A Brain Gone Bad Analysis

In the Documentary League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis is about an investigation regarding the serious legal hidden information that the National Football League was keeping from its playing. Thousands of former Football players have claimed that league tried to cover up how football inflicted long-term brain injuries on so many people. This video breaks down and researching the truth on the NFL’s football players concussion crisis.

While the NFL is putting new rules and regulations on equipment and which type of tackles are allowed, living retired NFL players are found to already have symptoms of CTE (Fainaru, 2013). Through brain scans and research done by UCLA, they have identified proteins in player’s brains that cause CTE, which as Dr. Julian Bailes, co-director or North Shore Neurological Institute said, is the “holy grail” to studying CTE and finding ways to cure and prevent it (Fainaru, 2013). While this is a break through, there is still no cure or way to treat CTE (Fainaru, 2013). But this research also raises questions about CTE and the NFL. Will players be required to be tested for CTE? Can players be denied playing anymore if CTE is found? Will this greatly affect the way that football is currently played? As the research is still being collected, there is still no definite answer to any of those questions, but the NFL has acknowledged the correlations of CTE and concussions caused by playing in the NFL and assures that they will do all they can to help prevent severe brain trauma to their players, including donating $30 million to the National Institutes of Health to conduct further research on CTE (Kroll, 2013).

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.

Concussions, injuries, and suffering- those are what always happen in football games. Football is the most popular sport in America, people like the sound of “uh....” when football players hit each other. In the documentary “League of Denial: NFL’s Concussion Crisis” by Frontline, the connection between playing football and brain injuries is analyzed. Steve Almond’s, “Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto” shows how football impacts his life and how evil the NFL is. Also other books that say the same things are “Ban College Football” by Intelligence2 Debates. They want to show how much impact human beings can receive when they play football and how football’s safety rules change to protect their players. Most of the time, resources always talk about CTE -Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy- an injury that can result in a memory loss. The illness comes from brain trauma that is caused by violent concussions and makes the tau protein, which actually is not supposed to be in the brain, stay inside the brain and kill all the neurons. The documentary by Frontline focuses on how many people are being affected by this problem and how the NFL reacts to all the allegations

The effects of harsh concussions are being made aware of in the NFL and steps are being made to prevent them (Block, 4). By teaching better tackling techniques, the risk of concussions has declined and defenders have learned to keep their heads up while tackling to prevent hard hits to the helmet (Emmert, 4). Five years ago in the NFL, players could return to the field after a concussion. The league is trying to protect the players from causing extensive head trauma now and keeping the players out of the game with a concussion (Sullivan, 2). Medical experts agree that all the steps being taken to prevent concussions are great, like handling out harsher penalties for hits to the head, teaching better tackling techniques, and creating high-tech helmets, but there’s no way of knowing if they’ll stop all concussions (Emmert, 7). The NFL is spending $45 million to support youth football and protect kids from concussions, where they will also teach the young players the proper way to tackle (Pulley and Glor, 1). The NFL agreed to pay $765 million with 4,800 former players, although a US District Court judge in Philadelphia declined it, stating that it wasn’t enough money to cover all the future claims that could be reported (Emmert, 1). Surveys show that 39% of players say that the NFL rule changes on hits to the head made the game safer, but 53% said it didn’t make a difference and 8% said it was less safe (Barzilai and Brady, 2). The “League of Denial”

Throughout Concussion, many ethical concerns were enumerated. The first concern is the manner in which the NFL handled the discovery of CTE. The MTBI committee was composed of NFL doctors, not including a neuropathologist, which showed a lack of integrity in being able to interpret the neurological findings. The committee refused to accept Omalu 's research and claimed that the correlation between concussions and football was a misinterpretation. The second concern was the lack of clarity for players in the league. The players were uninformed about the risk factors even after the discovery of CTE and did not receive compensation for injuries acquired during the career. The third and last concern was the finding that concussions affect athletes beyond NFL players, including other contact sport athletes. The three main lkjljlksjconcerns led to the ethical question which evaluates if allowing players to participate in sports that could result in long-term damages to the brain is ethical. Data from scientific journals aid in my decision making to answer the ethical question.

