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. For instance, a concussion occurs when an outside force causes the brain to move violently back and forth and hit the wall of the skull. Concussions result in loss of consciousness, confusion, headaches, nausea or vomiting, and blurred vision. The damaged caused by concussions is permanent, and there is no cure for it. Usually, the only remedy prescribed by doctors is at least two weeks of rest before resuming sports and similar activities. A concussion usually occurs when players collide violently into each other at high speeds. In his article“The Helmet Wars,” Tom Foster points out that “Professional football players receive as many as 1,500 hits to the head in a single season, depending on their position. That’s 15,000 in a 10-year playing career, …show more content…
Players are using their heads as a weapon which is careless, dangerous, and should be banned from the sport. A lot of time and money has been invested in improving football helmets. Quinn and Brachmann emphasizes that “There’s a strongly held belief that no matter how much time and money is invested into research and development there will never be a helmet that is truly concussion-proof ” (Quinn and Brachmann). Helmets have been effective in preventing skull fractures, but not concussions. Helmet manufacturers are researching and trying to develop safer protective head
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.
Are young children putting their health and even their lives at risk if they partake in the sport of football? Some claim that the American sport is far too dangerous and the risk of concussions and injuries far outway the pros of the physical sport, while others insist that technological improvements and new regulations have made the sport safer. Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of history and education at New York University, argues in his paper, “We Must Stop Risking the Health of Young Football Players,” that football is a sport that is too dangerous for the youth. He states his belief that technological improvements in helmets and changes in the rules of the sport have had little effect on reducing injuries and that nothing has worked.
Football is a sport your mother warns you not to play, but your father is on the other side of the argument, encouraging you to do it because it is a “man’s game”. Even though you don’t want ruin your manhood, your mother is always right. Football is in the top three of most injuries caused in sports (HEALTH GRADES, INC) and a majority of it comes from concussions. A concussion is a temporary unconsciousness caused by a blow to the head. Football helmets are used to prevent that from happening and is still a battle today on creating the perfect helmet to protect these young athletes. The football helmet has undergone significant transformation during the evolution of the game. To find out how this important head gear came to be, you have to
As explained early on in this article, football can cause several physical and mental injuries either instantly or in the near future. This is due to the constantly tackling, hitting, and screaming from all the players and coaches. Because of these intense actions, football can increase the chance of dementia-like symptoms in players. This was examined by Ann Mckee, a neuropathologist, who ran several tests in the Veterans Hospital
If you have the brains when you start, you are aware that banging your head into people is not the best thing for your body,” stated Chris Cooley, tight end and a 2 time Pro Bowler with the Washington Redskins (Do No Harm, 2). Research over the years has gathered extensive data on the mental and physical illnesses of retired NFL football players. It has proved that players who accumulate numerous concussions are at a higher risk of health problems after their football career than players who’ve sustained fewer. This data is proven by various studies that have caused worry for many retired NFL football families. The examples of deaths resulting from past concussions are astonishing, and the stats that show high risks for the possible problems can prove why they possibly died. Countless retired players are now frightened by the potential hazard of destructive health problems.
“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
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...
To understand the issue of concussions in the NFL we must first understand exactly what a concussion is. A concussion is a minor traumatic brain injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. Severe concussions can cause loss of consciousness and/or forgetfulness. However, you do not need to lose consciousness to have a concussion. Minor concussions usually cause headache, nausea, dizziness, and tiredness. An NFL study showed that most concussions occur when one player delivered a hit to the side of the head of another, and when the player was either standing still or moving slowly. These hits that cause concussions pack an average force of 980-pounds. Concussions affect professional athletes as well as amateur or youth football players. Studies have shown that high school football players are nearly twice as likely to get concussions as college football players and high school athletes in other sports. Also, they show that 47% of high school football players say they suffer a concussion each season. As a result about 250,000 people under the age of 19 went to the emergency room with concussions in 2009, compared with 150,000 in 2001.
