Informative Speech : The Dangers Of Concussions In Sports

Female athletes tend to have a higher rate of brain injury than their male counterparts

Concussions are injuries that can occur in day-to-day life but are more commonly found in sports and physical activities. They are injuries that can be avoided, but when they happen they can be very dangerous. Through my years of playing football I have been diagnosed with two separate concussions, but they were both caused by playing football. There are ways to avoid concussions and the techniques should be taken seriously or they can have serious consequences. In this speech I will discuss what concussions are, how concussions happen, and the danger they present when diagnosed with one.

Close your eyes and imagine yourself as Nick Fitzgerald running the ball across the goaline you get the snap and the Boom next thing you know you are being woken up by a trainer you just experienced a concussion (Attention Graber)

Over the past little while I have researched and learned quite a bit about the NFL and fan to fan, I'd like to share with you my findings. First off, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Robbie Wolanski, proud fan of the Green Bay Packers, and avid football fan. I'm sure that when most of you think about the NFL you think about watching your team on Sunday, big hits, and Tom Brady. Let me give you something else to think about. Is the NFL a perfect corporation? Do they have any issues? Today I will be answering this and going into detail about the NFL.

There’s no doubt that concussions in football has become a major problem, not just for the professional athletes, but for kids of all ages from age 8 to 19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that concussion have doubled in the last decade and The American Academy of Pediatrics says that, “emergency room visits for concussions in children ages 8 to 13 years old has doubled, and concussions have risen 200 percent among teens ages 14 to 19 in the last decade” (Keith Dunlap, The Oakland Press). This shows that the seriousness of concussions is not just an issue at a pro level but an issue throughout all levels of play. The risk is definitely present when you play football but it shouldn’t stop parents from letting their children participate in the sport. Playing organized sports such as football isn’t just a place to get injured, it’s a place where your children can learn the importance of teamwork, sportsmanship, toughness, competitiveness, they learn succeed, and also they learn about failure. The parents who don’t allow their children to play sports don’t let their kids learn about these important lessons of organized sports. Football is also a way for kids to take their anger and struggles out in the game and help them express themselves. It can also be a way for kids in bad situations to get a way out, to try and reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Concussions in youth sports has recently became more popular in the news. Mukand and Serra recently discovered, “about 1.6- 3.8 million sports-related concussions occur every year, and a recent study found that 182,000 football players may sustain at least one concussion annually in youth (99,000), high school (76,640), and NCAA football programs (3,905), or about 1 in 30 players and 1 in 14 high school players” (16). The amount of concussions should be alarming to athletes and the parents. Hospitals have noticed a growing number of visits from children and young adults with concussions because of sports, but it is unclear if the rise is due to more concussions or more reports due to better awareness of concussions (Mitka 1775-1776). Concussions could be on the rise or more people are recognizing the symptoms of concussions and then reporting them. Either way, concussions in youth sports need to be reduced or completely eliminated. Sports related concussions in youth can be prevented with proper education and technique. Efficient and reliable equipment and better rules and regulations in youth sports can also prevent concussions and brain injuries in youth and adolescents.

Furthering my focus, the sport that has the highest concussion rate is football. Football is the most popular and fastest growing sport in America. Football is a contact sport and the head of almost all players participating is directly contacted on every play that occurs. With a growth in popularity, kids all over America are being exposed to football at younger and younger ages. Of all the age groups to participate in this sport I would like to focus my attention towards High School. Over 1.1 million athletes in the 2012-2013 school year participated in the sport, making football the No. 1 participation

U.S. Football reported a 6.7% decrease in youth participation (ages: 6–14) for the 2011 season. Further, Pop Warner, the United States largest youth football organization saw a decline in participation during this time, off 9.5% between 2010 and 2012 (Fainaru & Fainaru-Wada). In other sports, a study done by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association recorded more kids than ever are not playing at all. Inactivity among children approached 20% in 2014, continuing a six-year upward trend. In the same age bracket, the average number of team sports played per participant has fallen 5.9% over the last five years and now sits at 2.01 (Murphy). This downward trend shows parents are worried of the effects concussions can have on kids. Key players in the sports industry have come forward and discussed the long-term difficulties they are experiencing from head trauma. Former NFL Minnesota Vikings player Fred McNeill, star of the 1977 Super Bowl, can hardly remember his glory days or even what events happened yesterday. With the NFL recently being under the spotlight for occurrences of concussions and former players coming forward with their experiences, it’s no wonder parents are being cautious with what sports their kids are

