Do Not Blame The NFL: Article Analysis

Although the National Football League (NFL) seems to provide a source of entertainment for Americans, it is slowly but surely brainwashing our population. Starting in September, a great majority of the American population gathers around TV screens and crowds into stadiums across the country to watch men ram into each other in hopes of getting a leather ball to the end of a field. This occurs every Sunday, as well as the occasional Saturday and Monday night. Fans spend hundreds of dollars on game tickets, and NFL Ticket TV subscriptions to ensure that they never miss a game. If we were to take a step back and look at it, these weekly occurrences seem to become ritualistic. What was supposed to be a source of entertainment has become a routine

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.

Over the past several years, the NFL has faced numerous lawsuits involving former NFL players and their families ranging from negligence, fraud, and wrongful death conspiracy from related head traumas suffered while playing professional football. Several studies have shown that there are long-term and devastating effects on football players who consistently experience concussions during regular season play and practice. There is

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

There needs to be more safety in the NFL because of the immediate dangers of concussions. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, “a concussion is an injury to the brain that results in temporary loss of normal brain function.”(AANS) The most common symptoms are confusion, dizziness, headaches, memory loss all of which can have lifelong effects. Concussions are a serious injury because it can do a lot of damage to the brain; therefore, there needs to be a way to limit the blows to the head that causes them. If one gets a high number of concussions, then there is a high chance of their life being affected in a negative way. A report published by the NFL states that the number of concussions in 2016 was 244. That is a decline from 2012 when there were 261 concussions. The decline shows that there has been some progress in reducing the amount of concussions in the NFL, but there still are 244 players being exposed to the symptoms that can be an occurrence for their whole lives. The NFL needs to do more to protect its employees from concussions via safety rules. A major problem is the concussion protocol. The NFL states that if a player exhibits symptoms during a game, then they “must be removed and evaluated by the Club medical team,” (NFL Concussion Protocol 4). This seems like a good rule, but there is a lot of gray area in this rule because a team can have an examination, but they can falsely claim that the player does not have a concussion and place him back in the game. In an article for USA Today, Jarrett Bell writes about a play where Indianapolis Colts quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, was hit in the head and it seemed that he would not come back, but the Colts cleared him after one play with no concussion. In the article, Chris Nowinski,

The NFL as you probably already know, stands for the National Football League. It is the elite league for the best players and best athletes in the world. These players are in tip top shape and are extremely strong. Now the big question is this. What is one of, if not the biggest problem in the NFL? Concussions. Nate Jackson, a former NFL player and writer says this, “Why is it that men who were the strongest and fittest people alive when they were young degenerate so quickly? That’s the million-dollar question.” With all of the protective equipment and top-of-the-line helmets, you would think that the players are safe from these types of injuries. But, there is a remaining problem of concussions that is still very

In recent years, there has been a backlash from all kinds of doctors throughout the world that believe the National Football League or NFL needs to make adjustments to the way they treat head injuries, specifically concussions. A concussion is a brain injury characterized by an onset of impairment of cognitive and/or physically functioning and is caused by hits around the head and neck area. This NFL is under destress because of numerous studies that show concussions can lead to a large amount brain injuries way after the player has played his last game. However, this isn't just a problem the NFL is facing, the real problem is our youth contact sports and head-related injuries. High school athletes are extremely more exposed to concussions than

One of the most controversial discussions in sports today is concussions and how the athletes who play sports are being protected. Concussions in the NFL has been a constant argument over the past decade because of not only the number of players who were diagnosed with concussions but also in addition to the number of retired NFL players that reported having depression problems, drug addictions and eventually taking away their own lives by suicide. Football is know to many as “Americas game” and because of this fans live for and look forward to these hard hitting brut athletes that suit up and take the field for battle each week not knowing the facts on how concussions not only ruins the athletes chances of playing again but affects the brain

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.

Scientists, researchers, neurobiologists, etc. began the study of the effects of concussions on the brains of players and it has been very clear that concussions and head trauma can lead to CTE. This development has been backed by the life changing experiments of retired players who have developed CTE or other brain diseases, which lead to a decrease in their life span, or quality of life. Since the connection of concussions and brain damage, the media and fans garnered a negative view of the league and their treatments of their players because of the environment they are placed in, a hard-hitting concussion battleground. The negative attention on the league has caused a decrease in the number of people who watch the sport on Sundays and it will not stop as more and more evidence about CTE and football is released. The NFL is in a position to lose its place as America’s favorite pastime, but it can be reversed if the league decides to enact on new rules that decrease the amount of head-to-head contact as well as admit past mistakes and prove that they want to make themselves better.

Because there has been a significant increase in the number of yearly concussions in the NFL, the league should make deeper, more fundamental changes to the player’s training regimes and preparation, in order to make a genuine commitment to

The NFL has begun to reform its policies on player safety, especially pertaining to the head and neck area of the players. With the players suing the NFL for all the concussions and negative side effects they bring,

The conflict in this text is that the new England Patriots were using under inflated balls in the AFC Championship game. All eleven of the Patriots balls tested, measured below the minimum pressure level of 12.5 pounds per square inch (psi). The patriots won the championship game and advanced to win Super Bowl XLIX. The Indianapolis Colts felt as they bad been cheated and demanded the NFL to look into the balls. The NFL announced that Theodore V. Wells Jr would conduct the investigation. The investigation was conducted pursuant to the policy on integrity of the game and Enforcement of Competitive Rules. Tom Brady the quarterback of the patriots, is responding to

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.

In the article,” NFL owners look to expand international games, possibly to Mexico and Germany” written by Tom Pelissero, he discusses the potential to play and broadcast professional NFL games in Mexico, as well as, oversees. Over the past couple of years, this has strongly been known to be a highly controversial ongoing topic all across the NFL that is getting national attention worldwide. The NFL believes that this is a new step forward for them to get noticed, since this would be creatively new to fans from all around the world. In the article, it states,” We’d like to see if we can add a game in a new country for 2016 if we can,” said Mark Waller, executive vice president of NFL International. “That’s our goal.” Although, it is the NFL’s