Professional Football: A Life Or Death Game

Science says concussions are inevitable; 96 percent of all NFL players and 79 percent of all football players test positive for brain disease (Source: Frontline League of Denial 9/18/15 Concussion Watch Article). Prior to 2002, the NFL’s approach to preventing, treating, and managing concussions and CTE was very different than it is today. My essay will explore what some of those differences were and whether or not changes in the NFL are improving the outcomes and quality of life for current and former NFL players.

This does not mean in the NFL you won’t get hit in the head. The percentage for concussions in the NFL have been on a uprise since 2014 with over 58% of players have gotten a concussion during the season of 2014. This is a big issue for the players in the NFL , but the real question is how is the NFL going to fix this growing problem so the players are

According to Daniel Flynn, the NFL has made vast improvements in safety to prevent concussions. The NFL has implemented a stricter concussion protocol. The NFL concussion protocol watches for players on the field to have any contact to the head, and show symptoms of a concussion. The player that shows symptoms will be pulled off the field and evaluated by a team physician and an independent neurologist. Then, if the player is suspected to have a concussion, he will be taken to the locker room to be evaluated further. If the player is not diagnosed with a concussion, he can return to

NFL teams are too lax on their concussion protocol examination after a player’s head has been hit helmet to helmet. The NFL has protocols for injuries that any player suffers. The main one is the concussion protocol. It’s when a player is hit helmet to helmet. It’s in play due to the fact that players that have suffered a head injury have developed Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). It creates brain tumors that spread and kills your brain

In the NFL preseason, tight end Austin Collie ran a route, caught the ball and was immediately tackled to the ground. He lied there on the ground for almost 10 minutes not getting up. He was hit in the head by a defensive on the opposite team. When he came back to the game after 2 weeks he was hit again in the head and had to leave because of getting a concussion. Since getting that concussion he had to miss another 3 games and after that he ended his NFL career for good. Football teams need to figure out how they can prevent brain damage from concussion by teaching the players how to tackle, understanding the signs of a concussion, and upgrading the equipment that they are using.

Herm Edwards former football player and coach told SB nation, "If you're injured, you can't play. Hurt? The only guys who don't hurt in football are the ones who don't play,” (Bien). Although Herm Edwards does make a good point, there is a major difference between getting some bruises and permanent brain damage. Football players will not protect brains but a better protocol will. The protocol should reduce the risk of brain damage (Kilgore). Concussions have enough of an impact that they can affect someone long term. It is evident that this is something that in the future a former athlete would regret. Protocol needs to be enforced and more strict if there is any hope of saving these football players from doing something they might

New surveys and data reports showing that repeated trauma to the head can cause CTE which seriously affects the brain and human body overall. Symptoms such as dizziness all the way to the most extreme like loss of motor function, dementia, etc. With all of the recent buzz about this phenomenon, The NFL, NCAA and state sports committees such as the WIAA have been trying to prevent the future generations of athletes and sports players suffer from these diseases. Acts such as reducing practice time allowing full contact and also schools buying the best helmet protection available shows how schools are really working to help kids across America. In addition, the NFL has publicly shown responsibility for head to head injuries and the lack of supervision and serious along with them. The organization is actively pushing technology to protect the brain as best as

Many memories are made in football, but sadly some of the greatest players cannot recall them. The National Football League has been associated with concussions and brain traumas throughout the years, but lately it has been exposed by media and NFL veterans. The league recently “reached a $765 million preliminary settlement with thousands of former players who were suing the league over its treatment of concussions…” (Waldron). Many former players are experiencing the effects of taking hard hits over and over again; they were not properly treated, which makes the injury worse and long term. The concussion issue in the NFL is more prevalent today, because it affects not only the players, but the league as a whole.

      Mankind is prone to some degree of sin. A question that has always plagued mankind is how one can achieve redemption from sin. Any sin becomes compounded when the perpetrator does not take responsibility for it. In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, perhaps the greatest sinner was Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.

