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Urgency Of Concussions

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Get Your Head in the Game...The Urgency of Concussions

It’s the last game of the season 1 minute left in the fourth quarter. You have the football in your hands; you weave in and out of defenders trying to score and BANG… You get tackled and slammed to the ground causing you to bounce your helmet off of the hard turf. You're slow to get up and you’re coach pulls you out for a play to check to see if you’re ok. You tell him you’re good that you simply just “got your bell rung”; you tell him that your team needs you. He questions the decision, but he tells you to strap your helmet back on and get out there. The next play you feel sluggish but you play through it, the quarterback snaps the ball and hands it off to you, running straight through …show more content…

A concussion is a mild head injury which is sustained by a jolt or impact to one's head. “Concussions can be caused by a variety of traumatic events: motor vehicle accidents, penetrating injuries, sports injuries, strikes, and falls”(Schafer, 2014). Side effects of concussions range from clumsiness. slurred speech, nausea or vomiting, headache, balance problems or dizziness, blurred vision, sensitivity to light and noise, sluggishness, ringing in the ears, personality changes, difficulty concentrating and memory loss. A concussion is similar to a bruise on an arm or leg but instead the bruise is on the tissues of the brain. Since people can’t see the damage of the injury to the brain many concussions go undiagnosed or untreated for days weeks or even years. When a concussion goes undiagnosed or untreated it can result in further head trauma: untreated it can lead to blood clots and tumors in the brain, an onset of parkinson’s disease and in worst cases death. However it wasn't until 2011 that the issue of concussions went into the public spotlight.
In 2011, the issue of concussions in professional sports spilled over into both the political arena and popular culture. In March of that year, a US congresswoman called upon the House Judiciary Committee to organize hearings on concussions and head injuries in professional sports. The committee previously …show more content…

Something as simple as a specially designed helmet can prevent a concussion from occurring. “ While helmets have been used since the early 1900s in the NFL, they were not mandatory until 1943. Since then, the materials, designs, and safety standards have undergone revision, and more recent modifications have focused on improving the design to further protect the athlete specifically from concussive impacts”(Navarro, 2011). The helmets used in the past to protect athletes were not designed purely in mind of protecting athletes from concussions; helmets and equipment are now being revised and redesigned in the focus of protecting athletes from concussions whenever any sort of contact happens to the athletes cranium. “Biomechanical studies have shown that newer football helmets may reduce the impact forces associated with a sport-related concussion” (Navarro, par 2). Along with the creation of new equipment new rules should be adopted which require athletes to wear proper and up to date equipment, such as helmets and mouthguards which protect the athletes head during any circumstance of possible injury; whether during a practice or

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