Over the past couple of years, there has been a growing concern for NFL player’s safety and the amount of concussions occurring over the past years. A concussion is a type of mild traumatic brain injury that may be caused by either a fall; a direct blow to the head, face, or neck; or a blow elsewhere on the body that transmits force to the head (JAAPA). There has been a high attention directed towards concussions in many sports, but mainly football. The purpose of the research I will be conducting is to educate the players, coaches, and future players of the NFL on ways to prevent concussions. Several topics I will touch upon my research topic are how concussions associate with musculoskeletal injuries, how long a player should be sidelined before returning to play, the amount of research that has been done to prevent concussions, how teammates can have an effect on whether a player continues playing through a concussion or if they take the safe route, how coaches who are educated annually on concussions can decrease how bad a concussion is and ways coaches have been educated in the past and how effective that method was. I will specifically be paying attention to what is known and what other ways can the members of the NFL be educated on concussions. I want to know what they know and what steps are they taking towards preventing concussions. I also want to know what damage does it cause to the brain over time.

Children and adolescents must rely on their parents for obtaining the proper treatment and if they don’t that child is continuing to play on top of an already injured brain. This places them at risk for more harm and future concussions. Populations of low socioeconomic status are also more at risk for concussions and post concussive effects because of the lack of education of the parents, sports coaches, and community resources.

Player safety has always been and will always be one of the most controversial topics in all of sports. In particular, the safety of young football players is an extremely controversial topic. Many different studies have been conducted on concussions specifically. These studies research the different variables and what causes concussions and the most effective ways to prevent them. A recent study was done by the University of Pittsburgh and Cornell University, they tracked 468 participants ages 8-12 from 4 different youth football leagues. The basic information that they found was that nearly every concussion was sustained during a game, only

Many parents encourage their children to find a hobby. When a parent hears that their child wants to start playing football, they might get excited, knowing that their child found something they are interested in and maybe even meet some new friends. Coaches and the NFL will tell you it's a great career choice but according to the new concussion guidelines, the short term effects, like second impact syndrome, and the long-term effects, like CTE, tell you something different. If you look into it, you see that the evidence is stating that you should not let your children play football.

The safety of young football players for years has been a long growing concern and controversy for parents, players, high school coaches and school officials, and as well as NFL coaches and medical professionals in America. Parents worry about their children getting injured or concussions during the game. Furthermore, many parents believe that football can be safer and that the organization of football is not doing enough to protect players and their safety. However, to some football players concussions are not a big issue. Some players are too worried about their playing time to realize the consequences of getting concussions repeatedly. Therefore, some football players do not tell the coaches about their concussions. In addition, coaches also have a problem with the safety of football affecting their programs. Some coaches fear that football programs will shut down because of the controversy of how football can lead to brain damage. Besides parents, players, and coaches, doctors have a big say in the controversy. Neurologists, who are specialists in the disorders of nerves and the nervous system, have recently studied the link between football and brain damage. According to Jacob Vanlandingham, who is the founder and president of Prevacus Incorporated, a company who primarily studies concussions, said that “Doctors diagnose approximately 67,000 concussions in high school football players every year” (Vanlandingham, p.1). Nevertheless, some stakeholders, including ex-football players, believe that everything has already been done to make football as safe as possible. Football organizations have made new rules and placed new programs in order to keep young players healthy and to keep football programs from shutting down. The big controversial question that all stakeholders are asking is, “Is football doing enough to protect young children?”

High school athletes are more vulnerable to concussions than older students and make take longer to recover. In order for their brains to heal completely, they need to take longer time to recover.

Football is America’s most popular sport; however, recently controversy has been arising pertaining to the injuries and violence connected to football. Within the last five years the topic of allowing youth to play football has blown up. Though the injuries vary dramatically, what has really been the key subject is head related injuries, typically concussions. Parents around the country are debating whether or not their children should play the sport, specifically contact football. Although football and most sports in general have injury related risks attached with it, there are still arguments why kids around the country should be able to enjoy one of the most liked sports. Reasons such as building teamwork, physical activity and free will can lead to why many believe that there should not be a dispute regarding football.