Concussions In Sports 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 can truly mess with an athlete’s brain and can give him or her lifelong troubles.

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

Studies show, by law a player must sign off by a medical professional before the player can return to the field. Studies also show, concussions and or head head injuries are linked to permanent brain damage. The question frequently asked is "should injured athletes be required to sit out for periods of time to allow time for the brain to heal completely?" As an athlete, I think athletes should wait. Only because if a player gets one concussion and goes back to their sports and gets hit in the head, that could lead to permanent damage for not giving the brain time to heal from the previous injury.

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

A concussion is a complex series of trauma that affects the brain. They can be caused by a direct blow to the brain or an indirect hit directed to someone’s body. Some of the symptoms are brain related such as headaches, memory loss, and nausea. Headaches and dizziness are the leading reported symptoms of a brain injury. Concussions can have symptoms affecting a person’s emotions like sadness and drowsiness. Researchers have concluded after studies that athletes who receive one concussion are one-two times more likely to get a second one. The CDC has

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

In the world of football, big hits are something that are looked at in a positive light. They are seen as a way of asserting dominance over other players and it is celebrated by teammates. Big hits are a very crucial, almost necessary, part of the game that millions of people gather to watch every Sunday. However, in the past decade, the NFL and other organization have realized that concussions can lead to very serious problems later in life. One of these problems is known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). It is a degenerative brain disease, much like Alzheimer’s, that mainly effects individuals in high contact sports such as boxing or football. Over time, this connection between concussions and CTE has become more common knowledge and more people have started asking the question “do the risks of children playing football outweigh the benefits?”. The answer to this question is yes, football is entirely too violent for children to be playing. According to “Big Hits, Broken Dreams”, one in ten football players gets a concussion, and 35% of players have more than one. The video also states that only 50% of high schools in the United States have a certified athletic trainer on the field (CNN, 2012). If concussions are really a concern for the schools, then why are there not more athletic trainers on staff at these schools to deal with sports injuries? This also forces the public to question these schools even more because if they are willing to cut costs and not hire a

In recent years, there has been a backlash from all kinds of doctors throughout the world that believe the National Football League or NFL needs to make adjustments to the way they treat head injuries, specifically concussions. A concussion is a brain injury characterized by an onset of impairment of cognitive and/or physically functioning and is caused by hits around the head and neck area. This NFL is under destress because of numerous studies that show concussions can lead to a large amount brain injuries way after the player has played his last game. However, this isn't just a problem the NFL is facing, the real problem is our youth contact sports and head-related injuries. High school athletes are extremely more exposed to concussions than

Concussions in football have always been a problem. Recently the NFL is doing more to protect players from this serious head injury. a couple of moves made by the NFL to prevent concussions is that they moved the kickoff line up 5 yards resulting in a higher chance of a touchback. Another move to prevent concussions is that players are getting fined for illegal tackles that occur. The NFL is doing more to protect players because they realize concussions can have serious effects later in life like losing the ability to remember things. According to Nadia Kounang “NFL football players are 3 times more likely to have a neurodegenerative disease compared to the average population”. Examples of these diseases are Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The target population is football players who have received concussions in their playing days. Many of these head injuries were caused by players who wanted to excite the crowd with a big hit knowing a lot of the fans were just there to see violence and that the player would become more popular to those

More than 300,000 sports-related concussions are reported each year in the United States, and although the awareness of concussions and other head injuries is rising, concussions are still very dangerous to young athletes. Some may say that after an athlete receives a concussion, they just have to wait until the obvious, and most common symptoms like dizziness and nausea subside before they can play again; with medication, and constant rest, this may only take 2 weeks, however, depending on the severity of the injury, there could be some other underlying symptoms that are even more dangerous than the obvious ones. After a having a concussion, student athletes are also much more prone to a second, more severe, traumatic head injury (especially

A neuropathologist and neurologist examined 111 NFL players brains and 110 of them had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. And CTE makes it Difficult to think have impulsive behaviors depression or apathy short-term memory loss difficulty planning and carrying out tasks and have Suicidal thoughts or behavior it typically just leads you to kill yourself yes ik there are different reasons to get cte but most is because of sports related

CTE has a large influence on football players that get a lot of concussions later on in life. “The condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy was formerly believed to exist primarily among boxers, and was referred to as dementia pugilistica. It is a progressive degenerative disease which afflicts the brain of people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic

Like all sports, the ability to think the game and mentally prepare is arguably the most important aspect. After suffering a concussion, players often explain to doctors and trainers feelings of cloudiness and the inability to think without distraction. As a result this can lead to a decrease in major areas that directly correlate to player performance.

“CDC reports show that the amount of reported concussions has doubled in the last 10 years. The American Academy of Pediatrics has reported that emergency room visits for concussions in kids ages 8 to 13 years old has doubled, and concussions have risen 200 percent among teens ages 14 to 19 in the last decade” (Head Case, 2013). It is reported that between 5-10% of athletes will suffer concussion during any given sports season. Football is the most common sport with concussion risk for males with a 75% chance. It has also been found that 78% of concussions happen during games as opposed to during practices (Science Daily, 2014).