanings of these acronyms and their consequences are explored in the following paragraphs.
Thiel, Art. “NFL’s Plight on Brain Injuries Not Over.” Al Jazeera America. N.p., n.d. Web. 10
Smith, Rodney(2013).. Thomas Jefferson Law Review, Vol.35(2), 127-191 Solving the Concussion Problem and Saving Professional Football
What does Jovan Belcher, Ray Esterling and O.J. Murdock Have in common? They all were famous football players who commented suicide. Each player had something called chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. This is a condition where sufferers have had repeated hits to the head that leads to concussions and ultimately head trauma. In this research paper, we will go over the data about the NFL to see could they have prevented CTE in these players if they had placed the player’s safety first.
In the New Yorker article “Offensive Play,” by Malcolm Gladwell, he makes a comparison between dogfighting and football, claiming that they tend to be more similar than people may conclude. Gladwell argues this because they both develop a negative effect on one’s body and brain causing several physical and mental changes that could possibly lead to death. However, some of these events that cause injury go without notice until later on in life when they have retired from their “glory days.”
“Football’s Endgame: What would happen if America’s Pastime just...died” is the title that had heads turning when it made its way onto Sports Illustrated. Football is the United State’s favorite sport so an article like this one was sure to shock fans. The article was written to be set ten years from now when the game of football met its death. Giving the ongoing issues surrounding the game in 2016, the author Austin Murphy dated the article September 7,2036. In this article Murphy talks about the factors that led to the end of one of the U.S’s beloved sports. Factors like the AIG not protecting athletes against head injuries in the NFL, Pop Warner settling a death with the family of a former football player who committed suicide at the age of 25 from CTE caused by hits to the head, and the 10% rise in football concussions. A woman whose son had passed away from a motorcycle accident noticed changes in her boy. Playing football for almost a decade he was bound to get hurt, but it was after his death that doctors found he had CTE. CTE is a topic of discussion in this article. Sports Illustrated works to inform everyone about CTE and its effects on the mind. This disease targets the way a person thinks and changes their moods, “He had all these [football-related] problems with his knees and back, but his brain was
In recent years, there has been an increase in research investigating the long-term effects of repeated head trauma on the brain, especially in athletes. Following his discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), Dr. Bennet Omalu inspired a movement of research aimed at establishing better safety standards and protocols in football. It was not until 2002 that the initial connection between repetitive head trauma, such as concussions, and brain injury was suspected (Ott, 2015).
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.
Coakley, J. J., & Donnelly, P. (2007). Violence in Sports . Sports in society: issues & controversies (9th ed., pp. 198-199). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
One of the earliest players to bring awareness to brain traumas was Mike Webster, a former Pittsburgh Steeler. In April of 1999, he claimed to be disabled with the NFL Retirement Board. He also had dementia which was a result of the brutal hits he endured during his football career. Webster ran into many problems at the e...
Football is a game of adversity and emotion. People who have not played a sport or follow one closely don’t understand the emotion behind game. They think that football is just a game, but for those who are involved with the team don’t think so. All those horrendous hours of countless preparation are for something players and coaches love. About a few years ago, a football player at the collegiate level was told that he wouldn’t be able to play another down of football again due to his banged up h...