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Concussions over the past 30 years in the NFL
Concussions in football research paper
Concussions in football research paper
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People in today’s society are pampered and are scared to do anything risky. One of the most protected professions in the world today is football. Football is the most watched sport in America today. Every Sunday families get together and root for their favorite team. On average NFL players have 1.9 million dollar salary. (Cunha) Back when football was going on in the 1980’s the average salary was 160,000 dollars. So while they were making almost 700,000 dollars less than players now they had less equipment to protect them from injury. The NFL shouldn’t change the equipment policy because the players know the risk, there have been many rules to help them, and they get paid more money to play. Today the most talk surrounding the NFL is how …show more content…
All-pro corner back Richard Sherman stated a quote about his profession, “All of us NFL players, from wide receivers to defensive backs, chose this profession. Concussions are going to happen to cornerbacks who go low and lead with their shoulders, wide receivers who duck into contact, and safeties who tackle high and linemen who run into somebody on every single play.” (Bradley) One of the most respected players in the game understands that he chose the sport that he loves and is willing to accept the consequences. He knows that whatever happens it’s his choice and he can choose if he wants to stay or retire. One of the greatest quarterbacks to play had something to say about it too. “When I went out there to play I knew there was a chance I could get a concussion or I could break a leg or get a knee injury” (Breech) Dan Marino agrees with Richard Sherman on how they know there at risk for injury by playing. Many famous current and former players say that the equipment should stay the same because they know what they are getting into when they choose that profession. If that is not enough the NFL makes sure that all new players coming into the league know the injuries that could be caused and that could last a lifetime. When there are 300 pound men running at you there will always be a risk of getting
The NFL position in this article makes them look very greedy and indifferent about the overall health of their football players. One of the ethical perspectives that can be used to analyze the NFL's position in this article is deontology. Deontology is the perspective where rules is the defining factor for ethical decisions. From the deontology perspective it makes it seem that the NFL has decided not to follow the rules and even blurred the lines as to what potential injuries their players can get. They wanted their injured players to play without having to follow through the with proper procedure in verifying that the players are in conditions healthy enough to play. It looks as if the NFL cares only about bringing in money and not care about
America’s newfound favorite pastime, football, came from a bizarre chain of events. Football started when a soccer player got fed up with just kicking the ball, so he picked up the ball and ran to the goal. His actions of picking up the ball and running with it fathered a new European sport, rugby, which was soon brought over to American shores, and was altered slightly, the shape of the ball and a few other small rules. The sport became organized into a league and produced the NFL(National Football League). The NFL had a slow beginning, but has picked up popularity, currently having a 9 billion dollar yearly revenue. 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.
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).
Playing football comes with several risks factors that players’ acknowledge prior to playing the game starting a young age. Regardless, these players still chose to play the game, which they end up loving and cherishing despite all the risks accompanied with it. Football is one of the toughest sports in the world; it takes a certain amount of strength, speed, and aggressiveness to play 48 minutes of hard-nosed football. However, the National Football League (NFL) is in the midst of a controversial issue. Is the NFL getting soft? This has been a debatable issue for several years. While some believe that implementing all these rules in the NFL is progressively turning the game soft, others say that the NFL is not getting soft; it is just trying to make the game safer for its players.
Looking at the severity of injuries in the NFL in this day and age, and then looking at what the NFL does to protect players, the NFL is a business. Everything is politics. It has turned into who has the best stadium rather than who has the best players. The NFL is all about who has the best fans, not who has the best coach. The better fans you have, the more money you make, but the better coach you get, the more money you have to pay him. Growing up as a fan of the NFL, it saddens me to see the decline of the sport I love so much, but it is nearly inevitable. Soon enough, everyone in the NFL will be injured, and football will be over. The way things are going, players are dropping faster than we are gaining them. We only draft new players into the league once a...
