Effect of Concussions on NFL Athletes

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.

Concussions can be very dangerous to a person’s health especially if a person receives multiple of them in their life. “A study of American high school and college football players demonstrated 94 catastrophic head injuries (significant intracranial bleeding or edema) over a 13 year period,” (repetitive head injury syndrome.) deceased NFL players who have been identified with CTE are almost always players who received multiple concussions during their lives. “Symptoms of the disease include increased irritability and impulsivity early on and dementia in the later stages,” (Hard Knocks: the Science of Concussions.) Also many retired NFL players report having increased memory loss and depression. Many of these players have died much younger than the average person because of concussions, that are dangerous enough to kill over a long period of time.

After the suicide of NFL player Junior Seau last May and the murder-suicide of Kansas City Cheifs player Jovan Belcher, the issue of head trauma and the long term effects it has on players in the NFL has become a very hot topic in the sports and medical field. While the cause of Belcher’s depression has not been diagnosed as caused by any specific disease, the official diagnosis of what made Seau end his life has been cited as CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) (Zeigler, 2012). CTE is a progressive neurodegenerative brain disease which is caused by repetitive head trauma, such as concussions (SLI, 2012). CTE is known to cause depression, severe mood swings,

Thesis: Youth and High School football teams are not adequately protected from the danger of concussions and head trauma.

As a result, early identification is extremely beneficial to accurately examine damages to the brain because it leads to degenerative diseases. These diseases are hard to catch if symptoms are not shown in the athlete right away. The NFL has to adopt better protocol to diagnose concussions based on medical data instead of assessing by judgment (Futterman). A more scientific approach is being studied that can diagnose concussions faster and more accurately. By using a simple blood test after six hours of forceful impact, the test can display brain cells that have broken down succeeding the impact. By exercising such a test, it can rid the uncertainty of when it is safe to get an athlete back on the field without triggering further cognitive damages.

Once upon time in the United States of America, smoking was the norm. One could say it was pretty much admired. People smoked while they were at work, got pleasure while air traveling, transformed sporting events into, “movable airborne toxic events” (Hruby 1). Cigarettes were promoted as healthy -- a promise of a better digestive track and calmer nerves was not up to par with the reality that of inhaling toxins such as nicotine made with pesticides. Smoking sure did feel good and that sensation in the back of the throat was nothing a filter could not fix. In comparison, smoking and football are a lot alike. Concussion are bad. Assuming a working brain is needed to function. Helmet to Helmet contact is pretty scary, especially if it is watched over and over again on tv. Concussions in the NFL are a serious issues. Players, current and retired are impacted to the degree of having long term damage and having mental disorders. It is up to the National Football League to make the necessary changes for a safer program and ………...

Lastly, having multiple concussions produce long term effects on athletes. This was proven by a study performed that compared athletes with a history of concussions to athletes with no concussion history using a concussion test known as: Immediate Post Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT). This is a computerized test that measures memory capabilities to determine if an athlete has a concussion. It was taken by the athletes prior to their season to find a baseline level. This baseline would then be used to determine if someone has a concussion by comparing it to a post-concussion result of the ImPACT. Every athlete in this study was given the ImPACT test within five days of sustaining a concussion. The results from this

An increasingly popular topic in the realm of sports fans has begun to unravel. The National Football League recently has begun to introduce new rules and regulations for their athletes to start abiding by to ensure the continued safety of the player’s health. Although most find this change in the game of professional football as a positive step forward, others see this as a diminishment of the sanctity of NFL football. New rules and regulations that have been introduced into NFL are vital to athletes involved in the sport and help them to play with lowered risks of long term injuries that could possibly affect not only them but also the league in the future as well. The reasons for these

Neurologist and that is dealing with their brain after so many hits they took over their

Concussions can cause long term effects if not treated properly. A player can recover from a concussion in a few weeks, but the lasting effects of a concussions still prove relevant. Retired players that have suffered from concussions during their careers and were not treated properly felt the long-term effects of sustaining head injuries that caused many to commit suicide, which has led to the NFL investigating their concussion protocol to keep the players safe. As the NFL uses its lead doctors to investigate and understand more about the brain it will lead to gains in the safety of athletes

In the sports world today, there are many different injuries that athletes experience and one of the most devastating injury is a concussion. Concussions can happen to anyone, in any sport, but we tend to see most concussions in contact sports (Świerzewski 1). While having an informal conversation with my dad about football, he told me it was common for athletes to receive a head injury in a game and continue to play as if nothing was wrong. While watching SportsCenter, I found that some of the greatest retired athletes don’t remember the best moments of their careers due to the lack of treatment. The worst aspect of concussions is that the symptoms can be delayed; in some cases, it’s only a headache so athletes don’t seek medical treatment. Multiple concussions over time can lead to life-threatening complications due to the damage they cause to the brain. Concussions can happen to anybody at anytime, but there is more to concussions than meets the eye.

The dependent variable I will be looking at is the number of reported concussions each in the 6 year time periods and comparing them to each other. By doing so, I will be able to see if concussions increased or decreased, if the players were out of games and practices for longer periods of time due to precautionary reasons and if the rule changes of the NFL such as moving the kickoffs forward 5 yards to reduce the number of returns, a play where the majority of concussions occurred has made a positive or negative impact on the game. The last thing I will be looking at is to see how these concussions affect the players and whether or not it would be smarter to make the NFL non contact to not only help keep these athletes safe during there playing

In 2012 over 3.8 million concussions were reported, double of what it was just ten years earlier. With the recent increase of technology in those years we are now able to notice that this is a major issue. These injuries can be life changing and perhaps the scariest part is that they’ve been around longer than the games they occur in themselves. In the past, players would be hit by a 250 pound man running at full speed with their head thrown around and just ‘walk it off’, maybe sitting out for a couple of plays. Within the last few years, the National Football League has been under heavy pressure to do more to prevent and diagnose these concussions. However, even with these recent advances that have been made, the NFL is still not doing enough as it continues to avoid any claims of responsibility.

Americans today tend to believe that the NFL is a great sport to participate in and has no flaws. But the NFL is a dangerous sport where the players often suffer from concussions. According to the Medical News Today, over “4,000 former football players filed lawsuits alleging that the National Football League failed to protect them from the long-term health consequences of concussions”. Also just in 2013, 228 NFL players have been diagnosed with concussions that season, “according to the league’s annual Health & Safety Report”. These concussions that the athletes suffer from can result in the players developing CTE. CTE also known as “chronic traumatic encephalopathy”, is an illness that causes pain on the brain of people who had gone through multiple head-to-head collisions or severe mental trauma. There are several symptoms of CTE in which can have a negative effect on the person with the disease and their family or friends. Some of these symptoms include memory loss, not being able to control unpredictable behaviors, weakened judgement, violent attitude, depression, and dementia. Research from the BIRI (Brain Injury Research Institute) showed that the CTE disease slowly deteriorates the brain where the individual will soon enough not be able to function properly. However, this disease is beginning to become more common in the NFL today.

Hall of fame football coach John Madden once said: “They’re on the right road, but there’s a long way to go on concussions.” The National Football League (NFL) is doing something about concussions, but it is not enough. In the NFL, there needs to be more player safety because of the immediate dangers of concussions and the increased chance of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and other mental diseases arising later in a player’s life.