Concussions In Sports Research Paper

Recreational athletes, competitive athletes, high school athletes, college athletes, and professional athletes all have one thing in common: the risk of a concussion. It's impossible to go a season without one athlete from a team receiving a concussion. The more that these concussions are studied, the more we learn about them, such as their detrimental effects on athletes. Because of the risk of health issues and death that come with concussions, doctors, coaches, athletic trainers, and lawmakers are stepping in to protect athletes of all levels from receiving concussions.

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.

Statistics show NFL players are paid $1.9 million a year on average. An injury as severe and time-consuming as a concussion can undoubtedly counteract this kind of pay. Professional athletes do not want to jeopardize sitting out a game and missing their opportunity, “‘[t]he return to play decision is based on symptoms, and the problem is the players all want to get back yesterday and the question is whether they are being truthful and honest’ during their evaluations, Stieg said” (Futterman). There is nothing doctors or trainers can do if the athlete lies about being symptom free. They can suspect the severity of the concussion by just observing the athlete’s behavioral response toward certain things, like light or noise.

Based on my research, there are considerable lifelong health related consequences associated with participating in grueling sport activities such as professional football. What responsibilities should the National Football League (NFL) have in regards to providing an adequate support system to players suffering from a concussion during a practice or regular season game and from lifelong challenges as a result of traumatic head injuries sustained during the regular season or practices? The resources I have referenced in this proposal essay, provide evidence to answer this question and lends support to my position that considering the violent nature of professional football, the NFL needs to take more efforts to protect players during the games and afterwards if a serious injury has been sustained that affects their quality of life and future earnings. Current policies are inadequate and continue to contribute to lawsuits and cost lives.

A concussion is an injury suffered in the brain of an individual that can affect and alter a person’s ability to perform not only mentally, but physically as well. The New York Daily News reported on one of the finest cases of how serious the NFL is taking the issue on concussions, the current lawsuit that reached a “$765 million settlement reached between the two sides, 18,000 concussion suffer and the NFL” which states causes for important untold information the NFL refused to report to players about the prospective dangers concussions had for their long-term health, though this was later shot down by a federal judge claiming that it was insufficient sum. An NFL player may succumb from thousands of hits to the head playing football all

Think about this, “how many people have had a concussion this year?” Probably more than one can count on one hand. On average there is close to 2.5 million concussions in the US that are caused by sports or recreational activities. In high school sports alone, “High school athletes are three times more likely to sustain catastrophic injuries than those people in college” (Gorgens.) Getting a concussions does not only cause physical pain, it can cause mental problems. There needs to be more precautions taken in protecting the players.

Injured athletes should have to sit out longer because once a person gets a concussion they are more likely to a get a second as stated in the first article where it says "High school students are 3 times more likely to experience a second concussion if concussed once during a season." Concussions can also have long lasting effects on people as stated in the third article where it says

In September, all around the country, football fans are preparing for the tailgating, football parties and eating, but none are looking forward to head injuries. As time goes on fans, officials, and players are becoming aware of the elevated numbers of head injuries that happen every day in the NFL. Football has been America’s sport for almost 100 years, but the overall statistics and continuous arguments involving concussion rates do not seem to agree. An increasing number of NFL players have shown signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), indicating that the NFL’s inconsistency in enforcing regulations to prevent concussions is resulting in a significant risk to players’ long term physical and psychological health issues.

Most states have three action steps that must be used in order to provide maximum safety for the athletes that are playing the games. The first step is to “educate coaches, parents, and athletes.” By educating coaches, parents, and athletes about the possibility of getting a concussion while playing a sport, they will all know what to look for if there is ever a hard hit to the

A research study conducted by Purdue University examined the brains of high school football players. They compared the changes of brains that had been affected by concussions and brains that hadn’t been. Surprisingly, both brains showed an amount of tissue damage (Nader and Reed 1). This further supports the idea for firm concussion regulations, through the fact that concussion symptoms are not always easily recognizable. Many concussions are never diagnosed because their symptoms are so mediocre and unnoticed.

Critics dispute the idea of doing more to prevent concussions because almost every sports league believes that players should be responsible for his or her actions during the sport. At this point, officials believe that they should not be associated with a players’ injury for their own actions. Critics point out that officials don’t always need to be included; it’s the parents and coaches, officials say that should responsible for their players’ injury (House 3). Take the case of a player going unconscious, an official won’t know what to do and shouldn’t know what to do. Officials will always take the side that has the coaches and parents responsible. Now, football teams today have started to obtain more hits to the head during practice, and now more players than ever are getting more and more concussions. Coaches believe that it is okay for kids to hit a lot in practice, so that they could get used

A recent study of college football players has shown that those who participate in high contact sports and have had a concussion before have a 300% higher chance of having another one in comparison to athletes that have never had a concussion before (Jolicoeur et al, 2007). The NFL and NCAA have enacted several rule changes in order to minimize the occurrence of concussions. These new rules, like many before them, have come under the scrutiny of the very athletes that they were meant to protect. The NHL and NHL Players Association in 1997 together created a program in order to get a better understanding of concussions and how to prevent them (Burke et al, 2011). According to Covassin (2008), athletes who have had more than one concussion take a longer time to recover with each concussion that they suffer from.

Sports Leagues such as the NBA(National Basketball Association) , NFL and NHL(National Hockey League) are businesses and it’s players are it’s employees working for them. Most other jobs have risk of injury as well, such as being an electrician for PG&E has the risk of being electrocuted, which in some cases can be life threatening so should they be banned as well? The only change sports programs should do is modify the rules so the players won’t get unnecessarily hurt, such as the helmet to helmet rule. All athletes, parents and coaches must be educated on identifying concussion, testing and treating them to prevent ignorant individuals from allowing them to participate in sport and not thinking twice about letting them sleep;It can potentially cause a victim to be in a coma for a long period of time. The consequences of allowing them can affect a victim for life by potentially causing memory loss with CTEs and ALS.To help accomplish eductating individual on concussion effects, laws need to be passed tp require health training for coaches of any sports league to diagnose if a person has a concussion. The month test needs to be a staple for it as well because it doesn’t solely rely on symptom identification also it shortens the difficulty gap on figuring out if a women has a

Is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is? That question is so mind-boggling that it would hurt people’s heads if they think about it too much. So much so that it may even feel like they have a concussion. That’s about how every NFL player feels when they have a concussion. Some are painless but could cause pain and permanent brain damage if left untreated. Concussions have become a major problem in the NFL. More and more concussions happen every year, and if things don’t drastically change, they will only increase. The NFL concussion protocol and injury rules are painfully ineffective and are in serious need of a change.

There are many people who agree that the NFL, to the best of their ability, is upholding the safety of their players when it comes to concussions, while there are others who blatantly disagree. Certain people are affected by this issue such as doctors, the National Football league, retired and current players, coaches, and the family of the players. Doctors as a whole feel that the NFL should invest in specialized helmets to prevent serious concussions. Multiple players have retired and their life has been very rocky. One retired player, Ted Johnson has had multiple seizures in the last year and he is also starting to lose his memory of day to day events. Another player, Mike Webster