Football At A Crossroads: A Case Study

Warrior Side Effect Football is one of the most beloved sports in the United States. It is one of the most violent bone crushing sports, leaving players permanently injured for life in some cases. The most common injury that football players suffer from pee-wee through the NFL is the concussion. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that changes the way your brain works. The effects of a concussion are usually temporary and can result in a full recovery if its minor and treated correctly. A concussion can lead to brain problems later in life, even after a player has finished playing football. This is why people are studying and trying to understand concussions fully in order to prevent and treat future ones. Concussions are very

Over the past several years, concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) have become hot topics in the world of football. The long lasting effects of concussions and CTE experienced

Concussions in the NFL have been a big topic over the years and will continue to plague the League and the Players. In fact in 2015 alone 271 players suffered a concussion over the whole season (CNN). However People don’t realize what happens to the player after they

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

Concussions can occur on any play in football, two opponents could hit each other with their helmets or an opponent could tackle the other. Effects of concussions can be long term some of the long term effect are; headache, dizziness, difficulty concentrating or completing tasks (“Long-Term”). These are just a few of the long term effects the most dangerous effect is chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is a progressive degenerative disease which affects the brain of people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries (“What Is CTE”). The most common effects of CTE include loss of memory, difficulty controlling erratic behavior, behavioral disturbances including aggression and depression and difficulty with

Carson, the starting football quarterback for Westlake High School, stumbled upon many impacting collisions as he began to play in a highly competitive conference. Carson realized that the more tackles he encountered that they were significantly unlike his past experiences with hits in his old conference. He also noticed distinguishable

“There are between an estimated 1.6 and 3.8 million sports-related concussions in the United States every year”(“Statistics”) Concussions can lead to death or permanent injury. A concussion is a brain injury that causes long term brain damage. Some football players will hide injuries, so that they can continue to play

There are many consequences to playing football, but the greatest is concussions. Football is a game of tackles, sacks, and other hard hitting plays that involve big men playing their hearts out. Within the game of football, whoever has the ball is the one to be hit the hardest, on most plays. These immense blows to the body and head lead to awful injuries, both physically and mentally. Most players will be injured in some way during their football career, with the worst injuries being those that are mental. The worst and most frightening injury for a football player to have is a concussion. A concussion is a form of traumatic brain injury that results in a temporary loss of brain function. Concussions have been known since the 10th Century AD of which Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya Al-Razi-Rhazes was the first to use the term. Al-Razi was the first to “make a distinction between a concussion as an abnormal physiologic state and severe brain injury” (Mccrory & Berkovic). He also stated that there would be no physical damage seen, only neurological damage (Mccrory & Berkovic). Football is a very dangerous sport, not just physically, but neurologically as well.

Football is one of the most beloved sports in the United States. It is one of the most violent bone crushing sports, leaving players permanently injured for life in some cases they lose their life. The most common injury that football players suffer from pee-wee through professional football is the concussion. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that changes the way your brain works. The effects of a concussion are usually temporary and can result in a full recovery if it’s minor and treated correctly. A concussion can lead to brain problems later in life, even after a player has finished playing football. Concussions are more than just a swelling bump on the head, they’re considered a minor traumatic brain injury. We need to spread awareness about this injury that sports players are told to “Shake Off” and get right back into the game.

This is causing them to becoming more at risk of receiving a concussion. A child’s brain is not fully developed until they are well into their teen years. There have been many researches in the past few years that show when a child received repeated hits to the head, it can cause lifelong damage to the brain. It will take longer for children to recover from a concussion than adults, and they are also at a higher risk at receiving a second concussion. A recent study at Boston University was taken to scan the brains of a few high school football players. The findings were troubling. Of the 24 players who were tested, most of whom began playing football before they even could learn to talk, preformed worse on cognitive exams. The MRI’s unveiled a series of abnormalities in a broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain also known as the corpus callosum. This part of the brains’ main job is to relay information and commands between

Research shows that concussions are likely the result of repetitive hits over time, not just one impact. In a February 2012 study, MRI scans of high school football players showed that the more hits a player sustained, the more the functional capacity of their brain decreased. Typically, professional football players start playing football at a young age, sometimes as early as 6 years old. From that time on, the player is subjected to a number of hits. In boys, brain development peaks at around age 12. A recently published study showed that players who started playing tackle football earlier than the age of 12 suffered from a greater impairment of brain function. The Boston University School of Medicine study tested 42 former NFL football players,

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.

I) STATS ON FOOTBALL CONCUSSIONS PROVE THE POSSIBILITY OF HEALTH PROBLEMS AFTER NFL RETIREMENT Head trauma can lead to brain disorders and mental health issues. 1 in 3 former NFL players have had 5 or more concussions and 3 in 4 still suffer symptoms today. A study shows that NFL football players who have sustained 3 or more concussions are 5 times more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment- a condition connected to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. NFL football players who were surveyed who had sustained 3 or more concussions were 3 times more likely to develop clinical depression compared to other players who had not suffered concussions. 9 in 10 former NFL players reported suffering from concussions during their career, 6 in 10 players reported having 3 or more concussions, and 2 in 3 of the former players who had concussions said they continue to have symptoms from concussions. A survey on retired NFL players discovered that about 9 in 10 report daily pain and 91% of them connect all of their pains to football. Andre Waters is an example of what research proves. It shows that players who’ve sustained 3 or more concussions are at a threefold risk of depression. 21-22% of this group have experienced depression, compared to 6-7% of the group, who haven’t experienced concussions, who haven’t dealt with depression. “In the [2007] survey of 2,552 retired players, almost 61% in the sample indicated that they had [suffered] a concussion in their career. Of

I am interested in the repercussions of playing football since I played for several years and sustained a concussion. As more movies and new stories emerge regarding brain traumas sustained on the football playing field, I am concerned about the long-term effects. I am concerned about how it not only affects professional

The beloved American sport that consists of tackling others to the ground and trying to make a touchdown to lead the team to victory has become too dangerous to play. We let our children play the risky sport at a young age and think it is just for fun.