Science says concussions are inevitable; 96 percent of all NFL players and 79 percent of all football players test positive for brain disease (Source: Frontline League of Denial 9/18/15 Concussion Watch Article). Prior to 2002, the NFL’s approach to preventing, treating, and managing concussions and CTE was very different than it is today. My essay will explore what some of those differences were and whether or not changes in the NFL are improving the outcomes and quality of life for current and former NFL players.

Bright lights, big hits, and postgame interviews, to television commercials, team camaraderie, and multimillion-dollar deals. The National Football league or better known as the NFL created in 1920 has become part of the American culture. To fans the NFL is a gift like no other. The glamour, passion, and fame that the NFL displays for its professional athletes comes with a price. The NFL is a league filled with violent collisions from some of the world?s most athletically gifted players. Players are progressively being diagnosed with significant brain trauma due to the size and athleticism of the players in a game. The effects of the collisions are far more impactful than the instant headache; the bipolar behaviors, dark depression, and

Head trauma in the sport of football is a serious notion that has been severely overlooked until recent events that have taken place with former National Football League players. Cases of suicide, depression, violent outbursts, and memory loss have all been reported by former players that have played many years of professional Football. If the head trauma caused in football does not gain more awareness the results could be devastating to the sport itself. The combination of these cases can lead to individual damage such as the self inflicted harm of former players, or harm to individuals around the former players. In addition to class action lawsuits against major football leagues have beginning to gain steam and are threatening football’s

"You get a concussion, they've got to take you out of the game. So if you can hide it and conceal it as much as possible, you pay for it the next day, but you'll be able to… stay in the game." Washington Redskins fullback Mike Sellers. 76 of 79 brains of former deceased NFL athletes by scientists have shown signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE (Sappenfield, 2015) which is believed to be caused by the innumerable amount of hits taken to the head through the duration of their short careers. Throughout the years, concussions have become a massive issue, especially for the NFL and its athletes as former NFL athletes are now developing brain diseases like CTE due to the repeated head trauma received over their short careers which is

High impact sports (like football, soccer, etc.) are capable of giving severe concussions and a good amount of long term negative effects. “The NFL revealed that it expects nearly a third of all retired players to develop permanent brain impairments…” (15). People are getting injured in their own careers willingly. More and more

Several conditions can occur when the brain gets continual damage and does not have the adequate time to heal in between injuries. One of those conditions is called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease which can only definitively be diagnosed postmortem, most frequently occurring in people with multiple concussions in their lifetime. The research into this condition began in 2002 and is relatively new and since it can only be studied after death, it has been harder to study. The Boston University School of Medicine began studying the brains of deceased former NFL players and published a study on CTE in 2016 that showed that 90 of the 94 brains they studied had CTE. Former NLF player’s families have sued the NFL due to injuries sustained during their careers that lead to their deaths. There was a settlement in 2013 with over 4500 player’s estates. But football is not the only sport that is effected by repetitive concussive brain injuries, but it is the large number of NFL injuries that is bringing this extreme medical topic to the forefront of the news.

When the initial confrontation respecting concussions associated with the National Football League began in 2012, the NFL reacted quickly and immediately donated tens of millions of dollars to the National Institutes of Health for mental disease and concussion research . However, ultimately the results the athletic organization gathered from the studies were understated and deliberately misinformed the public, in order to spare their reputation and further cultivate their success within the industry.

In a study of 92 former NFL players, it was found that a total of 88 (96%) of them were afflicted with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE (Tyler). With such a high percentage of former NFL players suffering from this disease, one would think solid efforts would be being put forward towards a cure, or that a cure may even have already been found. But this is not the case. Very little is known about this disease, and there is no known cure for it yet. As the leading influence in the game of football, the NFL has the moral responsibility to fund research and put forth an effort towards reducing the risk of and eventually eliminating head trauma in the game of football.

In the article “The NFL Recognizes Brain Damage to Players” the author Lawrence Gable explains that NFL players are experiencing too many concussions. Concussions can lead to suicide and several other mental issues that can affect the NFL players as well as future players. Football players and their families are suing the NFL for 765 million dollars. Gable states, “The NFL has admitted that football is causing permanent damage. Now it must convince the judge that it finally has the players’ best interests at heart” (paragraph 10). This quote shows how football is dangerous and can lead to serious injuries. Some people may believe that the NFL does not care about the players based upon the research Gable provided. The author’s purpose is