The Nfl : Paid For Pain

CTE affects many different athletes all over the world. Chronic Traumatic encephalopathy or normally referred to as CTE is a brain disease that affects people who have had multiple head injuries. It is found in many cases of ex NFL players who took many hits to the head when playing over their careers. There are many documented cases of it across other sports and some military veterans as well. We have made large strides in learning more and more about the terrible disease. The game of football has changed since we have learned so much more about the terrible disease in recent years. We could prevent concussions by changing the way players practice.

While the NFL is putting new rules and regulations on equipment and which type of tackles are allowed, living retired NFL players are found to already have symptoms of CTE (Fainaru, 2013). Through brain scans and research done by UCLA, they have identified proteins in player’s brains that cause CTE, which as Dr. Julian Bailes, co-director or North Shore Neurological Institute said, is the “holy grail” to studying CTE and finding ways to cure and prevent it (Fainaru, 2013). While this is a break through, there is still no cure or way to treat CTE (Fainaru, 2013). But this research also raises questions about CTE and the NFL. Will players be required to be tested for CTE? Can players be denied playing anymore if CTE is found? Will this greatly affect the way that football is currently played? As the research is still being collected, there is still no definite answer to any of those questions, but the NFL has acknowledged the correlations of CTE and concussions caused by playing in the NFL and assures that they will do all they can to help prevent severe brain trauma to their players, including donating $30 million to the National Institutes of Health to conduct further research on CTE (Kroll, 2013).

If any of these player safety rules have been broken recently, the NFL has come down swiftly and harshly against the culprits. These swift and efficient actions performed by the NFL have taken notice by the parents and fans of the sport. These forms of punishments come through fines, suspensions, and in extreme cases bans from the league for years or even indefinitely. Recently a defensive coordinator on the New Orleans Saints was found to have installed a “bounty program” on his defense. This program would fund the defensive players with bonuses for various actions in a game. Although this may seem okay, it is actually highly illegal in the NFL. This bounty program would fund the players for knocking out other athletes they were competing against. Injuring players was one of many forms of bonuses that players would be able to accrue. The problem with this in sports is because football is already violent enough. Now teams are actually “gunning” to injure others on purpose. The NFL’s quick and extreme punishments for the creation and participation in this bounty case definitely put the player’s safety aspect into the mainstream of what the NFL is worrying about these days.

Bright lights, big hits, and postgame interviews, to television commercials, team camaraderie, and multimillion-dollar deals. The National Football league or better known as the NFL created in 1920 has become part of the American culture. To fans the NFL is a gift like no other. The glamour, passion, and fame that the NFL displays for its professional athletes comes with a price. The NFL is a league filled with violent collisions from some of the world?s most athletically gifted players. Players are progressively being diagnosed with significant brain trauma due to the size and athleticism of the players in a game. The effects of the collisions are far more impactful than the instant headache; the bipolar behaviors, dark depression, and

In recent years the research has focused on CTE; otherwise known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. This condition has been liked to concussions received while playing high school football. In the study reviewed it stated that out of the 165 people followed; 131 of them sustained brain injuries; and out of those 131 people 91 of them were former NFL players. Unfortunately, throughout the process of gathering such data it has been realized that the CTE is an irreversible condition that causes memory loss, depression and dementia. Therefore, although a high school player may minimize the seriousness of receiving a concussion while playing in high school, the long term ramifications of getting hit many times over several years can be devastating.

In the past four years, the National Football League “NFL” has made several changes to the NFL rulebook advocating safety by adding rules and implementing fines on players who fail to follow these policies. Rules such as the two-a-days ban, kickoff return rule change, helmet to helmet contact fines, requirement of NFL players to use the HITS System, and banning of players to return to playing football the same day they received their concussion were examples of measures taken by the NFL that promote safety. Although most of these players oppose the reformed rules, the NFL executives support these rulings feeling it reduces the amount of serious injuries. It is imperative for the NFL to retain its recently added safety rules, since it

In a study of 92 former NFL players, it was found that a total of 88 (96%) of them were afflicted with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE (Tyler). With such a high percentage of former NFL players suffering from this disease, one would think solid efforts would be being put forward towards a cure, or that a cure may even have already been found. But this is not the case. Very little is known about this disease, and there is no known cure for it yet. As the leading influence in the game of football, the NFL has the moral responsibility to fund research and put forth an effort towards reducing the risk of and eventually eliminating head trauma in the game of football.

