Social Conflict Theory Of Sport-Related Concussions In Sport

Safety and equipment have come a long way in football in order to prevent brain injuries. A very important piece of equipment used to prevent brain trauma is the helmet. The helmet has evolved a lot over the years, even more in the past decade. The Helmets main purpose use to be just to stop skull fractures, then they added the facemask to prevent facial injuries. Concussions are more of a recent concern (Hand 1). Overconfidence in the helmets' protective power prompts many NFL athletes to deliver and accept hits that would have killed players of previous generations. Now the helmet is being revolutionized. Helmets aren't only being created to stop skull and face fractures but they are being created to help prevent brain damage such as concussions now. Helmets have gone through testing to see how to design a better preventative helmet. These newer helmets are being designed to reduce the amount of force that is being applied to the head by a hit that is received (Vandantam 2). Virginia Tech football has been monitoring helmet collisions since 2003, courtesy of Dr. Gunnar Brolinson. Dr. Gunnar Brolinson has outfitted the teams helmets with six sensors and a small antenna that records and transmits data to a computer on the sideline. This information collected is crucial because it will help find better ways to design a helmet that will prevent concussions(Goldman 1). Equipment isn't the only important part of football that can help prevent concussions.

Soccer, being the most popular sport across the nation, currently has millions of fans and approximately 25 million registered players in the United States alone (Niedfeldt). Since the early 2000’s and continually seventeen years later, concussions are among the highest sustained injury to soccer players. While the sport is increasing in popularity, fear of injuries is increasing as well. In response to the arising panic, several companies have come together in order to create, promote, and sell protective headgear to concerned soccer players and their parents. The creators of this gear claim that their products will reduce concussions and any negative neurocognitive effects in relation to heading balls in soccer. Although some believe that

American football has been a well-known sport for over 140 years. The first college game ever played was between the Rutgers and Princeton. Little did they know about the risk that occurs when playing a physical contact sport. Some common risk that is associated with playing football is the chance of experience a concussion, disabilities caused by brain damage and sometimes death. In the essay “Would Football Without Concussions Still Be Football” written by Nina Burleigh, she discusses that it’s important to implement tougher rules to protect the safety of young football athletes to keep them safe from concussions. In other words, American football is better played when physical contact is not in place because it will protect football players

Barnett argues “Live contact during regular season and postseason practises will be allowed no more than three days a week and limited to no more than 30 minutes a day and a total of no more than 80 minutes a week. Contact also is not allowed on more than two consecutive days.”(Barnett, pg1) This will help decrease the number of concussions in children and teens in sports. Although it is not a way to prevent them it is still a serious injury that people of all ages should be cautious about. (HELMETS IN SPORTS) “Helmet use in sports spans such varied activities as race-car driving, motorcycling, baseball, hockey, football, lacrosse, equestrian activities, and bicycling. The substantial increase in helmet use is a tribute to the consumer's concern for safety, society's interest in minimizing serious injury, and the helmet industry's efforts to produce acceptable products. Generally speaking, however, helmet safety design has evolved slowly”(Coben, 1). Helmets in sports are the most important tool for protection from concussions. Even though concussions are not 100% preventable schools should pay the extra money to get the safest helmets. Helmet safety is evolving and there are new helmets specifically for concussions. “Forty-one states and Washington, DC, have youth sports TBI laws that require coaches and teams to remove young athletes from play if they are suspected of having suffered a TBI, and all of those states but Wisconsin and Ohio require

The purpose of the study is to bring awareness about the seriousness of concussion injuries. Examining the severity of high school athletes who suffered sport related concussions is critical to determine the short term/long term damaging effects. When athletes’ concussions go undiagnosed, the risk of further damages increases since they are not fully recovered. This means that athletes will return to participation unknowingly since the injury goes undetected. In addition, when parents, coaches, doctors, and athletes are aware about the dangers of concussions, they can have a conversation and discuss the best options to ensure the safety of athletes. This means that injured athletes will not be allowed to participate under any

Lately when it comes to football one of the worst words to come to mind is concussion. Recent research and testimonies from former NFL stars has exposed the true severity of concussions, in both present time and years down the road. Despite a slight rise in concussions during the NFL’s 2015 season, the total number of concussion in the 2012 season compared to the 2014 season had dropped nearly 25%. This was due to the advancement in both helmet and shoulder pad equipment. Throughout recent years the NFL has been working the United States military to combine efforts and technology in order to better the safety of football attire. According to National Geographic, the NFL and the military have worked together to discover what material

One of the more major concerns about players getting injured in football games is that they have faulty protection on their bodies. Studies have shown that since the start of football, players would get hurt every game. Back then they only have leather helmets. Nowadays, the NFL uses hard plastic with thick padding. Injuries have significantly went down since then but helmets are still a problem today. According to one article they state that “An estimated 1.6-3.8 million sports and recreation related concussions occur in the United States each year.” With people starting to see and hear these scary results, many are starting to rally and protest against professional and recreational football. They don’t want their kids to be exposed to such harm. Some people are even saying they want football to be abolished.

