Youth Concussions Essay

Concussions in the NFL have been a big topic over the years and will continue to plague the League and the Players. In fact in 2015 alone 271 players suffered a concussion over the whole season (CNN). However People don’t realize what happens to the player after they get a concussion in the NFL. Concussions change players lives after playing the NFL. As a result of concussion sustained in the NFL, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and dementia occur.

Concussions are a rising issue in the daily life of many athletes in the sports of hockey, soccer, football, and skateboarding. Every 21 seconds, someone in this country encounters a brain injury. Concussions are brain injuries caused by jolts or hard hits around the head. When the tissue of the brain slams against the strong, thick skull in your head, a concussion is very common. This leads to either swelling of the brain, “torn blood vessels, or injury to the nerves.” (Haas) Eventually, the result will be immediate, delayed, or even permanent loss of your own brain. In the next four paragraphs, I will describe to you how a concussion is important to you and others, what the world can do to stop this issue, and what you can do to prevent

It wasn’t until Dr. McKee and other researchers presented evidence of CTE in football players during a congressional hearing with the U.S. House of Representatives, in 2009, that the NFL changed its approach to addressing these findings. Later that year, during an interview with The New York Times, NFL Spokesman Greg Aiello stated “it’s quite obvious from the medical research that’s been done that concussion can lead to long-term problems.” This was one of the first times the league admitted that concussions and brain injuries had long-term impact on players. Admitting that there was a problem was one of the first steps in overhauling their approach to CTE’s impact on football players. Towards the end of that year, there was a shake up

We have all heard of the term “sports injury”. Usually an accident that occurs when engaged in a sport, the ideal can apply from something as frustrating as a rolled ankle to the more debilitating shock of a broken arm. Yet the fact remains that these physical ailments will heal, and properly, if they are treated properly. But what about concussions? What are the long term effects? In her brief editorial in TIME magazine, Alexandra Sifferlin explores the effects of concussions and specifically how they affect children if they aren't disclosed.

Athletes in the 21st century are pushing themselves and their teammates to their limit, to try and be the best they can. Whether that is in a game situation, weight room, or practicing on the field, pool, or gym, accidents happen and can happen anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you are a guy or a girl, this accident happens to many athletes in a variety of sports. This sports injury is a concussion and it truly does affect any kind of athlete in any kind of sport. Concussions aren’t acquired in every sport, but they can happen. In the last few years concussions have become a growing problem for athletes from high school to professional athletes. Are concussions as bad as doctors and the news are making them out to be?

Is it safe for a high school student to play football? Concussions have become a major concern when it comes to football. 33% of concussions occur at practice and one in five high school athletes will unfortunately sustain a sports concussion during the season. Does this mean that parents shouldn't allow their son to play football in high school? Although many parents decide not to let their child play football due to injury concern, the Improvement in equipment, better coaching, and penalties all help to make the game of football safe.

Sports-related concussions might just be the biggest worry for any athlete at any level. A concussion is a thing that every athlete battles over time. Everyone knows that injuries are given when it comes to sports. Especially concussions which can put an athlete out for weeks or even forever. Many student-athletes have been a great issue that can easily be resolved from thorough and informative Training. Concussions can prevent or reduced if we are if we go through concussion prevention training in high school, which is usually the starting point for most athletes. Concussion training can help athletes diagnose a concussion, treat a concussion, and to even use proper technique to prevent and minimize sports caused a concussion. Even though every athlete does not experience a concussion many people can benefit from the training that could save a life.

Concussions in sports have become a very popular issue in the past century. Athletes are becoming bigger, faster, stronger, and more aggressive. With this, though, comes more injuries as a whole and injuries that are more dangerous as well. Parents, coaches, fans, and athletes have become more aware of how dangerous concussions can be and what effect they can have on an individual throughout the rest of their life. Many advancements and changes have been made in an attempt to keep athletes and players safer and more protected. Some individuals believe parents, coaches, and trainers are becoming overly protective and are ruining the entertainment of the game and the competitiveness of the players. Any sort of traumatic brain injury can have many effects on the individual; there are short-term, medium-term, and long-term consequences of concussions that can continue affecting the individual for fourteen years after he or she has suffered the head injury. Although many advancements have been made and preventing concussions has become a priority in the ‘sports-world,’ authority figures and athletes still ignore the symptoms of concussions to allow the athlete to continue to participate. However, in order to continue the entertainment that sporting events bring fans and the enjoyment that they bring to the participants, more precautions should be made to keep the players on the field and in good health.