"From what I've researched and what I've experienced, I don't think it's worth the risk” (“Chris Borland”). This quotation from former San Francisco 49er, Chris Borland, exemplifies the concern for the increase in occurrence of concussions in the National Football League. A concussion is defined as “a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a blow to the head” (“NFL Concussions”). The debate on who is truly responsible for the injury’s increasing presence in the NFL continues to be disputed in the league today. Whether the blame is to be placed on the administrative personnel of the league or the players and their actions, change is the one common denominator in the stances taken by both sides. The National Football League is not doing enough

Could you image you having a mild concussion? Or even your kid having one? Thinking that it will be gone in a few days, but not knowing that you could have life threatening injury to your brain, just by a blow to the head, by playing a sport. According to Sports Illustrated, in July 2014, a federal judge approved to the NFL, $765 million settlement, after 4,500 former players filled lawsuits against them, but recently, that settlement has been raised to $1 billion, covering more than 20,000 former players for the next 65 years. Professional organizations try there hardest to make the game as safe as possible, but like anything, there's flaws. Organizations like the NFL, NBA, NHL, and even the MLB, are trying to make sports as safe as possible

Well the NFL makes the extremely smart decision of taking them out of the games…sometimes. If they are taken out of the game into the locker room, more often than not they are encouraged to take it like a man and to play for the team being doused by drugs to mask their symptoms which is partly due to the pressure put on their trainers by their coaches to get them playing as soon as possible. The rehabilitation and surgical approaches for injuries are often decided by team doctors and trainers who are paid by the organization and have no vested interest in the long-term health of the man who is hurt (Jackson, 2011). This is how the NFL works, just like a train only pausing to draft new players and dumping the dead weight of broken bodies, just for the sake of money. Despite the “extensive” research done by the NFL on concussions, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell refused to acknowledge the existence of a connection between head injuries, sustained during a football career, and debilitating brain diseases, such as CTE, that develop later in life (Drysdale, 2013). By stating this, it only serves to further prove how the NFL just does not care nor take responsibility for their players as they suffer these possible life threatening injuries which is mind boggling. People like Dr. Bennet Omalu who bring upon legitimate evidence to back the fact that repeated head trauma suffered to the head during a typical NFL game causes diseases like CTE are attacked, with their research being discredited (Dodd, Herbst, & Boudin, 2016). Eventually enough players will get to know of these alarming facts about the dangers of head trauma warranting a change throughout the entire league which is what exactly

Here is why. In 2015, the NFL diagnosed 271 players that had concussions. There has continued to be an increase in the number of concussed players over the past several years. With the continual increase in concussions over the years,it is a reasonable question to ask whether the NFL is doing enough to protect their players or not. I am going to start this issue by discussing a movie I am sure you have heard of. Concussion. A Forensic pathologist named Dr. Bennet Omalu was the first doctor to discover chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of former Pittsburgh Steelers' center Mike Webster, who was 50, when he committed suicide. Dr. Omalu made the bold statement that football is the reason that Webster had mental issues, and ultimately the reason for his death. There continued to be a trend of NFL players passing at a young age due to mental health issues, and Omalu was certain that all of it was because of football. He examined the brains of these players and found correlations in their brains that suggests that the repeated blows to the head they received during their career caused severe damage. As you can imagine this discovery was a huge threat to the NFL as people and players saw this evidence and couldn't help but be scared about the outcome football has on an individual. The NFL basically just tried to cover up clear facts stated by Omalu, but eventually it became to evident to ignore. This movie made a large issue in the NFL apparent to many people and creating a film to do so was a very effective platform for displaying it. To make a long story short, since this discovery in 2002, there has been a drastic change in player safety rules, concussion protocol and guidelines, and strictness of teams to follow such protocol and guidelines. In

One of the most controversial discussions in sports today is concussions and how the athletes who play sports are being protected. Concussions in the NFL has been a constant argument over the past decade because of not only the number of players who were diagnosed with concussions but also in addition to the number of retired NFL players that reported having depression problems, drug addictions and eventually taking away their own lives by suicide. Football is know to many as “Americas game” and because of this fans live for and look forward to these hard hitting brut athletes that suit up and take the field for battle each week not knowing the facts on how concussions not only ruins the athletes chances of playing again but affects the brain

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most recognized and praised fiction writers in world literature. Not only does he masterfully create the atmosphere of suspense and danger in his short stories, he also builds up a sophisticated blend of horror and elegant irony that haunts the reader and reveals the complexity of Poe’s literary talent. “The Cask of Amontillado” is a perfect example of such combination. In this twisted short story of revenge, Poe puts an emphasis on the ironic tone in order to highlight the relationship between Montresor and his victim Fortunato and reveal the evil nature of Montresor’s desire for cruel vengeance.