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Head Trauma In Hapiness

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On a scaled-down football field in the heart of Chicago's Grant Park, 6-foot-3, 294-pound defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche and two dozen other NFL superstars-in-waiting are teaching nearly 100 shrieking, gyrating boys and girls that football is a fun--and safe--game. Pharrell's "Happy" blares over loudspeakers on the eve of the NFL draft, a three-day event that will transform 31 first-round picks into millionaires and dozens of other later-round selections into very wealthy young men. But for these draft prospects seeking a spot on a 53-man NFL roster, putting personal safety first isn't so easy. And that's a price they're willing to pay. "At the end of the day, the game is a dangerous game. It's a collision," Nkemdiche said after the 6- to 14-year-olds taking part in the NFL's youth football clinic finished their running, catching and tackling drills, posed for a group selfie and headed for …show more content…

Concussions and repeated head trauma have been linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease also known as CTE. It has been diagnosed in the brains of 88 of 92 former football players examined after death. A study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma last month was even more troubling, finding that repeated blows to the head that fall short of concussions can be just as damaging, if not more so. That's largely why Borland chose to retire from the NFL after just one season, despite the fact that it meant forfeiting future earnings and repaying a portion of his signing bonus. After contacting the leading neurologists in the field, he concluded that there simply were no guarantees for his long-term health as an NFL player. Tarpley concluded the same, explaining on his Instagram feed that he was leaving a game he loved "to preserve my future health" after suffering the third and fourth concussions of his career in a single NFL

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