Persuasive Essay On Concussions

Head injuries, including concussions, particularly in the game of American football, have become a subject of deep concern, much study and even Congressional hearings in the United States.

Helmets are a major guideline that needs to be improved because a helmet is there to protect the head and prevent concussions but it doesn't seem to be doing a good job. Now there's always that question of “why don't we just make the helmet better and more equipped to prevent concussions?”, well we've had football around for years now and if it hasn't been done yet I don't think it will ever be done. According to the North Eastern Undergraduate Writing Journal, since the 1970s, helmets have been made with a polycarbonate shell, a steel face mask, and padding which is just foam and inflatable air bladders. Even though modern helmets maybe more

I’m running towards the ball, towards their biggest forward and then….. nothing. All I can see is black. Then I'm back in Tomar Park; I’m playing a soccer game. I was taken out, checked for injuries, and put back in the game. That’s all I remember from the hit, the blow, the day I “got my bell rung.” Concussions are effecting more and more athletes everyday. Coaches, athletes, and sports officials need to be educated on how to recognize, treat, and prevent concussions and head injuries. New research on concussions has shown how dangerous they can be and has created new technology to find concussions. Using the research, programs are being made to inform coaches, trainers, athletes, etc.

Also, the NFL has rejected the whole research by Dr. Omalu and Dr. Mckee because the League is afraid if the documents were leaked it would affect all football players. However, the NFL did a great job in hiding these facts from the media until the Fainaru brothers found them. When the public already knows the side effect of playing football, the NFL tried to support the research in order to make public trust the NFL that they want to help to reduce the number of brain injuries. With the NFL paying $765 million dollars, for the research, this is just another cover up that they are trying to do so that the NFL’s name would not be disgraced for future athletes in the

Many private companies and researchers have taken the issue of concussions head on. Research has drastically increased throughout the 21st century. In the words of Mark Lovell PhD. founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program, “90% of what we know about concussions we’ve learned in the past five years.” These private researchers have taken different approaches to solving the issue but they are all working to achieve one goal: the reduction of concussions and the prevention of their long-term effects.

Concussions are not only a football injury, but they occur in many other sports. Frederick Erdtmann, who is on the Board of Health Populations for the Institute of Medicine wrote in his article that “Among males athletes at the high school and collegiate levels, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, wrestling, and soccer consistently are associated with the highest rates of concussions” (Erdtmann 1). Football is hands down the sport with the most concussions, yet it is not the

Football is one of the most sports that involve interaction with other players, such as the opposing team. The interactions can lead up to very dangerous injuries. Especially injuries leading to concussions. Researchers are working to prevent concussions and minimize the rate of head injuries created by direct impact lead by injuries from football.

A recent study of college football players has shown that those who participate in high contact sports and have had a concussion before have a 300% higher chance of having another one in comparison to athletes that have never had a concussion before (Jolicoeur et al, 2007). The NFL and NCAA have enacted several rule changes in order to minimize the occurrence of concussions. These new rules, like many before them, have come under the scrutiny of the very athletes that they were meant to protect. The NHL and NHL Players Association in 1997 together created a program in order to get a better understanding of concussions and how to prevent them (Burke et al, 2011). According to Covassin (2008), athletes who have had more than one concussion take a longer time to recover with each concussion that they suffer from.

In the year 2013, during the National Football League’s preseason and regular-season practices and games there were a combined total of 228 diagnosed concussions (NFL Concussions Fast Facts). Any NFL team in a given season plays 16 brutal games, taking vicious hits at practically every snap of the ball, which does not include the four to six days of vigorous practicing that they have every week. In many cases concussions in the NFL cause serious long-term health issues as well as death, via concussions, which is why all precautions such as; well trained medical personnel at each event, no helmet to helmet tackling, and even mandatory neuropsychological tests to all current players, for concussions, in order to help prevent them.

Throughout the years, there’s been a number of NFL players – active and retired – who suffered from head trauma as a result of having multiple concussions during their careers. Some players like Seattle’s Ricardo Lockette have even retired early on in their playing careers to prevent further injury from happening – despite the new development of football helmets. This problem, however, doesn’t just revolve around the NFL. In other words, this is an issue that should concern young athletes who play football and other contact sports, as well as coaches and parents.

There has been extraordinary improvements of helmets from the old leather to the modernized-plastic football helmets along with the face mask and energy- absorbent padding. In addition, the concern over preventing concussions, have led to helmet changes, impact testing methods and reconstruction of injuries during play helping to provide insight on concussions(4). Helmets have been successful in decreasing the risk of traumatic brain injuries, but there is much concern over concussion; therefore, scholars argue the importance of technology development to address concussion(5). As the author(s), David Viano and David Halstead discusses, there is room needed for understanding the types of collisions associated in youths and the impact condition addressing collisions. There are many variables to consider addressing concussion and where they occur.

Every athlete is affected in some way of the risk of receiving a concussion during practice or in the game from the youth level up to professional level of play. CDC and others has developed a rebutter of prevention to remove the focus off the football athletes. Training courses, clinics and Head up program has seemed to be a success in retraining athletes how to block and tackle with their heads out of plain of play. Teaching how to identify the signs and symptoms is the first protocol of prevention.

What do we really know about concussions? Let's think about this, concussions are caused when there is either an acceleration that transpires when the head is at rest and jerked into motion or deceleration when the head in motion but stop abruptly. Examples of this is a severe blow to the head and the result of that sudden movement causing the brain to become short- circuit which result in a traumatic brain injury (Drysdale,2013). This affects players in physical sports like football, hockey or boxing. In this paper I will show that brain injuries play a role in NFL player and our youth which are some of the main causes of delayed cognitive and mental issues that affect them throughout their lifetime even though they no longer play the

Several studies have been performed on former and deceased NFL players. These studies have provided more evidence to prove the severity of head traumas. A concussion happens when “the head moves forward, the brain lags behind, then the brain catches up and smashes into the skull” (Camarillo). The result of so many head injuries is due to the lack of protection or recognition for the problems they cause. Helmets have been proven to be ineffective when it comes to protecting the heads of bike riders and sports-related players. These helmets protect heads from basic injuries; however, they have yet to be properly tested to help prevent concussions. The league said, “We are dedicated to making football safer and continue to take steps to protect players, including rule changes, advanced sideline technology and expanded medical resources”

Out of the many questions asked to football players, coaches, athletic NFL trainers, and even scientists regarding the game of football, there is one question that remains the most controversial and the most talked about question surrounding the NFL, “Do helmets actually prevent concussions?”. While there are many speculations and arguments for the agreement that helmets do prevent concussions, this is simply not the case. There are three main reasons why helmets in the NFL and other lower level football leagues simply cannot prevent concussions and that is because of some companies poor helmet design, the way the helmets are designed, and the science behind the trauma of a football hit.