In the United States, American football is a very popular past time for people of many demographics. People all over the country are exposed to the game not only on television, but also with the opportunity to participate in recreational football, high school football, college football, and in some cases, professional football. The National Football League (NFL) attracts on average 17.6 million views per game. With this much popularity, the NFL is also under constant watch with every decision the League makes. Football is a rough, contact sport which results in inevitable injuries. Recently, the NFL has been accused of being to dangerous and causing many former players to have lingering effects from the persistent contact. The NFL has not put …show more content…
Football is a very dangerous sport in general so many precautions should be taken to reduce the injury risks as much as possible. The NFL is working on putting some rules together and getting new programs involved but they are not enough to stop the concussion crisis. Along with that, the rewording of the rules they are doing are only making it easier to have evidence on paper that they tried to stop it incase of a legal case. Many players have sued the NFL and currently they are proposing a 765-million-dollar settlement on concussion related issues alone (Family of former San Diego Charger Paul Oliver sues NFL claiming concussions caused suicide). In the 2014 season alone, there were two noted cases of players continuing to play in a game with concussions and head trauma. The Pittsburgh Steeler’s quarterback Ben Roethlisberger stayed in a playoff game after a major blow to the head and San Diego Charger’s safety Jahleel Addae finished a game after suffering a concussion (Armour). In another case, NFL player Jimmy Clausen was hit in the head during the game and kept playing (Armour). The team had performed tests on the sidelines and Jahleel passed. In the hours following the game Jaheel Developed severe concussion symptoms (Armour). The NFL has a testing policy in place but this policy obviously has major flaws if major concussions can slip past it and players continue to play after
Even though football players are aware of the dangers the game can bring upon them, they take part despite it. The passion, the joy it creates; for professionals it’s also the devoted fans and compensation they receive is what keeps the players motivated. Today players are much bigger, faster, smarter, bigger, better. The game is more physical. The sport has never been so competitive. The popularity has reached new peaks, as much that the NFL has thoughts of moving a team to London, England. Additionally, Super Bowl XLVII (47) was one of the most watched television events of all time; an astonishing 108.4 million viewers (The Associated Press). Fans worship their teams and love to see big hits. Football is a contact sport; injuries are no
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
It is good to see the NFL take steps to better protect its players, but critics say it is long overdue. And while they are fair in that assessment, even they have to agree that the league’s stances on concussions and policies has significantly changed in the last decade.
“Houston cornerback Kareem Jackson was fined $42,000 for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Tennessee wide receiver Kendall Wright.” That is a statement made often by the National Football League (NFL) committee in light of the frequent occurrences of concussions. The NFL, America’s most popular sport, has constant issues with concussions. It is an important trending topic, which involves the players and the NFL committee. Over the past decades, former players are trying to sue the NFL after being diagnosed with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Fines, new rules, and suspensions are being put into effect to avoid head-to-head collisions. I argue that the NFL committee has greatly improved
According to Daniel Flynn, the NFL has made vast improvements in safety to prevent concussions. The NFL has implemented a stricter concussion protocol. The NFL concussion protocol watches for players on the field to have any contact to the head, and show symptoms of a concussion. The player that shows symptoms will be pulled off the field and evaluated by a team physician and an independent neurologist. Then, if the player is suspected to have a concussion, he will be taken to the locker room to be evaluated further. If the player is not diagnosed with a concussion, he can return to
Playing football is always going to be a dangerous sport because you don’t know if you’ll get a concussion. Concussion rating will go up each year and sometimes down when the NFL takes action and trying to protect the players. So why hasn’t NFL take more action on the concussion problem they are having each year and what are happening to the players when they get one. Football teams need to figure out how they can prevent brain damage from concussion by teaching the players how to tackle, understanding the signs of a concussion, and upgrading the equipment that they are
The overarching question in this study was answered because in the results there was a decisive conclusion that the NFL doesn’t not in fact consider player health as they should. All five participants in the study believed this to be true. Ava Norman is one of the participants who felt the NFL should take more initiative to look into the safety of its players. In her interview she felt strongly about the issue by saying, “the NFL is put on a pedestal and gets away with too much, the league needs to look more into the issue now before it’s too late because you cannot undo a concussion” (Norman). Moreover, I believe this research symbolizes that fans are even worried about player’s health. While they love the game of football, they understand that at the end of the day it is just a game. Don Thomas felt strongly about this particular issue by saying, “I love the game of football and football is a major part of my life but after the game is over everyone should be able to return to their families safely” (Thomas). On another