In 2006, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that approximately 1.6 million to 3.8 million sport-related concussions occur each year in the United States (Langois, Rutland-Brown, & Wald, 2006). Sport-related concussions are a subset of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and are defined as a complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain (McCrory et al., 2012). The typical signs and symptoms associated with a concussion include confusion, amnesia, headache, dizziness, nausea, loss of balance, and/or poor concentration (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010).

What is a concussion? How does it happen? How long does it last? How is it treated? What are the symptoms?

Especially because “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that in the US only 50,000-300,000 contact sports athletes sustain a concussion during the course of a single year” (De Beaumont et. al. 631). The study examined at total of 51 active university football players. They were divided into three investigational groups a multi-concussed group, a single-concussed group, and a non-concussed group. Each group was given a standardized concussion history form to determine comprehensive information about their previous concussions (De Beaumont et. al. 634). De Beaumont and the other authors mention that the multi-concussed group experiences a vast amount of concussions that involved either anterograde amnesia or retrograde amnesia compared to the single concussed group (634). The players in this study also participated in a questionnaire that asked them to “rate themselves on a scaled from 0 (no symptom) to 6 (severe symptom) on a series of 19 post-concussion symptoms for a total possible score of 114” (De Beaumont et. al. 636). After this questionnaire was completed De Beaumont and the others noted that not one of the players have

Being on my school’s diving team has had its ups and downs but one the biggest setbacks I went through while on the team was my freshman year when I got a concussion. I was doing a simple reverse dive I under rotated enough that when I hit the water, it pushed my head into my knee. I am unsure whether or not I blacked out but all I remembered was climbing out of the pool dizzy and confused. I went to a doctor and found out I had a concussion. Having a concussion was a big setback in itself, but what made it the worst was that the conference meet was coming up in about a week. I had to rest for the remainder of the week and was cleared to practice again the next Monday. Because of the whole situation I felt like quitting all together. I only had three days of practice before the conference meet and had nothing prepared. I did not think it would be possible for me to practice all eleven of my dives that I needed to do at the meet in time. Then I remembered my goal for the season: to earn my varsity letter. I had not achieved my goal yet and the conference meet was my last chance to do so. I was not about to

Concussions, injuries, and suffering- those are what always happen in football games. Football is the most popular sport in America, people like the sound of “uh....” when football players hit each other. In the documentary “League of Denial: NFL’s Concussion Crisis” by Frontline, the connection between playing football and brain injuries is analyzed. Steve Almond’s, “Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto” shows how football impacts his life and how evil the NFL is. Also other books that say the same things are “Ban College Football” by Intelligence2 Debates. They want to show how much impact human beings can receive when they play football and how football’s safety rules change to protect their players. Most of the time, resources always talk about CTE -Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy- an injury that can result in a memory loss. The illness comes from brain trauma that is caused by violent concussions and makes the tau protein, which actually is not supposed to be in the brain, stay inside the brain and kill all the neurons. The documentary by Frontline focuses on how many people are being affected by this problem and how the NFL reacts to all the allegations

Background Information: Over the years, there has been a lot of controversy in the sport of football, about whether the league truly cares about concussions players are suffering. Research over the past decade, has shown that many former football players have suffered from extensive CTE, due to brain injuries not being properly treated. Since this has become such a fear for athletes and fans playing the sport, the league has made small rule changes to help prevent less helmet-to-helmet contact. On top of that, athletes who violate the rules will be fined and possibly suspended depending on the severity of the incident. As of late though, many athletes and fans have begun to think that the league doesn’t truly care about concussions. This is due to how the schedule has changed to make football players prepare to play a game on a short week, multiple times throughout a season. Also, as athletes continue to beg for there to be a shorter preseason to lessen the amount of hits taken, the league

Recent research found that when children who play football and other contact sports suffer repeated jolts to the head, it can cause lasting damage to the developing brain. That can be true even when kids do not suffer any concussions. This was startling news, given that Pee Wee and Pop Warner players sustain from 240 to 585 head hits per season between ages 9 and 12, a critical period of brain development. As a result, some prominent voices have urged parents not to let their kids play the game, among them neuropathologist Bennet Omalu, whose discovery of the progressive brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in former NFL players is depicted in the film Concussion. Omalu contends that children under 18 should not be allowed to risk their future by playing football. "Our children are minors who have not reached the age of consent," he says. A growing number of athletes now agree, including the hard-nosed former NFL tight end and coach