Writer's Workshop: Informative

There have been multiple cases in which a child has severe symptoms of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy due to tackle football. Some of these symptoms include irreversible brain damage, such as depression, memory loss, and suicidal thoughts (“Don’t Let Kids Play Football”). Those who support the banning of tackle football for today’s youth and for future generations are only campaigning to terminate the existence and possibilities of C.T.E. The effects of C.T.E have been found throughout the ages between the teenage years to the 40s (“Don’t Let Kids Play Football”). A chunk of the US population is concerned because these symptoms tend to be permanent and incurable. Yes, football is “America’s sport,” but is it worth the

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

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).

While examining his brain, they found the first case of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) in a football player (Ezell). Dr. Omalu continued into the brains of football players. He diagnost another player with CTE. After that, two other doctors connect concussions to dementia. Dr. Bailes and Dr. Guskiewicz wrote, “that the onset of dementia-related syndromes may be initiated by repetitive cerebral concussions in professional football players” (Ezell). This was the first major finding connecting football to brain injuries.

A CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is a, “progressive degenerative disease that is believed to plague people who've suffered severe or repeated blows to the head” (Murphy). A player can have a CTE and not even know that they are suffering from it. This is because CTEs can only be discovered after the person dies. Paul Bright, for example, was a football player who played from the time that he was seven until he was a freshman in high school. He had experienced only one concussion, but it changed his entire life. His family and friends described him as hard working and upbeat, but then, something changed. He became reckless and erratic; these traits caused him to die at age twenty-four from a motorcycle wreck. His mother sent his brain off to be tested and discovered that he had been suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. This brain disease had caused him to make the type of impulsive decisions that took his life (Murphy). In addition to the CTEs players may experience, the likelihood of dying from brain and nervous system issues increases significantly for football players. Studies from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health discovered that, “death involving neurodegenerative causes among the retired players was three times higher than in the general U.S. population, and the risk for two major

Within the last few years, the BU ADC developed a new branch called the Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center (CTE Center), which is devoted specifically to research this disease (Boston University, n.d.). In 2015, a team of scientists from the CTE Center conducted a study analyzing the brain tissue of deceased football players. The researchers separated the participants into two groups: (a) those who played professional football, and (b) those who had played football during some part of their lifetime (high school level, college level, etc.). The results showed that 87 of the 91 NFL players tested positive for CTE. In addition, 131 of the 195 subjects who had played football during some part of their lifetime tested positive for CTE (Breslow, 2015). This study proved that CTE could affect any athlete (including high school level athletes), not just professional

A concussion is an injury suffered in the brain of an individual that can affect and alter a person’s ability to perform not only mentally, but physically as well. The New York Daily News reported on one of the finest cases of how serious the NFL is taking the issue on concussions, the current lawsuit that reached a “$765 million settlement reached between the two sides, 18,000 concussion suffer and the NFL” which states causes for important untold information the NFL refused to report to players about the prospective dangers concussions had for their long-term health, though this was later shot down by a federal judge claiming that it was insufficient sum. An NFL player may succumb from thousands of hits to the head playing football all

Since the 1920s, there has been a severe disease linked to athletes. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a disease that effects athletes that have had head trauma. The trauma causes the brain tissue to deteriorate. The changes can become apparent after months, years, or even decades. CTE is linked to memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia. (“What”, 2009). CTE has caused football to change as well as the equipment. CTE is now widely known and is effecting, not only professional athletes, but also high school athletes. Concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy are serious conditions that can affect anyone and have adverse effects.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is caused by many years of playing football. The National Football League (NFL) does not associate CTE to players that have played many years in the NFL. CTE is the root cause of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in football players. The NFL needs to take more steps to prevent injuries that cause CTE and other types of brain damages by taking hard hits more seriously and the test should be better determined for concussions.

The National Youth Sports Safety Foundation recommends that children under the young age of six years old not play the sport of football. Before a helmet is to be put on the field is has to meet the standards of the NOCSAE (The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment.) NFL players suffer an estimated one hundred-fifty nine concussions the past season of twenty-twelve. Health offices estimated that a total of of about fifty percent of school aged players have had an injury to the head throughout their football careers. Recent studies have shown that football players may still experience long term brain changes even if they haven't suffered a concussion. The researchers studied sixty-seven college football players after a game the researchers conducted brain scans and blood test. The test showed a protein involved with regarding nerve growth that has been associated with the

Many argue that because of how many concussions football players sustained in their careers is the reason why the players are now suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia. They also believe it can be traced back to their high school career, which now has the young stars parents’ concern. How many concussions happen in sports? According to the BrainLine website, 1.6 million to 3.8 million sports related each year in the United States, during 2001-2005, from ages 5-18 accounted for 2.4 million sports-related ED annually, of which 6% (135,000) involved a concussion. Football accounting for more than 60% of high organized sports concussions. According to Forbes website article, that recent research proved that eighty-seven out of ninety-one ex-NFL players tested positive for brain diseased linked to head trauma. The researchers who studied a large amount of people who have football from a high school, college, or professional level has found evidence of CTE, which is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, in over half percent of their participants. Of the brains, the researchers studied, most of them belonged to former NFL players. The problem with CTE is that it can only be detected or found after death. CTE is “an abnormal build-up of tau- a protein that can spill out of cells due to blunt force trauma and can choke off or disable neural pathways that control things such as memory, judgement, and fear”

First, I am going to talk about the science behind concussions, CTE, and why it is such an issue for a football player. Concussions are very damaging to the brain and experiencing a lot of them can lead to CTE. I will also discuss people that influenced the understanding of concussions and CTE. In 2002, a neurologist named Dr. Bennet Omalu tried to tell the NFL about the brain damage he found while doing a former NFL player’s autopsy, but the NFL did not really listen. In 2009, another researcher by the name of Dr. Ann Mckee tried to get the NFL’s attention about her concerns about football players and concussions as well. The NFL once again ignored these assumptions. However, the NFL did listen to Dr. Elliot Pellman, who told the league as early as 1994, that concussions were not a big problem and just part of the game. I will discuss how NFL players were treated when they got their “bell rung” during a big game; and what kind of medical treatment they

Omalu has made sense. He just speaks with facts from all the research that he and others like him have discovered. "We are born with a certain number of neurons. We can only lose them; we cannot create new neurons to replenish old or dying ones (Omalu, 2015)." That is one of the statements he makes from his essay that just speak to the types of logic he voices. Repeatedly receiving blows to the head is not safe for everyone, especially a youth. Would it make sense to put a person through that even if they haven't "consented" like Dr. Omalu would point out? To claim that there is no damage left over from concussions or other blows to the head is just absurd. However, people must also look at the other repercussions received by playing a sport such as football. Leadership, hard work, teamwork, companionship and the ability to rally around your peers for a common goal is only some of the benefits received by playing these types of sports. Some would say it's worth it, while some doctors and parents would agree with Dr. Omalu's discoveries and

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).

In “ Former NFLers Call for End to Tackle Football for Kids” , Nadia Kounang expresses the fact that children under 14 years old shouldn’t be playing tackle football. More specifically Nadia Kounang argues that children playing football at a young age is dangerous because they’re bodies can’t handle the impact. She wrote about the health problems they could develop. For example, she said, “ It’s not concussions that causes CTE. It’s repeated hit…”. Additionally, the purpose of her writing this is because Former NFLers think that it’s also dangerous. In the article Nadia Kounang suggest children under the age of 14 should play flag football. In conclusion, Nadia Kounang believes that not letting children play tackle football until they get into