Getting a concussion in NFL football is completely different than concussions in high school, Middle school, or little league football. After getting a concussion myself and watching “League of Denial” I realize how serious they are and how poorly the NFL treated them. The NFL never had any professionals researching what the long term effects of getting concussions over and over were, They just assumed that it wasn't that big of a deal. They would put people back into the game even after they knew that they had a concussion which put them at a bigger risk than before. This makes me scared because they started to say that high school and middle school football players are allowed to go back into the game after their
Although concussions are very serious, if the athlete allows an appropriate amount of time and does not come back prematurely then they will be okay (Excerpt 3). Often times, coaches and players don't pay much attention to a huge collision especially in the sport of football because it's not uncommon. Concussions can sometimes slip through and are defined as "invisible" (Excerpt 2). The effects of repeated concussions can be cumulative, and the brain is very vulnerable after injury (Excerpt 3). High school athletes have a higher chance of being concussed again if they have already been concussed once before. Sometimes a player's will comes into play when suffering an injury. Players often play down an injury but with something as serious as concussion, it can be very difficult to do this. There are laws that have to be followed when a player possibly has a concussion and it all depends if there is a medical professional field-side. As long as enough time is allowed for a player to come back, then there should be no problems with suffering a concussion as long as they handled it
Many memories are made in football, but sadly some of the greatest players cannot recall them. The National Football League has been associated with concussions and brain traumas throughout the years, but lately it has been exposed by media and NFL veterans. The league recently “reached a $765 million preliminary settlement with thousands of former players who were suing the league over its treatment of concussions…” (Waldron). Many former players are experiencing the effects of taking hard hits over and over again; they were not properly treated, which makes the injury worse and long term. The concussion issue in the NFL is more prevalent today, because it affects not only the players, but the league as a whole.
The NFL as you probably already know, stands for the National Football League. It is the elite league for the best players and best athletes in the world. These players are in tip top shape and are extremely strong. Now the big question is this. What is one of, if not the biggest problem in the NFL? Concussions. Nate Jackson, a former NFL player and writer says this, “Why is it that men who were the strongest and fittest people alive when they were young degenerate so quickly? That’s the million-dollar question.” With all of the protective equipment and top-of-the-line helmets, you would think that the players are safe from these types of injuries. But, there is a remaining problem of concussions that is still very
In the NFL there are many different types of injuries that occur some more serious than others, however one type of injury sticks out the most when it comes to trauma after they retire, that type of injury are concussions, concussions are a very serious issue because, they can ultimately lead to CTE and the retirement of young players, this ultimately will be the demise of the NFL if something is not done. There are many signs of concussions such as headaches, imbalance, memory loss, and confusion. One of the main issues with concussions in the NFL is the way they are treated, Dr Dias Jr. stated in a recent article he published,” 91 former NFL players
One hard hit to a NFL player’s head can destroy their life. Concussions are a major problem that the NFL has been dealing with for a very long time. As a huge football fan, I have a special interest with this issue. When concussions were first identified as a problem, they were extremely down played. People thought that injuries to knees and backs were much worse than a concussion. What they did not know was that a concussion is lethal and can cause serious consequences. After this was discovered, the NFL started to take steps to improve the safety of players, but for some, it was far too late. Concussions that NFL players receive are negatively impacting their lives after their career, due to Chronic
The National Football League on Dec. 3, 2009, announced that it would impose its most stringent rules to date on managing concussions, requiring players who exhibit any significant sign of concussion to be removed from a game or practice and be barred from returning the same day.
Here is why. In 2015, the NFL diagnosed 271 players that had concussions. There has continued to be an increase in the number of concussed players over the past several years. With the continual increase in concussions over the years,it is a reasonable question to ask whether the NFL is doing enough to protect their players or not. I am going to start this issue by discussing a movie I am sure you have heard of. Concussion. A Forensic pathologist named Dr. Bennet Omalu was the first doctor to discover chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of former Pittsburgh Steelers' center Mike Webster, who was 50, when he committed suicide. Dr. Omalu made the bold statement that football is the reason that Webster had mental issues, and ultimately the reason for his death. There continued to be a trend of NFL players passing at a young age due to mental health issues, and Omalu was certain that all of it was because of football. He examined the brains of these players and found correlations in their brains that suggests that the repeated blows to the head they received during their career caused severe damage. As you can imagine this discovery was a huge threat to the NFL as people and players saw this evidence and couldn't help but be scared about the outcome football has on an individual. The NFL basically just tried to cover up clear facts stated by Omalu, but eventually it became to evident to ignore. This movie made a large issue in the NFL apparent to many people and creating a film to do so was a very effective platform for displaying it. To make a long story short, since this discovery in 2002, there has been a drastic change in player safety rules, concussion protocol and guidelines, and strictness of teams to follow such protocol and guidelines. In