In the Newsela article, "Brain disease called CTE is found to affect almost all pro football players," the main event is explained how the majority of football players, no matter the type of league, have CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). CTE is a disease, commonly found in athletes, where the brain slowly degenerates over time, and has symptoms of memory loss, anxiety, confusion, impaired judgment, impulsive control problems, suicidal tendencies, Parksinson's disease, and, eventually, dementia. In the article, CTE is commonly found in football players who have with stood injuries, such as concussions, during their football careers: before high school, during high school, semi-professional, Canadian Football League, and the NFL (National

The NFL has been the most popular sport in America for several years now. Even when there are scandals such as ray rice domestic violence incident, deflate gate or concussions the league seems to get stronger and stronger without the league losing popularity. Michael Lewis of Emory University agrees, "Just the strength of that product and fan loyalty and fan interest is so great that it's really kind of bulletproof at this point". Its astonishing to think that with all these scandals facing the league viewership continues to rise year after year, and the league grows financially every year as well. The NFL has been able to establish such a strong brand image to its fans that when a shot is fired at them, it seems just to bounce of them.

The National Football League (NFL) was founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA), and the league has transformed into a multibillion-dollar industry providing a fast-paced sport with violent collisions that can generate as much force as a car crash (Klein, 2014). Consequently, the thrill of this entertaining sport has suppressed

The NFL is a money making business. With its 32 teams, and sponsorships with other big name brands, they produce a lot of money. With the NFL’s partnership with Microsoft the two agreed on a $400 million deal that secures the exclusive right for Surface tablets and other Microsoft technologies on the sidelines for all 32 teams. Another partnership the NFL has is with Direct TV. Its four-year $4 billion partnership ($1 billion per season) with DirecTV, a service that allows viewers to watch every football broadcast on several channels is also a big way in which the NFL gets money (Ejiochi). The NFL dominates the sports industry. The game has natural stop and starts, a 60 minute game lasts three hours, and this time offers plenty of empty space

Concussions are becoming known as one of the largest issues in sports. A concussion is defined by the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Concussions as “a traumatically induced transient disturbance of brain function and involves a complex pathophysiological process (E. Abreu 2).” In simpler terms, concussions are stress to the brain tissue caused from an impact. When studying the effects of multiple concussions on the brain, Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered a brain disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of former NFL player Mike Webster. CTE proves the cognitive and psychological damage that multiple concussions do to the brain over a lifetime. Concussion awareness has been created by new research about concussions, advancements in technology, and the results from Dr. Omalu’s CTE study.

My first point of emphasis is on the equipment provided and how well it protects the players from injury and rules protecting the players. First, the National Football League provides knee, hip, thigh, and tailbone pads as well as shoulder pads and a helmet for the players making them fairly well protected. Though with most time and interest in improving the equipment used goes into the helmets there is

CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma (concussions), including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic subconcussive hits to the head that do not cause symptoms. This has been a found in many deceased NFL players in recent tests. Dr. Ann McKee examined 202 deceased football players. “Of the 202 players, 111 of them played in the N.F.L. — and 110 of those were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., the degenerative disease believed to be caused by repeated

Americans today tend to believe that the NFL is a great sport to participate in and has no flaws. But the NFL is a dangerous sport where the players often suffer from concussions. According to the Medical News Today, over “4,000 former football players filed lawsuits alleging that the National Football League failed to protect them from the long-term health consequences of concussions”. Also just in 2013, 228 NFL players have been diagnosed with concussions that season, “according to the league’s annual Health & Safety Report”. These concussions that the athletes suffer from can result in the players developing CTE. CTE also known as “chronic traumatic encephalopathy”, is an illness that causes pain on the brain of people who had gone through multiple head-to-head collisions or severe mental trauma. There are several symptoms of CTE in which can have a negative effect on the person with the disease and their family or friends. Some of these symptoms include memory loss, not being able to control unpredictable behaviors, weakened judgement, violent attitude, depression, and dementia. Research from the BIRI (Brain Injury Research Institute) showed that the CTE disease slowly deteriorates the brain where the individual will soon enough not be able to function properly. However, this disease is beginning to become more common in the NFL today.