Essay on Neurological Sports Injuries

Many athletes of all ages and levels have had concussions that have affected their lives in unbelievable ways. Kevin Turner, a former professional football player in the National Football League, can certainly attest to this. Turner spent eight years playing professional football and while playing, acquired the title “Collision Expert”. Many called him this because of the countless deep notches he would receive in his football helmet during games. Since receiving the title of “Collision Expert”, Turner has retired from the NFL and has had to deal with the effects that have come along with those many notches in his helmet. Recently, Turner has been diagnosed with a form of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Scientists have studied Turner’s case and from research, they believe that his form of the disease is related to the many concussions and hard hits he received during his career in the NFL. Now, Turner has a difficult time doing simple tasks as his disease deteriorates his memory and health day by day. Turner has difficulty opening cereal boxes and buttoning shirts and even requires the help of his wife and daughter to help him get ready in the morning (Bartholet).

Background- Lucas is on the starting football team. His first week into practice he goes to catch a bad pass and gets a concussion. His doctor told him he was going to have to sit out for a two weeks but his mom disagreed. She took him to a doctor that specialist in concussion injury’s. The doctor told him that he needed to quit football or he could die.

Sports has always been a huge part of my life. I would be the one team player who took the sports season a little bit too seriously. I was the number 1 doubles player on my school's JV tennis team. Unfortunately, I fractured my ankle during my junior year and wasn't able to play with my team. I was devastated, but I didn’t allow myself to become disconnected from my team. I became the team manager to allow myself to still play a role in my team, despite my injury. I would record scores to my division leaders and take pictures to post on the website I created for my team. After the season was over, my doctor told me my ankles required surgery to become fully healed. I knew that meant I couldn’t continue to play tennis, but I didn’t want to give

CTE is a brain disease found in individuals with annals of head trauma. It has specifically been found in athletes with numerous concussions. So far it can only be diagnosed in the deceased, but Dr. Julian Bales and his staff in UCLA have discovered symptoms in living players such as Hall of Famer Anthony “Tony” Dorsett, Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure, and NFL All-Pro Leonard Marshall. CTE can cause memory loss, dementia, depression, suicidal thoughts, cognitive and emotional difficulties (Waldron par 1, 2, 3). Is it a compelling issue? A total of 171 concussions were reported in the NFL in the 2012-2013 season; 88 thus far in the 2013-2014 season (Frontline pt). Those are just numbers in the professional level. There are thousands of kids playing football either in youth, middle school, high school, or college level. The diagnosis is currently in progress, researchers are optimistic this could lead to a legitimate treatment, how to manage, and hopefully a cure. Furthermore, this can also possibly lead to an answer to a connection between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Junior Seau, Mike Webster, Terry Long, and Justin Strzelczyk (all of whom are dead now) are all men who played in the NFL for an extent period of time. This is not the only thing they have in common. These former players had an uncustomary

Concussions are a recurring problem among athletes of all ages. Each year, thousands of athletes are sidelined with concussions. The treatment for those with concussions are being questioned every day, but the athletes are not alone. Trainers are the first members of the sports medicine team to assess the injury. A great deal of stress comes with this duty because the trainer must make decisions regarding the athlete’s health in a matter of minutes. The athletic trainer plays a dominant role in providing initial care for athletes with concussions.

But alas, Miss Sifferlin's goal wasn't to be logical or analytical. The goal of her paper is to appeal to parents and coaches about the ramifications of letting kids “play through pain”. Sadness wells up for the amount of children affected by concussions, worry for their safety, and hope that more precautions will be taken. It's not the most delicate of subjects to talk about, but it is one that she broaches with the same type of seriousness and finesse that most will find refreshing.

Research shows that half of the admitted patients in emergency centers experience complications several months, even years, after the initial injury (“Psychological Sequelae: Postconcussion, Frontal and Temporal Lobe Syndromes”. 2012.). In some cases, patients complain of periodic headaches for up to a year, depression, and comprehension issues. Rather than allowing for athletes to return to physical activity after two to three weeks, they need in-depth evaluations of their brains and tests ran to ensure their brain is functioning

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.

Imagine this. You are on the soccer field with your ten other teammates. It’s the district championship game. Suddenly there is a ball flying at fifty miles per hour heading toward you. Like any other player you jump up to receive the punt and make an amazing header as you always do, accept this time when the ball leaves your head you fall down with it. You are knocked unconscious and are immediately sent to the emergency room. When you eventually wake up the doctor tells you that you have a severe concussion and you are out for at least the rest of the season. She also informs you that there’s a chance that you could have brain damage for the rest of your life. Just think this whole incident

1. For each of the following diagnostic test results, note which specific part of the brain would have to be damaged to create those symptoms. (include right and left sides in your analysis).

This paper connects contact sports with degenerative brain diseases. It also shows that CTE is not only connected to football because of the continuous tackling inducing trauma to the brain, but also soccer where heading the ball can often cause brain damage. This is supported by research of retired NFL football players and soccer players whose brains showed evidence of CTE. Also when the Mayo Clinic studying the brains of those who did not participate in contact sports showing no evidence of CTE. Based on scientific evidence degenerative brain diseases such as CTE are caused by successive concussions. Since concussions are one of the most common brain injuries seen in contact sports today there is a definite association between contact sports and degenerative brain diseases.

I’m still deciding if football is truly dangerous due to the story of the young man dying of a brain disease that caused over time due to long-term head collision(the Hard knocks page), got me worried, and the thing is he showed no concussion issues when playing from a child to an adult and this can be an issue as young athletes can show no sign of an injury to the head or pain coming from within his/her brain so they can run the chance of dying, from an interior part of their skull just because they showed no pain when it was developing(the pain), and I’m not going to use their “take one for the team” example as it is irrelevant to those coaches who actually care about their players when they have taken enough pain or damage from a game, anyway if a player does not get themselves checked for the disease then they can lose their life by playing something that they love doing, this disease I mention is called CTE the article also mentions that some NFL players have died from it and this young man has died from it but the odd thing is that he showed no pain or damage to his head and also showed no emotional issues the mother didn’t mention.

There are many dilemmas that plague sports. Some of those can range from bribing, cheating, racism, and sports safety. In the past the NBA had to deal with the betting scandal involving Tim Donaghy and baseball has had to deal with the issue of performance enhancers. The sports industry generates around half a trillion dollars a year and it has to deal with multiple dilemmas at the youth, college, and professional level. A growing issue with sports has been the number of injuries that athletes have had to deal with. Typical sports injuries range from twisting ankles, blowing out knees, and dislocating shoulders. Surgery and rehabilitation have helped athletes to recover and get them back on the playing field faster

Debra Pyke and her son, Joseph, were not informed of the dangers from receiving a head injury, and they had no idea what would happen if Joseph were to become involved in various different sports, one of which was football. Unfortunately, they found the consequences only after Joseph committed suicide at the age of 25. He was found to have CTE, which is related to multiple different brain injuries, and his mom was left to endure the blame. Many people who have learned of learn their story have decided that it was her fault for putting him in football at such a young age, however, in truth, it was no one’s fault. Debra has decided to attribute the death of her son to the Pop Warner Football Association, for not properly educating people on the dangers of playing football at such a young age. Though I understand her pain, and I agree that they were not educated accordingly, I disagree with her approach toward the

My topic of choice for this paper is traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury is another word for concussion. I wanted to exhibit how this type of injury affects sports and the military. Sports and the Military are similar in that they can cause traumatic brain injuries. In this paper I will describe types of injuries, how injuries are acquired, and how to treat individuals with brain injuries.