Head coming forcibly into contact with another and concussions caused by physically coming into contact with other players in sports are a swiftly escalating epidemic among young athletes. When debatable cases corresponding to CTE are left undetected, concussions can lead to the condition of long-term brain damage and may even prove untreatable. Athletes are left defenseless and useless without facts provided without hesitation accessible about their own health. Most concussions resolve with rest within a week to ten days; however, about 10% of concussions take longer to heal and some may have long-term consequences. While research is ongoing to help identify the best approach to changing the culture of concussion in sports, there are action steps that coaches, parents, health care providers, and school professionals can take now to help keep young athletes safe and supported as they pursue the sports they love to play. A shortened play clock might also make obese linemen lose weight, since there’d be less standing around and more hustling. And since all players would be more tired, they would have less strength when delivering hits. This will allow coaches would to control the basic strategy, but the players would control its application, communicating with one another more and engaging their otherwise static athletic

Their epidemiological study of concussions incurred in high school sports over the span of 11 years found that cases of concussion resulting in loss of consciousness (r=0.98) correlated closely with the increases in concussion cases, leading the authors to conclude that the increases in concussion cases are more likely to be due to increased awareness as opposed to an increase in the intensity or aggressiveness of sports. This is drawn, however, with the assumption that an increase in aggressiveness would be expected to cause a disproportionate increase in the number of loss of consciousness cases of concussion; an assumption which could be flawed as the exact mechanisms of “aggressiveness” by players was not explicitly defined.

Critics dispute the idea of doing more to prevent concussions because almost every sports league believes that players should be responsible for his or her actions during the sport. At this point, officials believe that they should not be associated with a players’ injury for their own actions. Critics point out that officials don’t always need to be included; it’s the parents and coaches, officials say that should responsible for their players’ injury (House 3). Take the case of a player going unconscious, an official won’t know what to do and shouldn’t know what to do. Officials will always take the side that has the coaches and parents responsible. Now, football teams today have started to obtain more hits to the head during practice, and now more players than ever are getting more and more concussions. Coaches believe that it is okay for kids to hit a lot in practice, so that they could get used

Studies like the study at Virginia Tech can be used to identify the root cause of consussions and may in result, lead to a solution to the mass head trauma experienced by youth and even professional players. Because concussions occur so often in football, it is a suitable ground sero for the research on consussions in sports. It can lead to better medical diagnosis on the field where spli-second decisions are made and even in domestic cases. I addition, because concussions are a very misunderstood injury, this research is needed. The study wishes to develop a better helmet for football specifically but sports like hoccer could be benefitted too. The general knowledge of concussions would expand if more advanced and specific studies like these

Football can be a very dangerous sport. And although those who play the game believe that they are being protected by the helmets that they wear, the truth is that this may not be the case. In a recent study released by the American Academy of Neurology it has been found that “protection against concussion and complications of brain injury is especially important for young players, including elementary and middle school, high school and college athletes, whose still-developing brains are more susceptible to the lasting effects of trauma”(Science Daily, 2014). The study also found that standard football helmets worn by the majority of players on the field today, only reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury by 20 percent compared to not wearing a helmet at all (Science Daily, 2014).

There has been extraordinary improvements of helmets from the old leather to the modernized-plastic football helmets along with the face mask and energy- absorbent padding. In addition, the concern over preventing concussions, have led to helmet changes, impact testing methods and reconstruction of injuries during play helping to provide insight on concussions(4). Helmets have been successful in decreasing the risk of traumatic brain injuries, but there is much concern over concussion; therefore, scholars argue the importance of technology development to address concussion(5). As the author(s), David Viano and David Halstead discusses, there is room needed for understanding the types of collisions associated in youths and the impact condition addressing collisions. There are many variables to consider addressing concussion and where they occur.

In the sports world there is many younger athletes who are diagnosed with these diseases and no one knows. The associations have been trying for years to improve the game for the players but to also keep them safe. Concussions and head traumas are found to be a major part of all these diseases. Players of these physical sports may be aware of the rules and risks of the game but are not fully educated about it. Due to the tremendous cases of head trauma and concussions, the rules for the sport should be changed for players without removing the spirit of the game.

Over the course of a 144-year-old game, the equipment used in the sport of football has evolved tremendously. For my research paper, I am going to talk about the specifics of how such equipment has evolved, why it has evolved, and how it has or hasn’t benefited those participating. The most relevant equipment evolutions that will be discussed will be the shoulder pads, face mask, mouth guards, pants, and helmets. The one piece of equipment from that list that will be touched upon the most will be the helmet as it brings upon the ethical concern of concussions in the game. I will talk about how these technological advances are made to improve upon safety, but safety may just be from the choice of the players. With regards to specific rules