Concussions occur regularly on the football field and have always been an injury associated with football. They occur at all levels from little league to the NFL. One of the earliest reported concussion...
It’s not only concussions that hard tackles lead to many players end up with permanent brain damage, and in 2014 alone 8 players died. Football is not something to risk your life over, and if all these injuries continue to happen something has to be changed.
The fact that the NFL did not have to accept liability as part of its concussion settlement, does not mean that they are not responsible, in fact, they should make it their duty to ensure that the football becomes a safer sport for everyone. It is extremely frustrating to hear that people do not care about the consequences of the player's injuries because they are just interested in the game. This truly upsets me because the lives of many players have been shattered as a result of depression or suicide that comes as a result of brain trauma. I think it is ludicrous to continue to tolerate these harsh plays knowing that they have detrimental effects just because people refuse to assimilate change. Despite the fact that people do not want to experience change they should, if they want to continue watching football they should help preserve it. How can one truly enjoy football if the violence in the sport causes depression, concussions, dementia and suicides as a result of brain trauma? As a nation, we should come together to end the harsh plays such as crown-of-the-helmet blows and helmet-to-hand hits. Honestly, removing these plays will not affect the entertainment of the game, in fact, I believe the audience will enjoy it more knowing that the players are uninjured. It makes sense to remove anything that could potentially have a detrimental effect on the health of any
The world of sports is filled with great memories, grand moments and at times complete mayhem. There are moments like hitting a Home Run in game 7 of the World Series or memories of scoring an overtime goal during the Stanley Cup finals. However, there are also incredibly low moments when mayhem occurs such as an action or incident that results in a concussion. An injury such as a concussion can ruin your sports career or potentially your ability to function normally in the future. Concussions are caused by blunt force trauma to the head, a fall or an injury that shakes the brain inside the skull. Recovering from a concussion can take weeks, months or even years to heal. For some, it can impair your mental or mobility functions for life.
The brute force of the game is what draws millions of people around to the world to come and watch. However, what millions of Americans don't see if the consequences of what makes the game how great it is today, the hits. With players getting bigger faster and stronger it only leaves players in more danger of getting injured. Concussions are one of the most common injuries among NFL players mainly because of the constant contact, and how the design of the helmet is to protect against major head injuries, not concussions. CTE is common in many NFL players, and most former NFL players. A study by the national institute for Occupational safety and health found that, “the brain tissue of 59 of 62 deceased former NFL players tested positive for CTE” also when studying, “the causes of death of 3,439 former NFL players concluded they were three times as likely as the general population to die from degenerative brain diseases,such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's”(Karaim). However there has been remarkable facts on how CTE has been found in NFL players more commonly than any other sport the NFL refuses to acknowledge that there is any correlation between player who played professional football and CTE. Because of this direct correlation of football and CTE many players are unable to work of fully function after their career as a professional
Many memories are made in football, but sadly some of the greatest players cannot recall them. The National Football League has been associated with concussions and brain traumas throughout the years, but lately it has been exposed by media and NFL veterans. The league recently “reached a $765 million preliminary settlement with thousands of former players who were suing the league over its treatment of concussions…” (Waldron). Many former players are experiencing the effects of taking hard hits over and over again; they were not properly treated, which makes the injury worse and long term. The concussion issue in the NFL is more prevalent today, because it affects not only the players, but the league as a whole.
While the use of helmets does aid in protecting players from brain trauma, they also increase the risky behavior of players; this is called risk compensation. Risk compensation is the adjustment of individual behavior, responding to the perceived changes in risk (TheFreeDictionary.com). Most people that wear helmets have a pre-conceived idea that, because they have a helmet on, they can possess more daring behaviors and be fine. The helmet is basically thought of as a tool to hit harder, or improve performance in today’s culture. Adventure writer and pilot, Lane Wallace (2011) accurately understands the dangers of helmets being used incorrectly, and how they are used as weapons instead of safety. Wallace also theorizes like the NFL, a change in football culture and of viewpoints towards helmets would vastly reduce trauma to the