For the safety of the players in the present and future, a stricter concussion protocol should be required at all levels of football. Though improvements have been made, the game of football is constantly changing and the protocol needs to keep up with the changes. Today’s athletes are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before: "Size and physical conditioning techniques in sports at all levels have evolved to create an intense athlete. They 're able to create more force, power and speed than ever before and that leads to harder hits and a greater number of hits" (Neporent). These advances in training have led to a more dangerous sport. The protocol has improved in recent years along with an emphasis on player safety, but the increasing numbers of players with long-term effects of concussions show there is still work to be done.
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
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
Present players in the National Football League disagree with all the protective rules now but when they are no longer playing football it’ll be a different story. Players also tend to forget that they won 't be playing football forever and that they will need to be healthy later on in life when they can no longer play football. It’s not okay for players to complain about the safety rules now, and then later claim the National Football
In American football, helmets are required to decrease traumatic brain injuries and have been successful in doing so. A large part in the success of helmet design is improvements in technology. The sizes of athletes have gone up to make football more dangerous. To protect against brain injury, helmets designs have changed to become heavier and wider, filled within the space are energy absorbing materials, air space and padding to protect the skull upon impact. Originally, helmets were designed to prevent only traumatic brain injuries, but technology is advancing to fill the gap of concussions. Until recently, the seriousness of concussions were not considered part of the equation that needed to be addressed, so manufactures did not utilized in constructing helmets to address this issue (Post et al. 653). Upon predicting risk of concussions in tests, by themselves linear and rotational acceleration are not suitable measurements for modern helmets. These testing measurements do not address the rotational forces and minor hits to the brain which are associated with concussions (Post et al. 654). Given the seriousness of concussions in contact sports, more attention is given to prevent and reduce concussions through testing methods and advancing technology, stronger regulation and changes to the sport. As stated in the article involving the National Football League (NFL), “The risk involved in playing sports are also very real. The NFL is struggling with serious mental and physical health problems because they sustained repeated mild traumatic brain injuries, is what concussions are called. (“Concussions and Marketing of Sports Equipment” 6).
...grams such as bigger, faster and stronger, there is no way that we can stop concussions from happening. I still watch and love football today but some part of me doesn’t think the defensive game is the same merely because of concussions. Although I think football should still be played in today society, a lot of people are viewing the game differently because of concussions. I disagree with hurting players, but some of the calls made this year dealing with tackling have made my mouth drop several times. Concussions effects on big hits, big plays, and defensive game style have changed the NFL for the worse. I understand that refs have to make what they see right calls, but in many cases players perform perfect technique and still get penalized. Although the NFL game is played at a high level, I believe concussions have taken some of the intensity away from players.
The NFL has already had changes to the way the players are allowed to come in contact with a defenceless player, but it does not address the problem as well as it needs to (“NFL” n.p.). There should changes that affect how long an athlete must sit out after receiving a head injury to avoid more brain trauma. Also, there should be trained personnel at every game to decrease the amount of undiagnosed concussions which will increase the player’s safety. These changes would make big strides in protecting the players while also appealing to Americans by not further changing the contact rule which would ease this
Changes can be made to try to make the sport safer, but as time goes on players will continue to get bigger and stronger, and we can’t change the fact that it is a full contact sport. Injuries will be inevitable, some will be minor and others can be fatal. Is a human life worth less than money or entertainment? Players risk the chance of a healthy future every time they step on the field. The human body is not made to take that continuous and ferocious impact game after game. Many players sell themselves short while putting their bodies in harm’s way which increases their probability of health complications down the road. If the violent aspect of the game is not addressed, it will negatively impact the future of players and the sport. Hopefully, the studies and research that is made public can somehow find a way to make the game safer for the players. Until that day comes, football is much too dangerous and not worth the
them and put policies in place to help prevent injuries such as concussions. The NFL should not
In the legal aspect of things, the NFL can be held responsible for these injuries. It is not up to the players themselves to be provided the equipment that they wear, it’s the NFL’s. If this equipment is faulty, or is not protecting the players as they should, then they need to accept responsibility for this. Many have said it’s the players fault because they choose to do this line of work. They may have chosen the job, but they did not choose to get hurt in such a significant manner. As previously stated, this is another class act of getting hurt on the job.