Essay On Tackling Concussions

America is a country that loves all kind of sports, but the three major’s sports that almost all Americans love are baseball, basketball, and football. Football is a core part of the American experience. Football is considered a must see to understand the United States, but have Americans ever taken a step back and looked at the drawbacks of American Football? Even though football is a sport that people have enjoyed for a major part of America’s history, recent studies have shined a light on the problem of football because the violence of the game has been life-altering for many athletes. American football, the sport in which men’s charge into each other trying to move the enemy team back towards their goal. The current rules to protect
the athletes on the field are not clear, players can hit each other in the head with no major drawback. Except that the consecutive blows to the head of the players can cause major brain damage. One of the most common brain diseases is CTE or also know has chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This brain disease can be obtained from getting many violent hits in the head. Some of the biggest symptoms include speech and language difficulties, mood swings, hard time concentrating... The major problem with these symptoms is that it makes it hard for the athletes diagnosed with CTE to lead a normal life. CTE is more of a long-term consequence of playing football, but a more short-term consequence of playing football is concussions. Players can receive a concussion when they collided with other players in the head; a concussion can leave the athlete unconscious or to memory lost. In an article posted on the Prognosis by Jeff Wheelwright, titled “Ahead of the Hit”, Wheelwrights states “CTE has Been reported in more than 50 former football players… they’d suffered one or more concussions during their active years.”. This statement helps prove that a link between consecutive head injuries can lead to irreversible brain damage for football player by stating that all athletes that have been diagnosed with CTE had injured while playing. This first step of making football safer for the athletes is by recognizing the prominent danger the players face while playing the game. The argument I have been developing about football is not shared by everyone.
Some people may argue that football is not that dangerous because the players wear gear that is made to protect them. While it is true that gear protects the players from receiving the hits head on; the current gear being used by the NFL has not been optimized to protect the player. The NFL could be using a new helmet called the Zero1; the NFL considers it the best helmet on the market. In an article called “Tackling Concussions” the author states “The Zero1 finished first in a safety test of 33 helmets conducted by the NFL.”. This study shows that the NFL should use the Zero1 helmet instead of the cheaper alternatives. Although most people consider rugby and football the same sport, except for the fact that football has the gear to protect their players and rugby does not. This state of mind is wrong because they are two completely different sport. In rugby the athletes are more protected under the rules than in football; in rugby players may not aim for anything higher than the shoulders. Such rules do not exist in football making the danger to the head more prominent because the protective gear can only reduce the shock not render it non-extant. Finally, some people may argue that football players receive fewer brain injuries than combat sports like boxing. This fact that boxers receive more brain-related injuries than in football is true, but the main difference is that people know that combat sports are dangerous. While football is not classified as a combat sport; this leads people to believe that there is a reduced chance of being gravely injured while playing football. This false truth makes people play a sport without knowing the real dangers behind it. A solution would be to change American football to a combat sport; this would let people know what they are getting themselves
into.
In conclusion, football is a dangerous sport that has and will continue to negatively affect the life athletes. If we want football to have a bright future, we must start changing our mindset around the sport. An example of such bad attitude in football can be is seen when Coach Taylor in Friday Night Lights tells the team “Every man at some point in his life is gonna lose a battle. He’s gonna fight and he’s gonna lose. But what makes him a man, is that in the midst of that battle he does not lose himself.”. This mindset of never giving up can lead athletes to keep going back onto the field even when they already have a concussion and run the risk of having long-term brain damage.